One Sick Psi Guy

New bank notes for the new year?

2011-12-30T02:21:00.001+08:00

Bank Negara Malaysia recently released a new series of bank notes for the Malaysian Ringgit which brings back into common circulation the RM20 bill. Accordingly, the old RM20 bill was never put out of circulation and is still legal tender as opposed to the RM500 note and RM1 coin. The old RM20 note had a brown theme and is especially hard to find nowadays which actually reminded me about the rare notes I used to/still collect. So here is a short list of what I currently have.

Pre-RM ringgit notes
There were notes used the dollar sign eventhough the wordings used the ringgit representation such as this $50 ringgit bill. This bill was printed in Surrey, England (the company is listed on the note on the back in small print) and uses the old spelling for Gabenor as Gabenur (i.e. Governor in English). It is the largest bill I have for the Malaysian currency sizing up at 14.7cm×8.8cm or 5.75"×3.5".

The one ringgit bill on the other hand was far smaller measuring 12cm×6.4cm or 4.7"×2.5".

Pre-'Merdeka' dollar notes
These are even older and was used during the British colonization of Malaya hence the use of the word dollar instead of ringgit. As far as I know, the British pound (£) was not replicated and used for local trading but accepted as tender (I'm not a historian so I could/most probably am wrong). These dollar notes were also printed in England and carried multiple denominations - and some featured the Queen of England although the $10 note did feature a water buffalo plowing a paddy field. These notes were accepted for legal tender in the countries of Malaya, North Borneo, Sarawak, Brunei and Singapore ... when/why was the North Borneo name changed to Sabah? I have no idea.

Interesting fact - you may notice a trend in the notes above that the current denominations for the ringgit (all the new and old series releases) STILL use the same colour scheme for the values they represent!

Another thing is that smaller denominations were also paper!!

Commemerative CG98 RM50 ringgit note
The first ever polymer banknote for the Malaysian ringgit was not the RM5 or the current RM50 but actually a limited run RM50 bank note released for the 1998 Commonwealth Games held in Kuala Lumpur. I got this for a steal at only RM50 (at the time it was retailing for RM120 I think) because I knew someone working in BNM. It comes sealed in a folder describing the note which can be viewed both sides through a clear window.

50th Merdeka RM50 notes
Although not really rare (except for a limited number with specific serial numbers/sets/folders), the current RM50 bill had a special release to mark the 50th Independence Day for Malaysia. The notes look exactly the same except for the top right corner at the back which has an additional '50' logo. I stumbled upon these 5 at an ATM machine where I work ... was withdrawing RM500, saw these 5 bills and thus had to withdraw another 5 bills because of that.

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More and more cloud services

2011-11-12T14:34:00.001+08:00

Malaysia has its own cloud music server with the launch of WOWLOUD and initial previews look good so far. The service is still in testing phase and is open to invitations only but after being offered an inivitaion here's a summary of what I've found out so far:

- Service is ad-based and this provides 20hours of music per month (which is supposedly renewable somehow). Premium accounts with unlimited service are available at RM9.90 which I think is pretty steep since most of the music on the cloud is available for free *ahem* elsewhere. A better price point would be at RM5 per month which would total RM60 a year. Companies still hard-up with all this 99 bullshit (i.e. 3.99, 9.99 etc) should just give up and state a round figure to make lives easier.

- WOWLOUD requires its own player which is relatively lightweight when running but requires a hefty 36+MB download. Granted that they need to provide some means of DRM or encryption or control ... couldn't they just have used WMP or Quicktime as their player instead? In terms of the application, its pretty with animations and transitions .... but runs a little lethargically. After playing around with the interface you can't help but feel everything runs too slowly. Thankfully song selections are lighting quick.

- The current 'Search' function is not intuitive enough. Typing in buble resolves to bubble and bulle instead of bublé. Although not case sensitive, the search engine needs to improve on character searching with accents, umlauts etc.

- Streaming is almost instantaneous even on congested networks and quality is approximately 128kbps equivalent (don't really know what bitrate they are encoding/streaming at) but not too overladen with compression artefacts. Things may change as servers cope with load as users increase.

- Startup offerings are quite varied but of course not complete. This is set to improve once they start hosting more items but its a very good start. Genres are available and should satisfy most listeners. It does seem that classical listeners aren't very well serviced unless they like crossover classical pop and more mainstream artistes.

- They should offer 'free' streaming options to promote music that will not 'eat' up limited accounts. Playing a 3-minute song twice eats up 6 minutes (each repeat is counted), so free accounts may find themselves without service upon repeating a song.

- Glee fans can rejoice! Songs not found on their CDs are now available on the WOWLOUD service. This includes songs like Defying Gravity (the individual solo versions) and karaoke versions.

- Playback is (currently) limited to Windows and Mac platforms only but rumour has it apps for portable devices are in the pipeline.

All in all, the service is not too shabby although there is plenty of room for improvement .... now if there was only some way to combine WOWLOUD with iCloud and Amazon's cloud service.

Wants and Needs

2011-10-09T15:17:00.000+08:00

I WANT an iPhone/iPad/Galaxy but I NEED a car .... so no prizes for guessing what made my bank account RM43k lighter today :(

DDR2 > DDR3?!?!

2011-10-08T12:18:00.001+08:00

Dunno what is going on here but just realised something while idling my time away.The scenario is two PCs with different configurations (yeah I know its unfair)

PC1 (2011)	PC2 (2009)
Intel Core i3 550 3.20GHz 4GB DDR3@1333 Dual Channel Intel Q57 Exp chipset Intel HD Graphics 500GB SATA Win7Pro 32bit SP1	Intel Core2Quad 6600 2.40GHz 4GB DDR2@667 Single Channel MCP73 chipset nVidia 6600 (on board built in) 750GB SATA Win7Pro 32bit SP1

PC1 WPI score

PC2 WPI score

Using just Win7 Performance Information, its funny to see the older PC beat the newer one on two important aspects. Obviously with four cores, the C2Q do more calculations per second whilst the i3 only has two cores and creates 4 threads through HT but in real-world use, the cores beat HT anytime (especially in rendering, simulation and graphic/image processing). SATA harddisk scores are equal (both running same Win7 image so no software differences). Graphic scores are not comparable since one is using on board graphics whilst the other is using on-die GPU (Note: PC2 scores with a nVidia 9200 was 7.0 for both catagories... but I shorted that card out and haven't replaced it yet)

Whats weird here is that the DDR3 memory running at twice the frequency AND in dual channel mode is thwacked by the DDR2 by a large margin! Somehow the Q57 chipset on the newer Dell PC may be limiting the performance ... it IS a budget motherboard anyway (it only has two SATA, two RAM slots ... nothing else! All other headers were removed). So getting a new PC with a newer CPU doesn't necessarily mean better performance.

899 apps and no iDevice

2011-09-30T21:44:00.001+08:00

Yeah ... as of 30th Sept 2011, I've amassed 899 apps for the iPad/iPhone/iPod and I don't even own any of the devices (yet!). So its easy to guess what my next toy will be ... *hint*

Total cost = US$0.00
Actual cost ≈ US$553.00 (last checked in August)

Best places to keep track for free iOS apps is at freeappaday and appshopper ... the others mostly provide links to lousy shit. So setup an iTunes account in US, UK and a local one (for the local news apps) and you're done!

I should write shorter posts...

2011-09-27T21:51:00.002+08:00

Bad habit of mine ... I tend to get lazy to write posts. So I decided to make it a point to write shorter posts instead of waiting for a long topic to blah about.

So whats new? .... No freakin' idea. Uhm ... my Glee CD collection has been growing steadily. Weird thing is that the total cost is less than if I bought locally ... and thats NOT including two albums not available locally. My conclusion is that its actually cheaper to buy CDs online from overseas.

CD	Purchased	Local
Volume 1	RM24.60	RM46.90
Volume 2	RM24.60	RM46.90
Power of Madonna	RM14.75	RM36.90
Volume 3 Deluxe Edition	RM33.20	RM46.90
Journey to Regionals	RM13.50	RM29.90
Best of Season 1	RM29.00	N/A
Volume 4	RM24.60	RM46.90
Volume 5	RM24.60	RM46.90
The Christmas Album	RM19.67	RM46.90
Volume 6	RM24.60	RM46.90
Rocky Horror Picture Show	RM19.67	N/A
TOTAL	RM252.79	RM395.10

Need - to - update gasp

2011-08-27T23:02:00.003+08:00

Ughs ... been so busy procrastinating that I've left this blog alone for too long. There are also too many postdated posts that haven't been published. If only life would sort itself out now ....

Another month, another toy ...

2011-06-23T12:13:00.013+08:00

FINALLY gave in and bought a media player this week after going through many options. Earlier I wanted to build my own media player (i.e. was thinking along the lines of an Atom/ION based mini PC with a Win7 Embedded build and XBMC GUI) but then decided not to until next year so I can use to claim for tax relief ... yup, sometime soon will be another PC build.

There are like hundreds of different types of media players in the local market but probably the most popular are from A.C. Ryan and WD. Then there are those china-made players with no names and no support which are dirt cheap (as low as RM70!) but I decided against these. I have nothing against the heavy weights like the WDTV series or PlayonHD players but I had specific needs.

What I was looking for was something that can

Play mpg, mkv, avi, mov, mp3, m4v, vob ... the usual stuff. Didn't need rmvb/rm formats as I have none of those files
Network option - either wifi or wired prefably with UPnp or SMB playback
Bluray disc playback ... yeah, I actually started buying BD discs before getting a player
Multiple media support - HDD, USB, flash etc

The controlling option was the third one with bluray playback. I didn't want to get another standalone player just to play BD content and there aren't that many with optical drives anymore.

I first settled on a Kogan bluray disc player but needed to import from Australia. Final price was around RM1000+ but I would have to forgo things like warranty and replacement. Then there was the Popcorn Hour MNT machine. Weird that a locally made/designed product can't be bought anywhere here! I had to get it from Singapore for around S$400 + shipping + addon bluray drive (any normal PC drive) which drove up the cost ... this really is "Malaysia Tak Boleh".Finally settled on the Taiwanese Dune HD Max which burnt my pocket of RM1500++. It covered all my needs and provided a few which I didn't ask for but really appreciate and love now. Most importantly, it had region-free bluray playback (search for Dune HD region free for the patch to install) which was mucho importante since I had discs from every region in the world (DVDs from 1-6 and BDs A,B and C)

Out of the box (with new firmware of course), the Max supports SMB/CIFS/NFS filesharing so it could grab content from any PC in the network and playback without me having to copy between devices using thumbdrives or portable HDDs (which is does support). Best of all, it had wireless support AND it used the adapter which I already have (the Dlink DWA-140 which I got for free) ... so now its a wireless playback center which can grab content and also host content for other PCs to download from!! It has a hot-plug HDD bay for 3.5" SATA drives which allows for easy install and moving of large amounts of content if actually required.

Currently it grabs HD TV content from my PC upstairs and displays (with help of Zappiti) the following menu during playback ... nothing much since most of the other content is on external drives and these were the only ones on the running internal drive (thats already 120GB mind you!). Next up is to get another internal HDD to install ... all the ones I currently have are 7200rpm-ers which are too hot ... but thats for another day.

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File-sharing block in Malaysia

2011-06-11T15:06:00.009+08:00

This piece of news is making its rounds on FB and twitter because the MCMC (Malaysian Comms and Multimedia Commission) has requested ISPs to block 10 sites that are illegally providing sharing services which contribute to piracy. [Ref TheStar article here]

The "1M Malaysians Don't Want SKMM Block File Sharing Website" on facebook has over 2000 likes as this post is written and is sure to grow as news spreads after the weekend. First things first, the group has a absurdly long name. There are the usual complainers and grouses from the public about the action being taken to ban these sites but a few really beg the question "Do Malaysians really understand their rights?".

This post above on the FB group made me wonder did the person/other users ever read the T&C when he signed up for Streamyx/FTTH-Unifi/Dialup/3G services from any of the local ISPs? You may have paid for the service but that does not mean you own it or can dictate the conditions required from it - those were already set when you signed up for the service. For example, Unifi has a clear T&C that

Transmission of any material in violation of any international, federal, state or local laws or regulations is prohibited. These include, but shall not be limited to copyrighted material, material legally judged to be threatening or obscene, pornographic, profane, or material protected by trade secrets. These also include links or any connection to such materials.

This obviously indicates the use of file-sharing sites but has the company ever taken any harsh action against any users of the service? What would this FB user say if the rules was changed and instead of banning the site, the ISP was to surrender the names and addresses of subscribers accessing these 10 sites for further action by RIAA/MCMC/PPM etc? Wouldn't that be a bigger problem for the user instead?

Then there are posts that repeat the PM's statement about non-censorship of the internet. There exists a very thin boundary between censorship and banning. Admittedly I may not know the laws and jurisdictions of the Government well enough (aku bukan loyar ler) but do you consider the blocking of a "file-sharing website" as a form of censorship? From the governing bodies' view, the block would basically support the rights of a copyright holder which are definitely more than the subscribers right to pirated material. This basically boosts a goverment's outlook as one that supports media rights instead of piracy but draws hatred from the rakyat instead. It all boils down to a simple question - Does blocking pirated material constitute censorship OR support the copyrights? - that is the major problem.

Personally I'm torn between both FOR and AGAINST the action to block access. I don't consider the block as a form of censorship but basically the right action to support the copyright holder's rights to the material. A downright block is what I am against as there are legitimate uses for these filesharing sites (an email can only attach so much). As of writing, TPB is not yet blocked but down (once again) because of some server problems ... I think.

UPDATE 2011-06-11 1600hrs (+8GMT) confirmed that TPB is still accessible and those people swearing online in FB were just paranoid crazy. TPB was out earlier due to power outage at their server ... so, torrent while you still can!

[P/S swearing in FB doesn't prove anything other than you having a really extensive vulgar vocabulary and the class of major A-hole]
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10 things you learn ...

2011-06-04T13:34:00.005+08:00

... when driving on Lebuhraya Damansara Puchong:

[1] The lane you are in will always be the slowest - no matter how many times you change lanes .... so why bother? Its less stressful and safer to just keep to your own lane.

[2] No one reads/obeys road signs. See a 60km/h sign? No worries, go ahead and drive at 140km/h until *BANG* you hit the car in front of you ... lost count the number of times I've seen this happen. If you ask 100 drivers on the LDP, probably 99 of them won't know that motorcycles, trucks and construction vehicles aren't allowed on overheads and underpasses .... no one reads the signs *sigh*

[3] "I see dead animals" On average, you will see at least one roadkill per journey. So far I've seen the usual cats and dogs. And then theres the occasional snake, alligator, turtle, stork, cow (how in the heck do you hit a cow and not leave the vehicle behind?) goat, iguana etc.

[4] The driver throwing rubbish out their windows are more often those that are driving BMWs, Mercs, Alfas of some other high-priced vehicle. During these times I really pity those drivers ... their cars cost so much that they can't afford a rubbish bin at home and are forced to drive just to throw their trash. Worst offenders are those that throw diapers onto highways *yuck*

[5] Majority of drivers on the right lane are on the wrong lane. Want to turn left? Then keep right ... however most drivers wait until the very last minute and the last 2 metre stretch before merging like crazy just to get into the wrong lane .... and please learn to signal-lah.

[6] Planning a journey on the LDP is based on two important factors. Time of journey and weather. If travelling during peak hours (mornings from 0730 to 1000 and evenings from 1630 to 1930) add at least 45 minutes of travelling time. If it is raining add one hour .... scale as necessary depending on how far into the journey you are. If it is peak AND raining add 95 minutes travelling time. To prepare for unpredictable scenarios (i.e. snake in temple, 6 car pileup, overhead pedestrian bridge collapse, etc) add X = ∞ time. ALWAYS make sure the gas tank is half-full in the first two conditions.

[7] Drivers that 'flash' you are usually on the wrong lane (see point number 5). 'Nuff said.

[8] ALL construction on LDP is for show only. No matter WHAT they add or WHEN they do it, it still does not solve the problem of overcapacity. The management doesn't seem to understand that the problems are mostly cause by the high number of exits on the highway (*snort* yeah right ... "highway" konon). For example, block of the exit in from of St. Ignatius Church and that will reduce the slowdown on the overhead approaching since there is already a sliproad before that .... simple really. Last-ditch measures like contra-flows only push the problem around and never really solve it at all.

[9] Yes there are ways to avoid some tolls and in some cases actually save you time and money.

[10] ALL the electronic signboards on the LDP are useless and tell you nothing about traffic conditions. Recently they only promoted "Promosi Touch 'n Go di Alamanda" throughout the day .... at Kelana Jaya .... come-on lah people. Who in their right money-saving minds will go to Alamanda when they are in KJ?

Upgrading in progress .....

2011-05-05T12:54:00.008+08:00

Upgrades, upgrades and more upgrades ......

1. +2GB RAM upgrade - free courtesy of work :P
2. FullHD C910 webcam - free courtesy of project claims ... muahahaha3. 23" Dell IPS monitor - not so free but RM539 after discount with ext warranty.

muh new toy ^.^

2011-04-01T01:08:00.003+08:00

Half months salary (slightly over lah) gone during a spur-of-the-moment purchase. Well ... was looking for one anyway ... so went full spec with the extension pedals too. Problem now is where do I put it?

25th Anniversary Studio Ghibli Concert DVD

2011-03-22T23:32:00.013+08:00

Just got this ... this DVD features a live 2008 concert recording to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the cooperation between the Ghibli greats - Miyazaki and Hisaishi. It also served to launch the then-new "Ponyo on the cliff" movie.

Apart from Japan, it seems that no other country has released this in any form yet and I was ready to import all the way from the land of the rising sun when I saw it whilst browsing at a nearby video store. For RM29.90 (approx US$10) you get a single DVD disc and an audio CD. The region-free DVD features the full concert that was held in Budokan and broadcast on NHK. The concert is 1 hour 56 minutes long in total and features 10 songs from 9 animated features (Nausicaa, Mononoke, Kiki, Ponyo, Laputa, Porco, Howl, Spirited Away and Totoro). The other disc features nine songs - minus the encore - but on a more audio-friendly CD format for listening in the car. Why no encore? Well, it IS pushing the limits of the audio CD format because at nine tracks it already reached the maximum 80 minutes and the last song would definitely never be able to fit in there and remain red-book compliant.

With the source recorded in high-definition, the DVD presentation thankfully is properly down-sampled to NTSC resolutions with no signs of ghosting/interlacing seen. Compression rates are kept pretty low , averaging 6.74Mbps, with the entire concert taking up the 5,577MB of a double-layer DVD (totalling 7.6GB). Compared to the Japan R2 release which was split onto two dual-layer DVDs, the entire concert is squeezed onto a single one here so a sacrifice had to be made - the audio is limited to stereo Dolby Digital only (Japan R2 has 2 channel PCM stereo and 5.1 DD surround) but once again, it has been kept at a high bitrate of 320kbps thus maintaining the clarity of dynamics of the concert extremely well.

Other than the concert, the two specials are also available on this disc - "Making of the concert" which lasts 21 minutes and "The Big Screen" running for 17 minutes. The making video shows the amount of work done in preparation for the event which included 200 members of the orchestra and a 400-person choir. Although insightful and informative, this video is in Japanese only with no subtitle options. There is only a sprinkling of spoken dialog though so it doesn't really affect much - most of the important stuff (names, venues etc) are hard-subbed as part of the video.

The big screen video basically repeats what was shown on the projection screen at the Budokan venue during the concert. Various clips from the animated features are shown during the concert and this video allows you to see the entire content without interruption and camera changes. All clips from 10 songs are combined as one long clip here.

Overall, its great that you can purchase this recording outside of Japan but the only dissapointing thing is the lack of subtitle options on the extras. Online purchasing may still be available here but at a higher price .. so find a store to buy it from instead if in Malaysia. Options to buy the Japanese R2 release is still available at CDJapan or Amazon. For those with HD playback, the blu-ray versions are also at CDJapan and Amazon.

P/S : I question the legality of the release but then it IS included with a license /censorship board sticker which I hope means that all royalties/duties were paid. The DVD comes with a slipcover that duplicates the same label content but with a foil effects. The audio CD also comes with a slipcover but has no label of its own. The DVD is mislabeled LOVE STUDIO GHIBLI CONCERT instead of LIVE STUDIO GHIBLI CONCERT but both carry valid IFPI numbers imprinted and embossed.

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Lion King @ Marina Bay Sands Theatre

2011-03-14T17:51:00.016+08:00

The Lion King on Broadway in the Lion City .... ironic isn't it?

Well I caught the show on its first week run on the 12th of March (started on 3rd) at the MBS Theatre. The location is brand new and this musical is basically the grand opening attraction for the venue. Even the neighboring hotels and restaurants are heavily promoting it in Singapore.

So here's a quick review divided into parts:

The venue - Marina Bay Sands Theatre

Utilising the smaller of two theatres in the MBS, the venue can seat ~1600 guests on two levels (stalls and dress circle). Overall the venue was nice and acoustics were pretty good but the surrounds were under-utilised making audio sound very front-centric. Its not like I want to be constantly enveloped in sound but several points in the show could have benefited from a stronger surround source (e.g. the valley, stampede sequence and final battle) to give the effect of vastness.

Prop movement was fast and not too distracting except for one part where trapdoors open in the "Can't Want To Be King" sequence to release air-filled cacti - the doors swing open and land with a loud bang and breaks the illusion ... but overall the use of light and props in the show were top-notch.

The sound engineer for the night was pretty spot-on with his timing which is crucial in this show since the dialog switches often between a heavy reverb/echo to a clean speech setting. Balance between the accompaniment and singers was also very well done with each voice being heard clearly above the orchestra and was never drowned out.

The stage itself felt very cramped and tight ... as if there wasn't enough space for full movement. This is especially so in the opening sequence where the animal 'cast' felt extremely crowded on stage. Thankfully other sequences were less packed.

The cast
Weird enough (for the first time) MBS never annouced the actors playing the roles. This is pretty common for a musical and helps the audience know who is on stage. Granted that the adult cast never really changes except with the understudy, the actors that play the young Simba and Nala were unfortunately left unacknowledged. Anyways, the roles of both were surprisingly all played by Filipinos instead of Singaporeans although auditions were held at both countries. Maybe the young Singaporeans aren't talented enough??

The young Simba for that performance (afternoon 12th March ... whoever you are) was pretty good, emoted and responded well when required - and for someone to carry pretty much the first half of the show, his singing and acting was commendable (and at times amazing). Young Nala didn't have much parts so not much to say there.

The adult cast in the Singapore show are from various productions in the world (some from London, France and Australian shows) and this brings about an unfortunate problem of varying accents. Adult Simba had quite a heavy Brit accent during spoken dialog whilst Mufasa felt pretty uncomfortable with spoken English since his dialog was choppy at times ... it didn't hurt the performance in anyway though.

The best peformer (IMHO) was Timon who had most of the punch lines and the best/funniest songs and lines of dialog (my personal favourite when he says "This wasn't in the cartoon"). As usual, musical text is often adapted to local audiences and TLKoB is the same. During the course of the show, Timon has Singlish adaptations like "谢谢你" to thank his prop 'bush' that helps him up from a supine position and also lines like "Let it go lah". The favourite line of the performance was probably the one that went "Oh look I see a merlion" (in reference to Singapore's Merlion) and Zazu singing "Rasa Sayang" instead of "Its a Small World" during the Scar's Cave sequence Act II.

Unfortunately the worst performer of the show was adult Nala who sounded breathy and almost scratchy throughout the show. At times it almost sounded like she was trying to sing with a sore throat - and her pitch ran off pretty badly at places. "Can you feel" was spoilt since her voice was drowned out by Simba thus ruining the overall duet. Her solo in "Shadowland" was painful at times and felt as though the pitch was too low for her - her bottom notes were inaudible at times.

Overall
TLKoB in Singapore uses the edited version of the show (last changed in 2010) and has the same changes reflected in all productions around the world. One song "The Morning Report" was removed (it was written for the movie, then edited out, reintroduced in the 1997 musical, added back in the movie DVD release and then removed from the musical in 2010) and thus follows the sequence in the movie. This song established the relationship between Mufasa and Zazu but was not critical in the plot .... I was hoping it would be there though.

The love duet "Can you feel" is also shortened and the dance between Simba and Nala is removed (around 70 bars of music) and immediately reaches the climax of the song. The full version is still heard on the OBC recording. The ending song for the Finale also seems changed and the chorus immediately enters the line "Its the Circle of life ...." instead of chanting and building up to the ending scene. If I'm not wrong (writing this from memory is hard!) I think a reprise of "Chow down" was also added in and "One By One" had a new arrangment midway through (the recording on the broadway album is taken from the "Rhythm of the Pridelands" CD and does not reflect the stage version).

My recommendations
Those wanting to see this show before it ends its run (May 2011) should try to get seats in the stalls instead of the dress circle since portions of the show extend into the audience (opening of first and second act and Simba's escape). The middle rows of each sections probably have the best views of the incoming procession whilst the front row premium seats have the best experience in "Can't wait to be King". Arrive early and bring extra cash for souvenir purchase (really expensive though but is usual for events like these)

I'm ending this post with my favourite from TLKoB - "Endless Night" featuring the original adult Simba, the late Jason Raize.

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ウォーリーペパクラ = Wall-e Pepakura

2010-12-30T17:46:00.007+08:00

This papercraft model of Wall-e took me three weeks to finish (Started on 29/11) but I left the upload of pics until now (holiday before New Years!!). I obtained the plans from here but it can be purchased pre-printed (albeit illegally since its CC licensed) here. Personally I prefer to print my own so I can get extra copies - which I had to to improve on and to correct mistakes during construction. I have no idea what the printed versions are printed on but I printed my set with a colour laser on 160gsm stock card for a total cost of 55 sen (or US$0.18).

The biggest problem was 160gsm cardstock was too thick for making tubes and rolls required for the arm and head support - so those were replaced with normal drinking straws of the same size since they aren't seen in the finished model. Parts that required additional support were the arm beams, body and eye bridge - without support the original design could not stand the weight of the other parts and would fall/tear apart sooner or later. Support for the model parts came in the form of cheap packing foam (i.e. foam trays) that were cut to size and glued on with PVA glue.

The finished model looks quite similar to the rendered graphic above.
Since there are no clear instructions, I've randomly constructed the model parts based on the time I had and mood. The slideshow below shows the progress over the three weeks.

Doncha love multiparty conferencing?

2010-12-26T12:50:00.000+08:00

One Christmas call = four countries (KUL, SYD, JAX/FL and CAN) and people were on different days (some on boxing, others still on Christmas). Too bad one party couldn't get the Skype beta installed due to some conflict.

Mac OSX on Windows 7

2010-12-16T14:40:00.001+08:00

BWAHAHAHAH! Mac OSX finally running in VMWare on Windows 7. Weird thing is Mac reports the memory as 0Mhz. Next up is to install as a physical partition and dual boot but been having problems there as the BIOS is so tightly locked that I can't disable/enable some features for the OS to install and boot.

[Yeah, I know my WEI rating sucks but I'm down to using the integrated graphics - nv7100 - on the mobo because my graphic card shorted out and haven't got the time to buy a new one]

Farscape Party Kit

2010-12-06T16:38:00.001+08:00

Been marathoning with Farscape since receiving the box set .... and awaiting a replacement set because the first one has manufacturing problems. I really miss this show and haven't been dissapointed so far ... except for the quality of the box set :P

Farscape fans may have once been subscribed to their mailing list and were sent messages about exclusive downloads. Seaching with Google, the mp3 download of Aeryn's Funeral seems to be alive and present at quite a few sites. So instead, here's the download to the 28 page Farscape Party Kit PDF file (send/PM me your email for the password to view link). If you wish to save the file, click on the upper right icon to open in Google Docs and then click on File -> Save original in the interface there.

Show Farscape Party Kit PDF

Preview:

Its a conspiracy I tell ya ... Amazon UK Black Friday sales are rubbish

2010-11-23T02:00:00.002+08:00

Amazon sites are having the annual Black Friday sales now at the US and UK sites (if you do not know what BF Sales are click here). While both sites are supposedly run by the same company, the sales practices are entirely different.

What happens is selected items are put on offer for a limited time and limited quantity only. Its a first come first served scenario ... but at Amazon UK, it seems to be more like a blackhole scenario instead. Items will go on sale and right in front of your eyes, the [Add to cart] button changes to sold out in mere milliseconds!! Many people have complained but to no avail.

The first items on sale were CDs by Take That and Susan Boyle. Amazon UK claims that 1000s of CDs of each were sold. Hmmmm .... taking into account the population of UK/Europe and the number of fans that Boyle or TT has, I don't think the 2000 "reported" stock was sold out in 2 seconds?!?! Come on people, how many actually WANT to buy that Boyle CD? Not that she's a bad singer but it can't be that high demand ... maybe if it was Beyonce, or Shakira .....

Amazon US seems to be handling things more fairly. You see a waiting queue and get to join a waitlist if the item is already sold out. There may be instances where a person cancels their order and then it is passed on the the wait list for the next customer to grab. This is better sales practise and will keep a customer happy because they are treated fairly (or so it seems in comparison to the f*cky UK site)

Anyways, customers have started figuring out they can get better deals for some items without having to do the mouse button mashing when the timer dings. There are several good deals though (the Harry Potter 1-6 6 bluray movie collection at £12.97 was a steal ... that equates to around RM64.20 but unfortunately Region B blurays won't work here ... *sigh*). As I post this, the 37" LCD TV just went on sale like 6 seconds ago ... but then so did the response time of the site 'cos all I'm getting is that blasted spinning loading symbol as Amazon UK slows down to a crawl....

UPDATE: one minute later, all the TVs and toolkits are now sold out. Go figure :P

And once again I've left you alone ....

2010-11-22T00:44:00.000+08:00

Been so busy with work (exams, special exams, finale exams and more exams) that I've left this to dwindle again. Add on the fact that I have a class again this semester ... but that's done last week. What's been on my mind? Been thinking about getting a media player for the living room TV but the choices out there are confusing.

An oldie is the WDTV but I've read that its hardware is showing its age and can't keep up with newer file containers and codec requirements. Good points is that it supports many WLAN USB devices out of the box and thus can connect to my existing router.

Another popular one is from A.C.Ryan but they haven't been updating their firmware for a bit (as they transition to SDK4 for the Realtek chip they have inside). Which begs the question with all these standalone media players ... once there is no support, what can you do with the device? Another this is it only supports particular USB devices for WLAN networking (preferably its own) ... why can't they just build it in?

The newbie on the block is from Acer with its Revoview RV100 which is probably the cheapest of the bunch and has the possibility of adding a SATA internal HDD for storage. With the HDD it also turns the device into a USB storage device when plugged directly into a PC/MAC. Plus points (other than being cheap) is that it supports Windows 7 Playto feature - no need to transfer files to the object to play anymore, just go to the supported source PC and send the file through the network for playback. Bad points, the Malaysian/Singapore Acer distributor will NOT sell the USB wireless device. The USB plug is an OEM device from Azurewave model AW-NU120 so maybe there's hope in getting it in stores ... else finding one using the same Realtek RTL8192 802.11N chipset.

I may go the hard way and just build a HTPC from scratch. Current plans are to build it using the ASRock 330HT-BD setup with XBMC as the OS and interface. Good points? Its future proof against all formats as long as there is enough CPU grunt to decode and someone writes plugins for XBMC. It has a blu-ray drive ready so it can playback blu-ray discs with proper software (namely powerdvd). Additionally, it can dual boot into Windows and work as a additional PC in the living room. Bad points - without HDD and memory the PC already is a wallet busting RM1500!!. Or maybe I should go for a SFF PC as the starter ..... stay tuned for future updates (waaay in the future, my bills have been piling up)

Splurge, spend, buy!!

2010-10-20T17:37:00.032+08:00

For 4 months (July until Oct) I have been spending on DVD and CDs bought from CDWOW, Yesasia, Amazon and Ebay. Damn these summer sales that are so tempting .... don't even know how much the total is (but I do know it has exceeded the 1k mark)

Wanna see what I got? (shown in order from latest to earliest)

Farscape - The Definitive Collection (R2)
32 DVDs including Peacekeeper Wars (finally can catch up after stopping at season 2) on pre-order. Kinda miss this series ... but shipment only arrives in December. Trailer viewable here at Youtube.

The Princess Bride 2-Disc Special Edition (R2)
Haven't watched this before ... but I had a cash voucher that was expiring so I bought this at £2.

Holes Widescreen Edition (R2)
Always liked this movie which I thought was a perfect adaptation of the book (which I also have ... funny thing is the book costs more than the DVD!)

The Aladdin Trilogy - Triple DVD set (R2)
I'm double dipping here because I already have Aladdin 2-Disc SE DVD .... was planning on getting the second and third movies on separate DVDs but this option was cheaper.

Prison Break Complete Series (R2)
22 DVDs completing all four seasons of Prison Break PLUS the bonus two hour ending DVD in one package (total 23 DVDs). Buying locally would cost RM659.90 ... this version cost me RM350.51

High School Musical OST - 2-disc set (US edition)
Wanted the instrumental CD only but this was just RM1.80 more and since I don't have the soundtrack CD I bought this. Second disc is karaoke CDG only.

Simple Plan - MTV Live at Hard Rock CD+DVD (UK import R2,3,4,5)
Been trying to get this for so long (already had 3 orders on different sites cancelled and refunded because of no stock). Contains both the audio CD and live DVD recording of their concert in HRC. Local versions only have in VCD format and costs RM13 more ... weird??!?

F.R.I.E.N.D.S. Complete 15th Anniversary Collection (R2)
40 DVDs for over 80 hours of Friends!! Available locally for RM59.90 per season for a total of RM599.00 (10 seasons mah) ... this purchase only RM196.90 AND it takes less space. Box set also contains full colour 64p booklet with description of each episode, photos and original series pitch.

A Town Called Eureka Season 2 (R2)
3 DVD box set of this quirky series ... got season one at bargain price elsewhere (for RM30 only) and wanted to continue the series.

ハウルの動く城 Howl's Moving Castle Special 2-DVD edition (R2)
Its Ghibli and this is the recommended edition (compared to R2 Japan, R3 Taiwan and R1 US) as reviewed here.

火垂るの墓 Grave of the Fireflies Special 2-DVD edition (R2)
Haven't seen this yet but heard good reviews. This version is the only one that has the original storyboards for the whole movie ... similar to the R2 Spirited Away.

The Music Man 2003 (R1)
Disney's version of Meredith Wilson's The Music Man as potrayed by Matthew Broderick and Kristin Chenoweth (Glee's April Rhodes a.k.a. Broadway's first Glinda on Wicked). Love the bonus where she sings Til' There Was You live on stage (which someone uploaded here on Youtube) Sadly though Broderick is waaaay to stiff to play the character of Prof. Hill.

The Producers (R3)
This was on sale and was too tempting to resist (only cost RM11). Once again featuring Matthew Broderick (from The Music Man above), Nathan Lane (Timon in Lion King), Uma Thurman (Kill Bill) and Will Ferrell (Talladega Nights). "Good-dog-me-wenen!"

Phineas and Ferb Sing-a-long CD (European Import)
Hmmm ... dunno why I bought this. Maybe just because of one song Gitchie Gitchie Goo? Anyways, I like collecting karaoke CDs and DVDs like this .... already my 7th in the Disney Karaoke series.

Nancy Drew (R3)
Its Emma Roberts 'nuff said ... and they're filming a sequel now! This was on sale too and cost RM12 I think.

Jungle Book 2 Special Edition (R3)
Already have Jungle Book 2-disc DVD so this completes the set. Anyways this was another on summer sale purchase.

Constantine 2-Disc Deluxe Edition with Book (R1)
Not many like this movie but I do. Acting is so-so but I like the plot a lot. This version comes with a reproduction of Hellblazer book in the set.

The Muppet Show Season 1 (R4)
4-disc DVD set of season one The Muppet Show. This was waaay before I was born but I have watched it before. Bought this during a splash sale at £4.99!! It now has returned to the original price of £25!!!!! At least now I know how the original Mahna Mahna looked like (watch Sandra Bullock's new version on Youtube here)

High School Musical 2 Dance Edition (R3)
Clearance sale purchase at RM18 ... and thats INCLUDING shipping. This is the 2-disc set with the extended version of the movie and bonus disc.

Dinosaur Collector's Edition 2-DVD (R4)
Another gut purchase ... but this one was expensive at RM39 but is still cheaper than the local version! This is a double DVD set with the second DVD of bonus features.

Riddick Chroniken Eines Kriegers - Pitch Black Special Edition (R2)
Bought the German Edition of this disc on sale (again!) 'cos I'm trying to complete the set. Already have the Chronicles of Riddick ... so only left Dark Fury in the trilogy to get.

Die Muppets Weihnachtsgeschichte - Muppet Christmas Carol 50th Anniversary Edition
Have the score, have the soundtrack ... so now I have the DVD. Still want to get the R1 version though 'cos this German version is cut.

Jim Henson's Jack & the Beanstalk - The Real Story (R3)
Liked this movie when it was shown on Hallmark Channel so I bought it since had a cash voucher to claim.

Young Sherlock Holmes (R3)
Same excuse as above ... sad thing is that this DVD and the one above is barebones with no extras. J&TB above is worse because halfway the subtitles are encoded wrongly on the disc.

Charlotte's Web Special Edition DVD
Bought this 'cos I thought the packaging was cute. DVD is sandwiched between a foam cutout and has many additional features. Same DVD here costs twice as much and is in normal DVD case.

As you probably can see, my tastes are really varied and uncertain ... sometimes just weird lah ... what I REAALLLLYYY need now is like a hundred times more storage space!! Note that the list above does not include stuff that I bought locally at the store ... shown are online purchases only :P

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Unannounced firmware for DIR-615 rev B

2010-09-25T15:54:00.010+08:00

D-link's wireless router DIR-615 is a pretty popular wireless router/access point and has gone through many revisions. Even Unifi uses it as the residential gateway AP with its custom version and rev G firmware (yup a G version does exist but not for retail markets 'cos its specifically tailored for the high-speed fibre connections used in Unifi).

My router is running revision B hardware and on official websites, the latest firmware is 2.25 (or 2.24 depending on which site you visit). Problems with this router is that it can't be flashed with other firmware like DD-WRT, OpenWRT or Tomato etc because of the chipset. It has more advanced capabilities but unfortunately they are locked away because of the firmware. It seems that it may have the same brains as the more featured model DIR-655 and even has the advanced QoS engine which is severely crippled in the firmware.

Searching online, I managed to find this hidden gem for a 2.27 beta firmware for this router from the Russian D-link site here (caution link downloads firmware directly from the FTP site). Specifically, it was tailored for Russian PPPoE, PPTP and LT2P connections as these were added on to the Internet settings section. Surprisingly, it also enabled the full QoS settings for the router and it now enables users to set their own priorities and rules to control traffic. Previously, the only option available was to turn on/off QoS and no other controls. With this, now it is possible to filter out traffic sucking applications like PPS.tv and lower their bandwidth based on either port, IP or destination.

Other new features enabled in this firmware is an option to turn the router into a pure access point mode. This means that it can work as a wireless extender but with a small caveat - it has to remain wired and cannot act as a wireless bridge (i.e. its own WAN/Internet connections still come through the ethernet port and it does not forward wirelessly). What does this actually mean? It basically turns off DHCP and it acts like a wireless switch. Some people may find this useful especially in extending wireless coverage but this means you still need another AP that will provide the authentication/gateway services. If you are looking for a wireless bridge, you still have to look elsewhere or perhaps wait and hope that another firmware release will add this feature on (in theory it is possible, since AP mode exists ... the forwarding part is the only problem here)

Other changes are purely cosmetic - now the status page displays the channels used when running in 802.11N dual radio mode. There is a language option to switch between Spanish (Espanol) and English ... weird 'cos I was expecting Russian language from a Russian firmware.

Drawbacks of this firmware? Scheduling for the wireless radio to turn on/off at specific times seems to crash the router and disable all connections until a cold reset is performed by cycling the power to the router ... so I had this disabled and everything is working fine. This firmware also enables 13 wireless channels and maybe is a violation in certain areas of the world (if so, disable auto channel mapping and manually assign the router to a channel that is allowed in your region)

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NOTE : Use this firmware on your router at your own risk! Although it can work on other region hardware with the same revision, improper use and flashing may brick your router and I will not be responsible for any irreversible damage.

Free time experiment

2010-09-25T14:50:00.007+08:00

What happens after you reach the limit of 26 drives in Windows? Seems like nothing .... Windows just stops assigning drive letters and instead assigns them to a null ?? which means they cannot be accessed. Only way to access these 'extra' drives is to do disk mapping to a particular folder.

How did I reach over 26 drives? Simple
C/D/E is primary HDD with 3 partitions
F/G are two internal DVDRW drives
H is a USB thumbdrive
I/J/K/P is internal multi-card reader
L/M/N is external HDD 1
Q/O is external HDD 2
R/S is external DVDRW
T is a virtual floppy
U/V/W/X is external card reader
Z is external HDD 3

Why no A/B? Those are reserved for floppy drives or for floppy emulators.

And yes ... I was bored.

Hmmm

2010-09-24T01:50:00.001+08:00

I left alone this for so long ... should start writing something again ... oh wait, I just did ;D

World Cup fever is back ...

2010-06-14T00:53:00.003+08:00

I've registered and logged on, so why can't I view online?!? Accounts been verified, TID has been SMS-ed in and confirmed .... why do I still get this error message? *sigh*

IP restrictions ... sigh

2010-05-04T22:54:00.006+08:00

Facebook often has several good pages/groups that offer stuff like free software and free downloads (e.g. iTunes media) and the latest is actually a good one from Disney Music Moms which is giving away 50 music downloads from a mix of Disney repertoire over 50 days starting 3rd of May (US Time)

Scratch this paragraph ... they fixed it after finding out the problems.
Problem is that some of it is IP restricted ... the post to the download link that is. Seems that the link to the actual download is hidden to Facebook users outside of the US but the download remains active once you have resolved the link (maybe by the time they realise this they might find a way to block that too).

Here are the differences when logged onto Facebook outside US and behind a US proxy. This is the DMM page when logged on using a non-US IP address.

Here is the same page 2 minutes later when hosted through a US-based proxy server ... note the additional highligted section in yellow that contains the link to the actual mp3 download.

But most obvious is the page status when proxied and when not ... one shows the link whilst the other is blank

Wished DMM would have informed fans earlier instead of the hundreds of posts demanding to know where the links are. (Oh ... and don't bother with the links/addresses shown, they expire after 23 hours)

I'm getting bored ... bored of Feseni :(

2010-04-02T14:44:00.011+08:00

Another year but the same old story .... but most obvious is the extreme drop in quality and showmanship this year. Of the 8 teams competing this year, none actually stood out as outstanding or showed any improvement.

Excluding the winning group, here are the most glaring problems in each of them.

Show encrypted text

Faking a nude pic (or I'm bored and started photoshopping)

2010-03-06T17:27:00.013+08:00

Last year someone on FB decided to upload a whole bunch of pics altered using the web service yearbookyourself. The results were less than spectacular but hilarious nonetheless. So few days back when I was bored out of my mind and sick of reading journals, I thought about seeing if a manual effort would produce better results.

My goal - create an incriminating picture about someone based on easily available pictures .... so whats in fashion now other than having your nude pics circulated online?

Step 1: obtain a nude picture to be "sacrificed". Google is SOOOOOOOO good to me here and in the end I decided on the male human form .... don't get any ideas though. I chose male so that more of the *ahem* nude body could be shown. If I went female, then basically I am limited to doing from shoulder up and that wasn't much of a challenge to alter the pic :P

Shown below is the pic I chose, cut (sic) to where I deemed necessary to show modification ... you want the rest of the pic, go Google it or search some porn site you know of (yeah, stop lying about it). Reason - clear body outline so that I can isolate it.

Step 2: Person to "incriminate". Obviously I had to choose a picture that more or less matched the body angle of my sacrificial pic so as I had less work to do - once again Google images to the rescue!! The chosen one here is pretty obvious (the group he comes from rhymes with boogerlay ... btw his pics are really amazing for someone over 40!) and it seemed to fit quite well, heck even the hair was cut off roughly at the same spot!

Problem here is that it was taken intentionally overexposed for a print ad which means one of the pics will have to be adjusted to match (kinda like how yearbookpics changes everything to black and white to simplify matching skin tones)

Step 3: I'm too lazy to document each step. Basically isolate body, cut of head and save as layer. Isolate head, cut of body and set as secondary layer. Merge, blend, resize, desaturate, brighten, feather smudge+smudge+smudge and several artsy-fartsy filters to hide any imperfections and here's the result. Not too bad for less than 10 minutes of digital manipulation .... a definite improvement over the effort from yearbook pics. If I wanted to, I probably could have replaced the background to the original but you get the general idea.
Kinda makes you wonder how many images you see in media are actually real and not touched-up

NOTE: This example and the people chosen/pics used were NOT intended to defame or insult the individuals. All content was obtained through Google images and used without permissions from respective parties. Apologies to all affected.

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Waaaay overproduced and over the top = EPIC FAIL

2010-02-27T22:28:00.006+08:00

Although I laud their efforts to promote relief to the Haiti nation, but me thinks (sic) that the new version of "We Are The World 25" pales in comparison by a VERY VERY large margin with the original eventhough it is 25 years old.

Yes there are countless of celebrities in the song but not all can sing (why the heck is that Bieber kid in there? was he even born when MJ recorded the first version? why does he get top billing?). The song has been heavily auto-tuned and produced with what seems like an overdoes of reverb and echo ... turn it up loud enough on headphones and it borders on getting nauseating with the phasing. And whats with the need to mention "Academy award" director the the music video? The final video looks like it could possibly have been produced using Windows Movie Maker with the footage taken off CNN or some other news broadcast.

Good points? The new sections and rap bits added a welcome update to the song. Inserting post recordings of MJ singing bits of the song is also a cool tribute to the King of Pop but other than that the song is pretty forgettable. Too bad .... look for some other avenue to donate rather than purchasing this piss-poor rendition of a MJ classic.

Whoa ... flashback on MyTown!

2010-01-23T18:59:00.004+08:00

Was spring cleaning my room when I collected and sorted through the CDs that were stashed and forgotten and happened upon this oldie album.

I grabbed it from a bargain bin somewhere for 2 ringgit - I think - and totally forgotten about it (it was still shrink wrapped!!). I guess two of the members are more popular now in the band The Script but it was waaaay back then that they were an Irish export called MyTown and had a string of hits "Now That I've Found You", "Body Bumpin" and "Party All Night".

Since playing the CD, I've been rummaging through my harddrives (yes multiple drives - 8 internal/external drives totalling over 2 terabytes) and finally found the saved webcast of their stopover to Malaysia in which they visited KLCC and had a online webchat. I think the whole event was sponsored by Maxis.Net when they were promoting their dial-up services. Since I couldn't find the videos any where, I'm uploading them here just for the fun of it .... yeah, the MTV is totally lost and isn't even available on YouTube?!? Well, it is now :D

Even rarer is this next edited clip of them playing the song live for the webcast. Can't believe I actually downloaded the clip over a 33.6kbps dialup modem - the full video clip weighs in at 60MB!

10 years and this is all?

2010-01-23T00:23:00.003+08:00

Posted about this back on 11th October 2008 and today this popped up in my inbox at Hotmail. After 12 years of using Hotmail, a mass generated email thanks is all I get .... *sheesh* ... how bout some free hardware? software?

What was supposed to be this year's song(s)?

2010-01-09T16:53:00.015+08:00

Been asked this before ... my selection and arrangement for the songs for Feseni 2010 is previewed below :P

Show songs (password required)

Astro B.yond ... good or bad?

2009-12-25T16:56:00.020+08:00

UPDATED 01/01/2010

One call and 8 days later then TA-DAAH! The Astro B.yond box is installed. What is involved - new set-top box/decoder, new external dish/LNB, remote control and HDMI cable all in a pretty basic blue box.

Going around the forums, the most common questions about the B.yond package I've seen are as follows (and answered the best to my knowledge)

How much do I need to pay to get B.yond?

If you are a current customer, nothing. Installation is free AS LONG AS YOU SURRENDER YOUR OLD EQUIPMENT (this includes STB, remote and smartcard ... items DO NOT need to be in working order but you must have a running Astro account). Installers should accept ANY decoder/remote + gold smartcard even if you are not using the decoder (i.e. you bought another one to replace non-working one, etc)

If you are not a Astro customer/ex-customer you need to pay standard installation fees of RM80 to install dish, cabling and setting up of the STB to TV. The charges here are similar to the old decoder. If you wish to keep your old equipment the same charges apply (but note that your old gold smartcard will also be deactivated upon the activation of your HD smartcard)

How long do I need to wait?

Depending on area and availability, anywhere between 5 to 25 days. The installers I've seen and asked have mentioned they are installing at a rate of around 70 to 100 sets per day. Each set has to be activated at Astro and linked to your account (i.e. program smartcard) before they are assigned to the installers.

What do I need to view B.yond?

Any TV will work with the decoder - 3 video outputs are provided in increasing quality (composite, component and HDMI) along with one analog stereo outputs (RCA) and one digital output (RCA). Best video quality at HD resolution can only be provided through HDMI cables. Composite will be limited to 500 lines resolution (approx) and component a maximum of 720 lines. HDMI will support up to 1080 lines of resolution. The majority of LCD/Plasma TVs locally sold already support the requirements for the B.yond STB.

What resolution is Astro B.yond broadcasting at?

According to website specs, the channels broadcasting now are in 1080i but the STB can downsample to 720p and 576p/i for compatibility reasons.

The B.yond remote conflicts/interferes with my TV/amp/hifi remote. What do I do?

Unfortunately there is no easy answer to this. Unlike the old STBs, the current Pace STB does not seem to have an alternative channel for the remote (or at least one that is documented for public knowledge).

Do I need a widescreen TV to view?

No but it will be better. HD content will be broadcast in widescreen 16:9 ratio. Using a standard 4:3 TV will allow you to choose between a Pan-and-scan option (i.e. zoom in and cut off the sides) or letterbox mode (black bars top and below content). On a widescreen TV the options are different - 4:3 broadcasts can either be stretched to fill the screen (i.e. fat people) or pillarboxed (black bars on left and right of content). All Astro content is in PAL format 50Hz.

Which is better - 720p or 1080i?

Uhm .... depends on your TV set and how sensitive your eyesight is, but majority of viewers may not be able to tell the difference (especially on smaller screens or longer distances). People claim that 720p results in smoother images with less stair-stepping since each image projected is "whole" whilst others claim that 1080 gives you such a higher resolution that the stepping is unnoticable plus you get the extra detail. Basically, if you have a LCD/Plasma TV not older than 5-8 years, any signal going in is already going to be de-interlaced before it can be shown on the panel (yes ... all flat panels are progressive displays and cannot work with interlaced signals).

So, my suggestion is, if your display supports it, to use the 1080i signal as broadcast to your STB and let the TV do the deinterlacing for itself. If you are using the 720p output signal, your display may have to recompose the image again (stretch or shrink to fit) and then deinterlace AGAIN before displaying which may affect resoultion. Personal experience says that the 720p signal gets deteriorated quite a bit on my set (which is 1080p capable) until I see jaggies on curves and lines.

Can I just buy the decoder/subscribe HD channels/terminate after installation?

No. The decoder is bundled as a package WITH the channels. You need a minimum 1 year subscription else a RM500 penalty will be charged for early termination of HD services. Subscription is RM20 per month + your standard Astro monthly package subscription rates. The RM20 does NOT give you access to all the HD channels. Access will follow your normal subscription package (e.g. your normal Astro subscription does not have sports package so you will not get the HD sport channels even if you pay RM20). My charges for HD channels only begin in April eventhough I've installed it for two weeks in December but your mileage may vary depending on how loyal a customer you are and is up to Astro's discretion to offer.

Once your 1 year contract is up, you are free to terminate the HD service and choose to retain normal Astro subscription to standard definition channels. The decoder will continue to function as it is.

Can I transfer the card to another B.yond decoder?

No. The card/STB are linked together and will not work on other B.yond decoders.

On an old TV set, can I use S-video/SCART connection instead?

Purchase a Component to S-video/SCART converter (around RM15) to connect to your set. Else use composite connections but at (noticeable) reduced quality

What connections are available on the STB? As listed on the images below .... (click for larger image in a new window/tab)
What are the USB ports for?

PVR (personal video recorder) functions introduced later (as announced on website) and possibly firmware upgrades. The decoder is NOT designed to function as a media center (i.e. WDTV) but will only playback content recorded by the unit itself. You need a storage device (thumbdrive, external HDD) to record content onto.

Can I share the recorded content later?

No. All content recorded on your decoder will be DRM locked to your subscription (and possibly the decoder) and can only be played back on the same unit/account.

What is my PIN code for parental settings/installation settings?Its in the manual .... but since you're here the default value is 0000.
What is the network/ethernet port for?

IPTV/Network functions introduced later.

Is there any difference to the content?

Uhm ... not really. HD channels will be in proper widescreen ratio (no more fat people la!) and in 5.1 surround sound (requires external amplifier/decoder) and standard content remains the same. Some channels will eventually have exclusive HD content not available on the standard channels. HD broadcasts are currently delayed by 1 hour except for sports HD channels which have a nominal delay (few seconds due to broadcast delays around the world etc.) There are only 4 channels now (fifth introduced in January) and rumours of an additional 5 channels later in the year. The 2010 World Cup will be one of the highlights of the HD offerings as they will be in widescreen 5.1 surround.

Is/Are the HD content/channels censored/broadcast in original aspect ratio?

Content on ALL ASTRO CHANNELS will remain censored and cut to remove "questionable" and "offending" content. This means all swear words (F***, B**CH, S*IT, B*TT, A*S etc) will be silenced if done locally (if from original source you hear the normal beep). All kissing, nude (partial or full), sexual, illicit, boob-y and breast-y content will be removed. If you wish to view things like this, go online or switch to the cartoon channels!! (yup ... words like ASS , BUTT and SHIT as well as kissing scenes are OK on Disney and Cartoon Network but not on any adult channels - go figure THAT out)

Film content will be in widescreen but NOT in original aspect ratio (OAR). They will be zoom pan-and-scan but not to the extremes of 4:3 crop. For example, the current Indiana Jones marathons are actually filmed in 2.35:1 ratios and start off correctly. Immediately after the credits, the picture zooms in slowly to fill the 16:9 screen (but still at HD resolutions). Since the start of B.yond broadcasts NONE of the movies on HBO-HD have been broadcast in OAR. This is beyond (sic) the control of ASTRO because this cropping is done at the source.

Will all channels be HD? Are the normal channels improved in quality?

No. Only specific channels will be broadcast in HD format whilst remaining existing channels remain exactly the same. Those channels won't look any better than what you have now ... well, maybe slightly better because of higher transmission rates thus making it less blocky/pixelated

How do I remember/What are the HD channel numbers?

Easy ... change the middle number to either 3 or 7. For example HBO is 411 so HBO-HD is on 431. NatGeo and History is on 553 and 555 so their HD corresponding channels are 573 and 575 respectively.

Can I split the output signal to two TVs?

Possibly (haven't tried this yet) by using the multiple outputs provided. HDMI connections to the main TV whilst an extended component cable run to a secondary TV but both sets will display the same channel.

Can I split the incoming signal (from dish) to two decoders (e.g. one B.yond and the other standard)

No. One thing is the LNB on the new dish is vastly different and could be incompatible with the older STBs. The other is the new B.yond decoder is highly sensitive and is said to not work well with any cable splitter which degrades the signal quality (note quality and not strength) Having more than one B.yond STB linked to a single dish might result in no reception

Any disadvantages to changing to the new decoder?

Based on experience, the new STB works best with an external amplifier (or at least a hifi set) as the standard outputs are extremely low. If you are watching the current Astro STB with a volume level on your TV at 20 then the new STB will need a volume level of around 85 to be equal (personal comparison). Maximum output resolution is at 1080i but majority of households with LCD TVs can support this or at least the 720p resolution. No pay TV company broadcasts in 1080p.

If you are exchanging a Astro.MAX decoder, note that you will lose the function of the dual decoder (i.e. you can't record one channel whilst watching another) because the STB only has one tuner built in

What about advantages (other than HD)?

The new STB response is much faster than any other existing standard STB in all aspects. Also, load times are very very much quicker - especially on channels that are NOT on your subscription (old decoders forced you to wait for the "This channel is not in your subscription" message before allowing you to proceed, this STB doesn't) The old "GUIDE" option is now replaced with the "TV GUIDE" that now also shows a mini preview window whilst still allowing you to browse through the channels.

What equipment is B.yond using?

Seems that the B.yond STB is a adaptation of the Pace DS830 box found here and here or the US variant found here but localised specifically for Astro to have USB ports ×2. The actual STB used has the model code DS830NA and uses NDS encryption for content distribution. The unit is manufactured/assembled in Malaysia. The external dish is slightly larger but no details have been provided/obtained thus far. It is angled at a different position during installation (towards MEASAT3) and has a better signal rate and thus should reduce rain fade-outs (my current signal strength is hovering above 85% at 100% quality levels, before it was 61%).

From whatever information obtainable, it seems the STB runs on a RISC cpu with Linux as its operating system (cold start shows a BOOTING message on STB LCD panel). The manual lists GPL and LGPL licensing by Pace as part of the software contained within the box. More details possibly obtainable here.

Will I be able to receive Digital FTA TV with the B.yond decoder?

No. Current digital TV trial broadcasts are running on DVB-T whilst Astro runs on (possibly but unconfirmed) DVB-S which is entirely incompatible. To view FTA channels you need a separate decoder and high-gain digital antenna to receive those channels.

What does the aspect ratio button do (on the remote)?

A future function to allow switch between widescreen/standard ratios and possibly between stretch/pan-and-scan modes depending on your TV.

What does the Back button do (on the remote)?

Several functions - move back between setup menus to a earlier one, close the language/subtitle panel and channel swap (swaps between the two most recent channels viewed)

What does the AV button do (on the remote)?

If programmed to your TV (See your manual), the AV button allows you to cycle through the AV inputs on your TV set. If not programmed, the button does nothing.

What does the FAV button do?

Allows you to select (limited) channels and group them as your favourites. By default, the channels are already grouped as movies, sports, news etc. This allows you to only view the schedule for your favourite channels instead of all your subscribed channels.

What happened to the INFO button?

The INFO button on the B.yond box only shows the content of the current channel displayed. To get something similar to the INFO function on the old STB, used the arrow keys around the OK button to call up the "programme banner" then use the arrow keys to move between channels and time slots. The programme banner dissapears after a set amount of time (available in the settings options) To view details of a particular program on a timeslot, press the INFO button. Another way to view the schedule is to use the TV button.

How do I return back to the program I was watching?

Press the blue B.yond button anywhere to return to the last viewed channel.

What does the APP/.@ button do?

Who knows ....

Do you work for Astro?

Nope I do not, but answering the same questions to neighbours made me think to write this up for fun and also as a service to those searching Google for answers.

..... Show/hide questions about B.yond

That should answer the majority of the questions floating around cyberspace now ... now back to figuring out if there's any way of hacking the STB

Yeah ... I'm a sucker for novelty items

2009-11-21T19:10:00.003+08:00

Can't really help it but freebies and novelty items always seem to catch my attention ... for one thing, they're free and the other is that there is no other way of obtaining them except at promos/roadshows/events. Here's the latest at the CI booth running at 1Utama this weekend.

Answer questions, take part in the quiz and you end up with these. Love those syringe pens ... and the fact that their caps are little IU bottles and they have real fluid inside them. What I don't understand are the leaves, debris and sand with the jigsaw puzzle. The bottom show little note pads with the probably the tiniest pen attached; also come with a torch and retractable measuring tape on the other end. Thermal mugs are the normal fare at the as are the t-shirts and car sunscreens (both not shown here).

Yeah ... simple things like this keep me happy ... I'm kinda sad like that (but cheap to shop for too!)

Is this the future of Streamyx?

2009-11-03T16:01:00.004+08:00

Seems that installation works for Zaaba, Datuk Sulaiman and Burhanuddin have completed and it won't be long until TM HSBB (High Speed Broadband) will be available. Everyone else on Streamyx is on what they call BBGP which maxes out at 4Mbps. This is what the installation looks like so far.

Each existing junction box now has an additional tower with a warning sign "LASER DANGER" ... technicians were seem wearing goggles when configuring the big mess of fiber optics cables inside. What does this mean when HSBB is finally available? From TM news announcements, the minimum speed package will be a whopping minimum 24Mbps upto 100Mbps for download streams but bill payment rumours at local forums put it anywhere from RM600/month upwards with a download cap (in other words *YIKES*). A cap of 10GB downloads means I'll reach that limit in 2 days (hee hee - go blame those humungous MSDN AA ISO downloads and bittorrents)

TM intranet posts have said that prior to launch, Streamyx subscribers from TM staff in Bangsar, TTDI and Subang will be invited to guinea-pig test the scheme first (so when - pray tell - will they call me :D ). Oh well .. here's to hoping.

P/S : As I was taking the pics, TM technicians were actually down the road installing at another junction box. I'm guessing next area to complete is Rahim Kajai.

No ... I'm not dead

2009-10-11T01:37:00.009+08:00

Left this blog in silence for sometime as other matters popped up - mostly work related ... been spending a lot too on necessities and NON-necessities. My PC decided to die on me with a blown motherboard and graphic card ... 8 days and RM500 less, its now back in (hopefully) working condition. Also finally formatted it to run Windows 7 Professional (was running as upgrade previously and it brought all the crap it collected in Vista). Am currently downloading Win7 x64 ISO and might do another reformat to try that version out later if time permits.

What else ... finally bought another camera to replace the one that was stolen ... not going the SLR route yet (for now) 'cos my parents sometimes borrow the camera and they already have a hard enough time figuring out these point and shoot consumer cams. Searching around, finally settled on another Kodak model - this time the Z1085 IS.
Why this particular model? Mostly because of size and convenience's sake. Plus it takes HD quality 1280×720 video at 30fps and the output isn't half bad although its autofocus does tend to suffer in low-light situations. Another gimmicky feature which works quite well is the built-in panoramic shot. My parents took the camera on a 9 day test run on a tour to China and this was one of the panoramic shots taken (resized to 22% of the original). Look closely enough and you'll notice two spots the camera 'stitched' wrongly :P

Too bad Blogger video resizes the video and recompresses it so badly ... here's the same clip with YouTube HD.

Bad points, the camera is a battery hog and goes through normal NiMH/CD rechargeables and Alkalines like crazy (fresh batts only give around 10 shots). Had to foot out an additional RM70 to get rechargeable lithium-ion batteries and RM45 for a 4GB SDHC card. Total cost equals to RM520 (the camera was RM310) for them to use on the trip and I haven't even had a chance to play around with it yet, waiting for the battery to recharge ...... *sigh*

Will update more later 'bout what I've been spending on :D

The KLIA Chime

2009-08-14T21:58:00.013+08:00

OK ... useless post ahead ... I'm kinda weird like that.

Few weeks back I was stuck at KLIA airport for nearly two hours waiting for pickup. End result? The KLIA chime got stuck in my head ... which led me to wonder about annoucement chimes. Searching around, it seems most locations (i.e. airports, train stations, shopping malls) use a basic root chord like C-E-G-C or portions of it as shown in this Youtube video below.

So the KLIA chime certainly stands out amongst the rest with a chord progression ... I kinda liked it after a while and figured it would be a great alert tone. Searching Google only came up with audio recordings which wouldn't work on my current lau-yar Nokia plus the quality was so-so. Next best thing was to figure out the note progression and make a MIDI tone of it. The chime moves from a base chord of Bmin to Cmaj as shown below - split into two staves for the chord and moving arpeggio. These notes are played by a vibraphone at a 120bpm tempo, doubled up with a glock to highlight the downbeat notes ... with the following result below(not taking into account the acoustical delay and reverb of the paneled KLIA ceilings)

Download MP4 clip here || Download MIDI file here

P/S: Doesn't the Aena Spanish Airport 2 chime at 1:14 in the Youtube video sound like the one on the Putra LRT?

He said it best

2009-08-04T09:35:00.005+08:00

Of all the people, of all the celebs, he said it best. Who? Zac Efron ... weird huh?

"I don’t have a Twitter, a MySpace or a Facebook or anything like that.
I kind of value in people not knowing where I am or what I’m doing”

My sentiments exactly. Facebook is bad enough ... but then again, I'm the kind of person that can survive without a handphone or Internet connection. Its just a convenience not a necessity in my life.

R.I.P Yasmin Ahmad - Our Nation's Storyteller

2009-07-30T22:42:00.003+08:00

Haven't been on blogger for quite sometime ... not because I have nothing to say but because I don't have the time to do so. Anyways, news hit me hard about how Yasmin Ahmad passed away due to a brain haemorrhage. Personally, I have never met her but from interviews (both on TV and online) she seems like a person anyone could be friends with. We were truly and absolutely blessed with her talents and her chutzpah when defending her rights and beliefs.

Her true nature can really be seen whenever she is left to ramble ... as seen in this recently released (30 July) clip from TheBackpackr for TEDxKL.

This retrospective YouTube video sums it up nicely (by NSTPonline ... kudos to the author and apologies for embedding)

R.I.P. Michael Joseph Jackson

2009-06-28T00:47:00.004+08:00

Just concluded watching the tribute broadcast of MJ's Dangerous Concert in Bucharest on local terrestial 8TV and boy did it bring back the memories. Every song, every moment, every effect was like hidden somewhere in my brain but watching that concert on TV brought everything flooding back.

I remembered a rocket, the dissapearing acts, the angel, the lasers, the fibre optics and of course, the screaming. I remembered anticipating the concert and loved every minute of it right till the end. Of course, I didn't go to that Dangerous Concert but instead went to the History World Tour Concert which was held in Stadium Merdeka, 29th October 1996. I still hold on to the fading ticket from the show which I will most certainly treasure more than ever now (RM160.00 you know!! NOT cheap for a 16 year old but hey, it was a once in a lifetime event which is even more true now)

Wierd enough, the night before his passing I was playing his albums - which I had not done for years now. I went through his Dangerous and History Book 1 CDs before falling asleep and was awoken to the sad news. Kinda wonder now if it was a sign or just pure coincidence.

Rest in peace Michael, and trust that I am and will always be a fan.

Hooked on iTunes 2 !!

2009-06-12T21:19:00.005+08:00

Follow up from an earlier post here, four months on and my iTunes folder has exploded to a massive 53.6GBs ... and this does NOT include the 80 items queued up for downloading.

Wonder why I find it so amazing? All this content downloaded was 100 % FREE and legal. There are several gems amongst all the bits and bytes

Free full episode of Mythbusters - Alaska special 2!

Premiere episodes of Aaron Stone (now showing on Disney Channel Asia but I finished watching in April) and the upcoming Zeke and Luther (probably premiering on Disney Asia in December?) in 720p HD and 5.1 surround!

Premiere episode of Parks and Recreation

Mother's Day giveaway with episodes of Jon & Kate +8, Little people bit world, The Duggars ....

Pilot episode of Glee! in HD

6 Spring break freebies featuring full episodes from Discovery Travel and LivingThose terabyte harddisks are looking pretty tempting right about now....

Anyone still using Finale Notepad?

2009-06-09T19:11:00.005+08:00

Makemusic earlier this year decided that Finale 2009 Notepad will no longer be free to use and requires a minimum US$9.95 payment instead of free as once was done with older versions. This cost is justified by Makemusic with the new features added onto F2009NP including support for import and export of MusicXML files, guitar tabs, MIDI import/export, better expression entry and so on (as listed on the press release here)

I'm all for them charging for the software but what really bums me out is that they removed all trace of older versions of the software eventhough there's a sizeable group of users still using them. You can no longer obtain free license keys for the software nor can you download them from their website ... or can you? Turns out I still have the links to the individual downloads listed under the history panel of the download manager I'm using.

So ... if you have an existing license key and are just looking for the downloads because you lost yours, here's the full list for Windows and Mac PCs.

Finale 2001 Notepad Windows Mac	Finale 2002 Notepad Windows Mac
Finale 2003 Notepad Windows Mac	Finale 2004 Notepad Windows Mac
Finale 2005 Notepad Windows Mac	Finale 2006 Notepad Windows Mac
Finale 2007 Notepad Windows Mac	Finale 2008 Notepad Windows Mac

All links have been tested to work as of 9th June 2009 but could be taken offline anytime soon. This post is NOT validated or supported by Makemusic and can be removed at anytime by request. I am NOT hosting the files, nor will I send you the files and/or license keys by email/sharing sites.

Whats wrong with Google Followers?

2009-05-25T00:47:00.003+08:00

Just a quickie ... something's wrong with the followers gadget in blogger. When its loaded, this blog doesn't load and instead aborts with an error "Operation aborted" or the error number 800a03e8. Removing the gadget seems to have fixed it for now.

Getting surround sound working in iTunes downloads

2009-05-23T13:39:00.022+08:00

[a.k.a. removing DRM from iTunes videos]

This is a known problem that upcoming iTunes downloads now feature a normal stereo track and a 5.1 surround track but no player can actually access this track. Selecting the track in iTunes or Quicktime just results in empty silence whether you are going the analogue or digital route (but then why do AppleTV owners not face the same problem?). There are some writeups about using Quicktime Pro to reassign channels to get the file to work properly but it didn't work for me - the only way I managed to run with 5.1 surround is by removing the DRM from the file and playing in VLC.

For this you need the software (*cue ominous RIAA tracking music here*) Requiem. No links will be posted here ... uploads are regularly tracked and removed, so you have to be quick/smart/sneaky with ways on how to get this download (I won't answer requests to get a copy of this software either) (see bottom of post for link). Note that there are several Requiem 'uploads' on sharing sites but those are either not working or trojans in disguise. The one you need is the now current version 1.8.10 which supports iTunes 8.1.1.10 both in Mac and Windows.

The GUI didn't work on my computer (too lazy to install a JAVA runtime environment) so I went the CLI path to strip the DRM from the file. Note that you need to have a working media file with license on your computer - you can't just copy the M4V/M4A file from a friend and strip the DRM on your computer. Requiem's decrypter makes use of your iTunes library license files to strip the DRM off your files making them playable in other software/players.

Once stripped, you can now play the file in an alternative 'better' player and access the 5.1 surround track properly (without having to reassign channels, edit, etc). It also works if you want to output the digital stream to an external decoder. The files STILL won't work in Quicktime or iTunes though as they don't have a decoder for the AC3 stream ... wierd huh?

Note that Requiem does NOT strip user data from the file, so your iTunes account details are still left intact in the file - uploading/sharing the DRM-freed file would be a bad thing as they can be traced back to your account.

______________________________

UPDATE 7^th June 2009!!!
Just tested and Requiem 1.8.10 seems to still work with the latest iTunes 8.2.0.23 and new DRM-ed downloads ... who knows, maybe later releases might break the program but for now everything is still rosy. User details are still kept in the file ("purchased by" and "account name") though, so no sharing on P2P sites if you want to avoid Apple blocking freezing your account!

UPDATE 10^th June 2009!!!
Scratch the update above ... any NEW iTunes downloads with 8.2.0.23 are no longer decryptable with this Requiem version. Existing downloads (ones obtained with earlier versions of iTunes) remain decryptable as long as your license was obtained with the older version of iTunes. If you formated your PC/Mac, then reauthorized your iTunes account, Requiem may not work any longer ... haven't really tried it out but it seems that way. Either reinstall 8.1x and obtain new licenses for new downloads or wait patiently for the next release of Requiem.

UPDATE 12^th June 2009!!!
Here's how I downgraded iTunes (i.e. installed older version) in Windows to ensure Requiem works. Just go to your control panel and uninstall the iTunes application (you can leave the updated Quicktime) and grab the older version of 8.1.10 from http://www.oldapps.com/itunes.php.

Go to your iTunes download folder and rename it something else temporarily (I just renamed it to iTunes-old). Install the older version and start up the program which should create another iTunes downloads folder in the same location as the first. Close iTunes and proceed rename the iTunes-old folder back into the new iTunes folder (thus deleting the new one created by iTunes).

Go into the "Previous iTunes Libraries" folder and choose the latest library backup file. You can't use the one from iTunes 8.2.0.23 'cause it won't open/load and must replace the one in the root directory of the new iTunes folder - just rename it to "iTunes Library.itl".

Restart iTunes and your library should be restored up to the latest backup date. If any downloads are missing, just drag and drop the files onto iTunes and it will automatically restore them to their respective folders. Any new downloads will not play and will ask for your authorization - do this and the previous 8.2.0.23 licenses are replaced with 8.1.1.10 and once that is done, Requiem 1.8.10 will work once again (this time its confirmed 100%!)

UPDATE 13^th June 2009!!!
Seeing as a lot of traffic is diverted here from Google, here's a validated link for Requiem 1.8.10 found on Rapidshare. I didn't upload this and I don't know how long it will be around.

http://rapidshare.com/files/230438021/requiem-1.8.10.zip

If you use other methods of downloading, Requiem should weigh in at around 638kB in size only. Anything larger could be fake or infected.

My Worst Day Ever (so far ... )

2009-05-13T01:16:00.003+08:00

And I feel like
I'm living the worst day
Over and over again
And I feel like the summer is leaving again
I feel like
I'm living the worst day
I feel like you're gone
And every day is the worst day ever

Yesterday was the worst day ever
And tomorrow won't be better
It's history repeating (on and on)
Summer plans are gone forever
I traded them in for dishpan water
And every day is never ending
I need to work I'm always spending

[Simple Plan - No Pads, No Helmets ... JustBalls]

Most of you already know, I was robbed in broad daylight on the busy highway. Part of it is my fault for being too trusting, the rest of it is purely me being too stupid and naive. Total loss estimated RM3500++ (RM2300 cash, one digital camera, 2 SD memory cards, one handphone and one 500GB Buffalo external harddisk), one slightly swollen nose and bruises.

No pics (no camera mah) ... no need. Putting it in the past and making it a lesson well learnt. Sorry I swore online (facebook ...) as I REALLY had to vent.

Virtual XP download for Windows 7 runs in Vista!!!

2009-05-11T02:28:00.018+08:00

Haven't seen this posted anywhere else, so here goes ... I might be the very first to get this!! Woo hoo!

DISCLAIMER: This blog post has NOT been cleared for copyright issues and all trademarks, names and tradenames are copyrights of their respective owners. All content herein is for reference purposes only and shows a proof of concept that a product designed for Windows 7 runs on Vista. Any use or implementation of the methods shown here will be at your own risk. Legality issues aside, this post was not meant to defeat the official purpose of the installer.

Windows 7 RC comes with an optional download for Virtual PC beta and a full licensed Virtual Windows XP with SP3. What this does is to allow users of Windows 7 to have better backward compatibility to older software that can only run on XP. There are many descriptions about this feature online already so I won't mention this here. What they don't tell you is that the download for Virtual XP runs in Vista too but it needs some effort on your part.

First step:
Make sure your PC can run Virtual PC properly - for this I'm currently following the guidelines for VirtualXP as listed : 15GB storage space, a minimum of 2GB RAM and any CPU that supports virtualization technology (my Core2Quad has Intel VT so I'm covered).

Second step:
Download Virtual PC 2007 for Vista and install. This is a free download and is available here. Make sure to get SP1 of the VPC and follow whatever architecture Vista you are currently running (x86 or x64)

Third step:
Download the official Windows Xp Mode Beta package from the link above or here. Once again, choose which architecture you want to download, either the 32-bit x86 one or 64-bit x64 one ... both work.

Fourth step:
Extract the content of the installer. Vista has built in command line tools to extract MSI packages. Open a command window and use the following command

msiexec /a MSIfile /qb TARGETDIR=targetdir

In my case, I navigated to the directory I downloaded the package to and entered the command "msiexec /a VirtualWindowsXP.msi /qb TARGETDIR=c:\downloads\virxp".
You will get one directory (and some other files) called "Program Files" - you are only interested in the "Virtual Windows XP.vhd" file located within this folder.

Fifth step:
Start Virtual PC 2007 in Vista and create a new virtual machine with the wizard. When prompted, navigate to the location of the vhd file we extract in the step above then complete the steps to create a new virtual machine. Make sure you allocate at least 256MB RAM to the machine and hardware virtualization is enabled (it might work without it, but much slower in my opinion)

Sixth and final step:

Start this new virtual machine and follow the prompts to setup your complete Windows XP SP3 in Vista! Note that on my PC, I had to disable the prompt to update my PC during setup but once that was over, the updates worked as normal.

Other screenshots with proof of concept as follows

Network is mapped automatically and uses NAT to use existing Internet/network connections. Sound also works right out of the box with basic SB16 emulation! Heck, it even played MP3s and WMAs without any problem.

One amazing thing is there is no need to install Virtual Machine Additions - mouse movement is capture and released automatically! (If you do your own step-by-step install of WinXP, you need to 'release' the mouse from VPC with the right ALT button)

Differences? No USB support since VPC2007 does not provide that feature anywhere. Other than that, you also don't get the integration between XP and Vista (in Windows 7, any new programs install onto Virtual XP also appear on the Windows 7 Start Menu and can be called from there seamlessly without having to startup VPC first).

Advantages? Waaaaaaaay quicker than doing the normal install routine to create a virtual machine for XP in Vista. Whole process only took 3 minutes (excluding download time) for a complete running XP ... and can be validated (PS: Your serial key is in the extracted folder in step 4). The Virtual XP can be setup to run full screen at full resolution of the host PC so you can switch between them both.

Who knows? I may even be able to get Max Payne to run in Virtual XP again!!

..... Show/hide full post

Embarassing ...

2009-05-08T17:06:00.005+08:00

One word is enough to describe the following scene about the DUN Perak recently.

What do you call these 'adults' that act worse than kindergarten children? The Perak government, unfortunately .... all spoiled effing b@$tards in my opinion based on their actions.

P/S : Kinda reminds me of the pasar malam and the 4D shop rolled into one.

Four word per sentence

2009-05-02T22:57:00.017+08:00

Had a long weekend.
It was labour day.
It was grandmother's birthday.
She's 80 years young.

Drove down to Ipoh.
Cuzzin and grandaunt tumpang-ed.
Traffic jam was hell.
Reached there around 3:00.
Lepak-ked around until 6:00.
Cake(s) came at 6:30.

Arranging took 10 minutes.
This was the result.
(Click pix to enlarge. Opens in new window)

Too lazy to count.
PW (Sasha) says 63 cakes.
Dunno why one candle.
Me assumes she's correct.
Then waited for caterer.
Cuzzins started taking pics.

See last picture here.
Food came at 7:15.

Badly coordinated birthday song.
Purposely sung off-key.
Perfect example of MPSSK.
Only me caught video.
This is what happened.

The obligatory grandchildren photo.
What is LPP sniffing?

Then things get wierd.
PQ with rock looks.
What did PZ see?
Who is strangling PW?

Remaining cake abstract art.

Still says Happy Grandma!!
Actually "B H'py Granma".
You get the picture....
Some went karaoke session.
I took a nap.

Read alternate posts here.
Also here and here.
Thats enough for now.

..... Show/hide full post

KK9.BBQ.SS.VDO ... hee hee

2009-04-20T11:22:00.003+08:00

New syiok-sendiri video ... currently passworded but will be released to full access (and in pseudo-HD!!) after examination period. Turn up your speakers!!

Show video

What are the odds?!?

2009-04-15T23:46:00.004+08:00

Logged onto work webmail at home and this surprised me ... after hearing so much about having to prepare for this particular accreditation this greeted me at the login page.

For those not in the know (thus not understanding my amusement) I'm referring to the Wash. Accord. It's probably more relevent to engineers though .... but I thought it was amazingly coincidental and really timely.

Video tests

2009-04-10T02:33:00.005+08:00

Made a video for fun about the choir (and also to test out YouTube/Google Video/Facebook uploading specs). Went through somewhere about 6,000+ photos and around 57GB of video and narrowed it down to the following clip which was rendered in Vegas Movie Platinum. Hit the HQ button to view higher resolution encoding if you have the bandwidth to support it.

Findings about this test?

Google video resolution is bad (not the worst though) but they provide the best options for restricting viewership to particular regions of the world (e.g. Malaysia only). Any upload automatically generates a downloadable version in MP4 files compatible with some portable media players. Additionally, GV supports captioning based on SUB, SST and SAMI formats
YouTube provides the best resolution encoding amongst the three but messes up the audio sync ever so slightly. No downloadble option available but plenty of hacks out there to overcome this situation. Limited viewer restriction possibilities (max 25 users/subscribers) and embed properties. Allows annotation through online interface.
FB video is probably the worst amongst the three. Really slow uploads and random pauses/disconnections resulted in the same video requiring 13 hours to upload after 9 tries. Provides HD encodings but messes up by scaling all videos to 4:# ratios even when properly encoded. Widescreen uploads must be pre-letterboxed in order to playback properly. Does have the advantage of being able to limit viewership to restricted users only (by association/friendship/lists etc) and was the only one to correctly sync audio and video together.

Archuleta fever hits Malaysia hard and fast

2009-04-09T13:19:00.005+08:00

Got this wierd-scary-shocking video from my cousin's post ... from a user upload on YouTube.

David Archuleta of American Idol S7 fame landed in KLIA Malaysia yesterday for a 4 day tour of the country which includes a showcase at the Sunway Lagoon Amphitheatre. Although security was present, obviously it wasn't enough as they weren't expecting the huge mob of fans that arrived to catch a glimpse of the teen star.

Best moment in the video? The other passengers getting of their flights wondering WTF is happening :D

He's supposed to be visiting one lucky school in the PJ area either today or tommorrow. Wonder which one will that be? There aren't THAT many schools in the PJ area ... I think.

UPDATE : He visits SriKDU as posted on R.AGE. Follow David's trip around locations in Klang Valley on the Twitter page here.

P/S: Those interested can probably still score showcase passes from participating music stores, DiGi dealers and radio promos running across Klang valley. Guessing by the welcoming response, you'd probably be shit-out-of-luck.

When no mic problems, they actually sound great!

2009-04-01T15:07:00.003+08:00

It's disappointing when technical things out of your control spoils a performance. Mic-ing on competition night was terrible, horrible, vegetable .... morning rehearsal recordings show how big a difference it makes when everyone can be heard - who sing wrong oso can hear! S'not perfect but waaaaayyy better. (Different password in use here)

Show video

Note: video has cuts and audio dropouts ... I have no control over that 'cos I didn't film it but this was the 'cleanest' clip without seniors shouting over the singing.

Earth Day 2009

2009-03-31T21:00:00.005+08:00

Earth Day was 28th March. Turned off house power for one hour (yeah ... power to the entire house!! extreme huh?!) and then took a walk over to 1Utama to pass the time. Saw a few houses participating in the event, my immediate surrounding neighbours were in it. It was obvious who was taking part as their lights were out but their televisions were not - every living room had that eerie glow :D

1Utama turned down their exterior lights but advertising spotlights were still blazing away (with the most obvious being the current large McDonalds near the old wing). Inside 1U, only a few tenants were actively participating. TGIF was seen promoting candlelight dining and surprisingly was still bringing in the dinner crowd. Others that I noticed included McDonalds (which partly turned off their dining area lights), Carls' Jr and Daves bistro (near the deli). Jusco supermarket started off late but in the end turned down maybe around three quarters of their lights leaving on the payment area and every alternate aisle lit. Other tenants seemed oblivious to the event especially places like Guardian which was unsurprisingly 'bright' since their opposite tenant (McDs) were switched off.

According to today's newspaper report, that solitary hour of action resulted in a dip of 550MW (thats megawatts) of electricity which could have powered up 14 million 40W flourescent bulbs for the same period! With the formula 1kWH = 1.55lbs CO₂ that means we've reduced carbon emissions for that hour by a staggering 550,000×1.55 = 852,500lbs!! Not too bad ...

So did YOU turn off the lights?

More KK9 choir BTS/SS videos

2009-03-28T16:06:00.005+08:00

Some more digital camera video captures during practise and during time off. Use the same passwords as before from the previous post.

Behind the scenes videos during practise

Conductor tak jadi. Also the main reason why we never have a conductor 'cos it will become like this.

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Even more SS videos

Remaining two Tang Yuan nite video clips in full length!!

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Another chipmunk video ... now with nonsense sing-along lyrics!!! Have fun laughing

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KK9 Choir ... behind the scenes and SS videos

2009-03-26T15:38:00.025+08:00

This is a private post and requires passwords to unlock the full post contents. People with passwords are expected to keep to themselves and not to distribute them. Some videos are from my camera, others are from choir members or from Ese's camera.

Behind the scenes videos during practise.

13/03/2009 Practise session @ KK6 - Can You Feel the Love Tonight

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13/03/2009 Practise session @ KK6 - Pusaka Merdeka

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Practise session @ KK9 Dewan Makan - Pusaka Merdeka (pre-ending version)

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Syiok sendiri videos

Tang Yuan nite in VIP room .. some have seen clips and previews of the games played, here are the full length versions!

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How would the choir sound like as chipmunks? Was messing around in Vegas MS Platinum 9 and this was the result ... I thought it was funny.

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Five years and running!

2009-03-26T15:05:00.000+08:00

Victory again ... 'nuff said

18 hours to go

2009-03-25T01:09:00.003+08:00

Its 18 more hours until the 2009 Feseni competition ... why do I do things like this? So many questions left unanswered - are they ready? are they stable? And why oh why do I already have the structure for next year's song in my head?!?!? Why do I torture myself so :P

Don't be fooled by this water filter scam!

2009-03-06T12:28:00.025+08:00

WARNING! Super long rant ahead.
I don't intend to implicate but only to educate.

Here's the premise:
The salesperson(s) from a MLM company visits you to promote a water filter claiming it to be the best (as does every other company). They ask for a water sample from your house for a comparison with their own that was filtered by their company's product.

They first do a TDS meter test to determine the amount of dissolved solids in the water, and to no surprise your own household water has a higher dissolved mineral content (unless you already have a filter). Then they proceed to do an electrolysis test on your sample to illustrate their point. Out comes a device which submerges two electrodes into their company sample and your household sample. Seconds later, your household water sample starts creating yellow-brown (sometimes greenish depending on TDS content) sludge.

By this point many people would have been tricked into believing the salesperson(s) gimmicks and proceed to purchase the product at a VERY inflated cost. They have just been duped by one of the oldest tricks in the chemistry book. So what are the truths and lies in this sales pitch? .......

FACT #1

The product they are selling IS and always will be a fully functioning water filter that works on reverse osmosis/6-stage filtration/ozonalization/etc. There is no denying this. The only problem is they are using cheap parlour tricks and lying through their teeth to sell a legitimate product (i.e. ala melamine passing of as protein anyone?!?) for one goal only = EASY MONEY.

FACT #2

The 'experiments' performed are legitimate chemistry tests and do not involve any slight of hand or usage of chemical additives, switching of samples, distractions etc. Any secondary school student (around Malaysian Form 4, 5 and 6, US K12 10th Grade and up) would have learnt this in their Chemistry or Advanced Sciences classes.

So lets debunk this water scam starting with the TDS test.

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This is a simple test using what is known as a TDS meter. The meter usually has two membrane contacts which are submerged into a liquid sample. The current flowing between the contacts through the sample is measured and results in a measurement of the percent of dissolved minerals in the sample. When the amount of dissolved minerals is high, conductivity of the liquid increases therefore increasing the current resulting in a higher TDS measurement. Simple science really but convincing because of the scientific 'numbers' that result.

FACT #3

A high TDS measurement only shows that your water sample contains a high concentration of dissolved solids such as minerals and salts. If you already have a filter in place, the measurement will vary depending on how your filter works and how clean/dirty the filters are.

The TDS measure SHOULD NOT be taken as a measurement of how contaminated or polluted water is. Water coming out of the tap is almost always guaranteed to contain a percentage of dissolved solids. This could have originated at the processing plant in which chemicals are added to clean and treat the water before supplying back to the public. Some minerals are added for the advantage of the consumer such as flouride. Other sources of dissolved minerals could be the actual plumbing itself which might make use of copper or some other metal pipes - corrosion of these pipes result in minute leeching of minerals into the water. A high TDS measurement does not equal contaminated water because the TDS meter does not distinguish between the minerals it measures. The meter is VERY easily swayed by something as simple as addition of a few grains of table salt into the sample or heating/chilling/freezing it.

Most demonstrations don't even use the TDS meter properly. A true TDS test would follow something along these procedures (slightly simplified to avoid lengthy laboratory procedures):

Obtain equal amount samples (preferably with pipette) in similar sample cups at a volume enough to cover the TDS contacts.
Turn on the meter and submerge into sample and shake/stir vigourously to eliminate air bubbles (this is VITAL step which is skipped in every demonstration I've seen).
Hold TDS meter UPRIGHT in center of sample - a laboratory calibrated meter can actually obtain different TDS measurements at different areas and angles of the same sample in the cup.
After 15-30 seconds only do you take the measurement.
After reading is taken, meter is removed and rinsed in DISTILLED water (RO or filtered water is NOT recommended to avoid false readings). The meter is then shaken/dried before the steps repeated for the next sample.

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The second test uses a device known in the water filter industry as a preciptator. Basically this magical device is a portable electrolysis kit with multiple electrodes to perform simultaneous electrolysis on multiple samples. Some run on batteries whilst others run on household mains but they work the exact same way. SO how does that yucky sludge appear by magic in your household sample? The answer lies in the electrodes themselves.

Two of the electrodes are made of aluminium whilst the other two are made of iron. The aluminium electrodes (which are relatively more inert or less reactive in the electrolysis) is always submerged into the 'filtered' sample whilst the iron electrodes go into the sample you provide and seconds later the sludge appears. What is happening here? YOUR water sample has dissolved minerals (as proven by the previous test, which is why that test is always performed first to ensure this next test works) and thus conducts electricity. This is the basis of electrolysis which requires the electrodes to be submerged into a

Ask any passing science student and they will tell you electrolysis of any liquid is performed with INERT electrodes - usually carbon (cheap!) or platinum (very expensive). They why would you use iron as an electrode? Iron is reactive. Iron oxidises in water and air to create rust (ferric oxide). In electrolysis, the use of the iron electrodes create ferric hydroxide. This hydroxide does not dissolve readily in water and results in the yellow sludge you see in the test.

FACT #4

The ferric hydroxide created is not actually dangerous and is used in many applications such as the creation of food dye (Yellow No. 42 anyone!!) and also as a component in the treatement of arsenic poisoning. It is also used in the filtration of aquatic water supply to remove phosphates (e.g. fertilizer). But it just looks yucky.

If you understand the science, then you'd understand the following equations which show the reactions that occur at the electrodes.

      Fe -> Fe³⁺ + 3e^-
      Fe³⁺ + 3OH^- -> Fe(OH)₃
      The other result is hydrogen gas which results in the bubbling you see

You're probably arguing "But the saleperson flipped the electrodes and nothing happened to their sample". Then you probably forgot that their sample does NOT have any dissolved solids/minerals. Their sample would have gotten a big fat ZERO on the TDS test. This means their sample does not conduct any electricity. No electricity means no electrolysis. No electrolysis means no reaction thus no sludge. Simple huh? Its a guaranteed trick to fool the feeble minded person.

There are variations to this trick but basically the results are the same. If this does not convince you, here's the proof as I did the test myself. First test is a normal electrolysis of tap water using carbon electrodes. You can safely try this experiment at home if you want.

Second video shows the same test but replaces the carbon electrodes with iron ones, which in my case were two iron nails (was too lazy to go searching for iron rods). The video has been sped up but the reaction is only visibly noticeable around the third minute. This is exactly what happens with the precipitator but at a far slower rate because of the low current/voltage I used.

STILL not convinced? Use Google and search for precipitators. You can buy them online to do your own so-called water test. On many sites you can clearly read that they use 2 aluminium electrodes and 2 iron electrodes. On one site, they even place a note to remind users not to immerse the electrodes too long as they will dissolve into the water. Hmm ... that means the sludge has to be coming from somewhere other than the water right? Bingo, the electrodes themselves! Don't worry you can buy replacement iron electrodes to continue duping customers.

FACT #5

Preciptators do have legitimate uses in the industry but this is not one of them. The process is often used in filtration of air instead of water.

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This particular company boasts about the product obtaining a gold seal from the water quality association (WQA). This association exists and their homepage is here. The gold seal exists. They did get the seal (as one of only three in the home water filter category) at the WQA S-300 level. This is ALL TRUE.

What they fail to tell you is this:

As per my understanding, no company is forced to apply for ratings by the WQA. It is VOLUNTARY and usually initiated by the company themselves (i.e. WQA does not on its own initiative go out and test every water filter in the market and rate them). This is unlike other rating and quality standards (e.g. Malaysia's SIRIM, BKMM, ISO ratings, US-FDA, UK BQF etc) which are mandatory for all products in a particular category.
The WQA site clearly lists a disclaimer "Listing in these directories does not constitute an endorsement, guarantee, or warranty of any kind by Water Quality Association or its members of any of the products contained in them." Hmmm ... no warranty, no endorsement ... basically nothing. Under regular law, this means any problems will be solely the users' fault and not the manufacturer nor the certifying body.
The WQA (yes, the actual body that gives this company the Gold Seal) does NOT condone the use of precipitators in the marketing of any water filter product. This is clearly stated on a post on the actual WQA site and can be downloaded here. They clearly state a precipitator "will mislead the public" and "the presence of precipitant has no relation to the water's quality". Sales pitches using a precipitator can be used as grounds to demand a withdraw of their gold seal rating.

FACT #6

The price you pay these companies for their product does not actually mean a better or higher quality product (although I admit that some do have better quality standards in comparison with brandless types). They're mostly inflated to cover the cost of the members' monthly sales commissions in pyramid/ponzi schemes- sometimes as much as 1500% (and yes, that's one THOUSAND five hundred percent).

So conclusions? The product is real but all the sales tactics, gimmicks and big talk is pure bull$hit. Why don't these people/companies sell the thing for what it is ... a RM300 water filter period and stop cheating people for a quick buck. 'Nuff said.

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Hooked on iTunes ... wierd

2009-02-28T15:35:00.013+08:00

Sad to admit it but the iTunes app really grows on you after a while. True that it is probably the worst sync application ever created to handle media on the iPod (iTouch and iPhone included), as a podcast manager its quite good. Suffice to say that I haven't really tried that many podcast applications but I quite happy with how iTunes manages all my subscriptions and such.

Barely two months after starting, my iTunes directory has grown to a staggering 25.2GB. Here are four of my top picks for 100% free podcasts that I subscribe to (links open in new windows/tabs):

Vintage Tooncast - Classic public domain cartoons and movies. You can't go wrong with classic cartoons featuring Woody Woodpecker, Mickey Mouse, Daffy Duck and Scrooge McDuck. Quality isn't the greatest but highly watchable. Only annoying thing is the podcast banner firmly encoded onto each file. Subscription links here.
Acappella-U HD - High definition podcasts of acappella groups from the US presenting original material in live video recordings. Amazing quality at the cost of really large files - averaging few hundred MB per episode (latest runs in at a staggering 828MB). Subscription details here.

Dirty Jobs Video Podcast - Mike Rowe + dirty jobs + outtakes = great podcast. The behind the scenes clips are the best though and aren't seen on regular broadcasts. Subscription XML feed here.
Discovery Channel Podcast - Highlights and clips from Discovery favourties including Man vs. Wild, Destroyed in seconds, How to survive and Toughest Race:Iditarod. Subscription XML feed available here.

One thing annoying about iTunes is that the majority of the iTunes store is open only to American/European customers. Users in places such as Malaysia, Singapore, etc only have a limited selection which only sells apps for iPhone and iTouch. So we miss out on some great free stuff such as free music and video downloads. That doesn't mean its impossible to get them though ... just harder and more troublesome, but in the end if you do manage to open a US account you're free to download weekly free stuff!! Here's proof as shown in my iTunes playlist.

Suddenly it seems those terabyte harddisks might come in handy because a single video episode in high-def runs over 1GB each and iTunes downloads BOTH the high-def and standard-def versions once you've selected them. Another thing is iTunes store content are DRM encoded and thus cannot be shared (especially video content). This makes them only playable on Apple devices(iPod video, iTunes and official Quicktime ONLY) of which both are inefficient processor hogs particularly on high def content. Ughs :( Luckily most podcast content is DRM free and playable on any device/program.

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Earth Hour is back!!

2009-02-20T23:16:00.005+08:00

Click for more details on how to participate ... its as easy as turning off your lights!

RROOAAWWRR!!!

2009-02-10T23:55:00.004+08:00

It's been a wierd day ... back home from work and first thing I see upon entering is this huge box from Amazon.com. Problem is I've never ordered anything from Amazon before (I've avoided them so far because of their odd shipping policies).

After puling off probably a whole roll of packing tape, this was what was inside! A full-sized RoboRaptor (not those miniature wind-up ones a colleague of mine has) and tons of packing paper ... I estimate around 15 metres worth?

Seems I won first prize in the History Channel Jurassic Fight contest - and I didn't even know about it. Now what do I do with a metre long remote controlled dinosaur robot? All I know that its a battery guzzling hog (runs on 6AA and 3AAA batteries) and I'm guessing its no where as 'fluid' as the TV ad below :P

Happy Chinese New Year

2009-01-30T16:22:00.014+08:00

恭喜发财

Fifth day of Chinese New Year 2009 and back in KL after 4 days in Ipoh. It's the year of the Ox (or more commercially depicted as a cow) and I only have two more days before going back to work (*sob sob*). Oh well, I guess I can't be on holiday forever else I'd be unemployed. It seems that many families (mine included) opted for steam boat reunion dinners. My first reunion dinner was in KL at my third uncle's house with 'organic' yee-sang which IMO tastes funny 'cause of the raw veggies.

Next day was the drive back to Ipoh. Things started off OK - not much traffic but it rained heavily in Tanjung Malim until everyone was reduced to a crawl of 60km/h. In one word, tiring. It was the day of the solar eclipse and although the storm clouds in the sky were blocking the view of the sun, they were themselves breathtaking as they caught the shadows and reflected beams of light.

Dunno what happened in this pic though ... no planes were heard seen but this circle was formed in the sky. UFO maybe?!?

At nights, it was either playing mahjong or watching TV. The TV was being hogged by those busy watching the Austalian tennis open so some of my cousins made their own fun by camwhoring .... again. Here's a cleaned-up 'enhanced' version of the session (the original can be viewed here)

Third day of CNY was another yee-sang session but this time in Ipoh with my maternal side relatives. It ws the usual spread of 10-dishes (supposed to mean something but I forgot ... go google it!)

Fourth day was spent in my aunty's open house for lunch.

After that I went to Kinta City which was a parking nightmare in comparison to the 1Utamas and Sunways of KL. Perakians park EVERYWHERE and I mean that literally - double AND triple parking, parking on ramps leading to other floors, disabled parking - name it and they will park there. This is one place you must not hesitate as arguments are known to happen over car parks (and one nearly did ... hahaha). Overall, Kinta City is still the same as any other shopping centre but I guess since its the only one in Ipoh, everyone flocks there for shopping or just to loiter.

Fourth day of CNY and its time to make the journey back to KL. After clearing the house of perishables and disposing of the last remnants of rubbish, we departed at 12 noon. Made a stop over at Sungkai to visit some relatives there. Here's a pic of my niece and nephew!

My nephew is 4 years old is a big fan of lion dances ... uhm ... obsessed is more like it.

So thats how my first 5 days of CNY were (inclusive of eve) and I'll end my post here with another of my cousins' cam session videos. Enjoy while I go count angpow money :P (yeah ... I know)

(funny how Google video fingerprinted this video and banned it but not the earlier one ... let's see how long until Youtube bans this one)

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Web discoveries and gems!

2009-01-23T15:53:00.014+08:00

The wonderful world of the Internet still surprises me sometimes with its quirks and unpredictable nature. Looking for oddities is probably one of my new hobbies and here are some that I've found this year

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Hacked websites and 'server down'

New year's eve and was checking traffic on a local site when I saw this. I don't know when the site was hacked and the site has been offline since then.

The popular Low Yat site also faces server problems once in a while ... some of you might have seen this before with the bunny error message!

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Speeling erors (sic)

Its kinda dissapointing to see spelling errors on websites, more so on a university website but I'm guessing this is an oversight in the translation from Malay to English or a really bad spel-chegger.

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Bad data = unpredictable bargains!!

Once in a while, bad data does benefit the customer. I managed to grab this set at £8.99 last week and subsequently noticed they increased the price this week by £4!! (thats an increase of nearly RM22)

Also grabbed this 6 disc set at a unbeatable bargain of £2.99 (thats around RM17) two weeks back. Each volume is a DVD and CD combo with a 28 or 32 page book included about the artiste ... terrific value in my opinion. The set no longer exists on the site and searching brings no results but you can still find it at other locations such as Play.com or EzyDVD at a much higher price.

On the flip-side, would you buy this? Hurry limited stock and going for a steal at RM497.00!!

This page is still valid (as of 23rd Jan) and can be seen here. It actually reminds me of my earlier post here with the RM4000++ DVD set which (believe it or not) is STILL THERE!!.

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Another BIOS update for M5640 / M3640 / M1640

2009-01-18T01:02:00.007+08:00

Sneaky Acer released another two BIOS updates for the M5640, with the latest being revision R01-B4 for Windows platforms only and its a large one in comparison with older revisions (over 2MB this time round). I totally missed the B3 revision 'cos I haven't been checking the sites for sometime.

What's changed? No documentation or readme was provided to list down the changes or fixes. The only major thing I notice is that the 'AUTO' option has been removed from the 'Installer OS select' parameter and now only lists 'Windows' or 'Linux'. I wonder if this will affect my attempts later to install MacOS ...

The other thing is the automatic shutdown option upon overheating has been removed from the PC Health Status section. Funny thing about this update is the default settings turn off all the options for wakeup using keyboard/LAN/mouse upon standby but that's easily changed. Anyways, BIOS downloads for these BIOS updates are only found on the European site. Direct links here:

R01-B4 for Windows only (Acer Euro site)
R01-B3 for Linux only(Acer Euro site)

P/S : The colour scheme hasn't changed and remains the same yellow text on blue. The pic above uses the alternative colour scheme obtainable by pressing F3.

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UPDATE 5^th June 2009!!!

TWO bios releases for Acer Aspire desktop models M5640/M5641/M3640/M1640 to version R01-C2. No noticeable changes to the BIOS in terms of menu options - so this might be a stability fix release (no documentation about features provided in any Acer site).

R01-C2 flashes in Windows using the AFUWIN executable whilst R01-C2L has a larger BIOS binary but only provides the MS-DOS flasher. Both work and don't seem to be any different other than version number ... so download the C2L version for the newer BIOS binary and C2 for the Windows flasher if you're not comfortable flashing with a boot device. Direct links to Acer servers as follows

Download R01-C2 with Windows-based flasher.
Download R01-C2L with CLI based flasher for DOS boot disks.

How I tuned my pitch pipe

2009-01-03T02:21:00.018+08:00

Bought a vocal pitch pipe last year and it really is a good example of what you pay is what you get. At its ultra cheap price (RM20 = US$5.50 approx), this China-made pipe (manufacturer website in Chinese available here) has several notes in its 13-pitch C-C range off-key. Here's how I re-tuned the pipe to correct notes/frequencies the simple way.

Materials required

Out-of-tune pitch pipe (duh!)
Small pliers, unless your fingers are small/strong enough to hold the nut
Jeweller's or any small screwdriver
UHU glue (or any other tacky glue)
PC with Audacity installed (or keyboard) to generate reference tones

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Open the pitch pipe first by removing the mouthpiece (if it has one) by gently lifting from the bottom nut-side of the pipe. Once free from the bolt, slide the mouthpiece off.

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Unscrew the solitary screw holding the pieces together to end up with the three sections. The black plastic piece is the air chamber that directs your breath into the correct pipe. The middle piece has the reeds that vibrate to create a note not unlike a normal whistle. The top metal piece basically forms a resonating chamber to amplify the note and also allow for air to escape without vibrating other reeds.

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Each piece has a notch/pin to guide them into proper position for reassembly later. You can use a marker to mark the notes on the middle piece just in case you get confused - else look for the changes in reed lengths. A sudden change in the lengths indicate the C-C octave jump.

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To retune, first I generated the correct notes in Audacity using the built-in tone generator. The correct frequencies for the 13 pitches requires are as follows (in ascending order)

Note	Frequency (Hz)
C	261.63
C#/Db	277.18
D	293.67
D#/Eb	311.13
E	329.63
F	349.23
F#/Gb	369.99
G	391.99
G#/Ab	415.31
A	440.00
A#/Bb	466.16
B	493.88
C’	523.25

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Using these tones, I found out that the notes C to F were too sharp. To 'flatten' them, I just used a tiny drop of UHU glue on the reed itself. UHU glue works very well here because it becomes tacky after a while to allow for changes before it hardens completely. If a note is too flat, you can 'sharpen' either by filing off a little (miniscule) amount from the reed. Else, a quick fix would be just to shorten the length of the affected reed by taping duct tape near the secure end to 'shorten' the reed.

After corrections, do a quick test blow on the note to check with the reference tones. If too flat, take the screwdriver (or small blade/pin) to scratch off a little glue. If too sharp add more glue. Repeat until correct tone is acquired. Continue with the rest of the notes until all are tuned or corrected. Leave the part to dry overnight when complete.

Once dry, reassemble the pieces following the notch and screw the bolt back into place. Slide in the mouthpiece and test again. If everything goes to plan, the pipe should be in pitch now.

[Note: Another way to do this is to use a small nail file to thin down the reeds or 'sharpen' the note and a little solder to lower the note but this would be even more troublesome as mistakes are not so easily rectified]

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First post of 2009!!

2009-01-01T02:26:00.015+08:00

OK - scratch that last post last year below. I went to the countdown -again- at 1 Utama at the very last minute just to catch the fireworks. Crowd was huge, traffic was bad (walked over there), police were everywhere but I'm most grateful that foam sprays were banned (woohoo!!)

Here's a clip of the 10 minute firework display (minus about 2 minutes because I switched to photo mode for a few pix halfway when I though it was over) as taken from the old wing of 1 Utama. Its a pretty good spot to watch with a far smaller crowd, air conditioning from 1 Utama and no need for neck craning angles. Problems? Extreme contrast between the dark sky and bright lights/spot lights brings out the flaw in most digital camera LCD sensors with overloaded pixels, hence the solid line that appears vertically across the video at times. Additionally the explosions were so loud they overloaded the tiny mics causing distortion (plus many car alarms going off too!). Oh well ... here's hoping 2009 brings good fortune to everyone!

Creeping towards 2009

2008-12-31T19:34:00.003+08:00

Its 4½ hours to 2009 and for the first time (in a long time) it will be spent at home. I'm kinda grateful for that though ... no longer will there be fights over parking spaces, crowded parties, foam sprays, screams, shouts, trash everywhere ... all in all a big relief. At least I still get to see the fireworks from 1U and Ikano (there are benefits to loving so close to these places) and I can hear the traffic horns as I type this.

Had to make this last post in just for the fun of it, so ....

Yeah ... 'borrowed' the graphic 'cos I'm too lazy to make one. Happy New Years 2009 everyone!

Wanna see something crazy?

2008-12-29T15:31:00.003+08:00

This is uTorrent at my workplace running off the internal campus tracker (hence the Class-A IP address as the URL) and no, your eyes aren't deceiving you - the bottom torrent IS downloading at 7.9MBs

Upload speeds are greatly affected though because current harddisk is a first generation SATA without NCQ so it trashes like crazy during downloads but with 4++ GBs downloads in around 8 minutes, can't really complain much. Too bad connections to the real world (aka. Internet) is slow as heck.

P/S: Don't bother trying to connect or asking me how to get to this tracker - its on an internal network and VPN connections are passworded/logged.

Merry X'mas — Feliz Navidad — Selamat Hari Natal — メリークリスマス — 聖誕快樂

2008-12-25T18:34:00.006+08:00

Haven't had a Christmas tree put up at home for ... uhm ... 15 years I guess, but the offer at the local Tesco's was just a little too tempting. It really shows how the economy has slowed down when fake Made-in-China trees are going dirt cheap (3 feet for RM2.98 / US$0.86 and 5 footers at RM9.95 / US$2.88). Kinda makes you wonder what the actual cost price is at wholesale.

After rummaging through the house, I manage to locate the old decorations and used those to decorate the tree. Need a new set of fairy lights though but couldn't find any other than ones in ugly pink colour. The ones on the tree now are actually from the Chinese New Year decorations with the pieces pulled off!. Still haven't learnt my lesson though as I still meddle around with the tree with the power switch on ... yeah, I got electrocuted once on a tree (and thrown back around 7 feet maybe) and still have the scar to prove it :)

Anyways, Merry Christmas to all and a very Happy New Year 2009!

Four weddings and a funeral ...

2008-12-08T16:11:00.003+08:00

It's been a wierd bitter-sweet past few weeks.

Firstly, congratulations to the four happy couples who have had their wedding dinners and cemeronies (you know who you are eventhough you may not ever read this post :D). What I've noticed that in Malaysia, we're lucky to be able to experience a multitude of wedding ceremonies and traditions. I love the pomp and circumstance of Malay weddings and how guests are treated with little souvenirs of bunga telur as a memento of the occasion.

Chinese weddings have their own traditions from the jockular bride claiming ceremony (something sweet, something bitter etc ...) to the filial tea ceremonies. The downsides are the actual dinners which resemble mini reunions for family and friends and take forever to end. Ooh! ... attended one yesterday in which the restaurant provided gift chocolates in the shape of japanese carp to match their decor. A unique touch in comparison with other places that usually give either fruitcake or those heart shaped chocolates. Another thing that seems to be in fashion is to give gifts of bowls and chopsticks which I personally find a bit troublesome :P

However eventful, the happiness in the weeks have been toned down with the death of a friend. Commiserations and heartfelt condolences go out to the families of a classmate of mine who suffered (from what news I've received and yet to confirm) a heart complication in HUKM. It's times like these that make me wonder how long do I have and who do I know, who do I ask forgiveness from, who do I need to contact/recall ..........

Something fishy with my Streamyx connection ...

2008-11-30T14:45:00.011+08:00

UPDATE 17-01-2009: Scratch this post as I only just figured out it was a problem with the router firmware.

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Been having problems with my Streamyx connection this past week. Many sites would not load on the first attempt and require multiple F5 refreshes to fully load. This lead me to wonder if my modem/router settings are causing too many dropped packets. So I did the usual MTU fragment checking and lo and behold, the Max MTU has been lowered down to a measly 1272 bytes!! My modem/router settings were set to the default of 1492 so this basically means hundreds of packets were being discarded because they were too big.

From the image above, I've highlighted the maximum packet size that I can send/receive through my ISP. Adding on the 28 byte header brings the new MTU setting on my router to 1300 and once I changed that value, suddenly all sites are now opening quick and snappy. So, if you're like me and having problems with Streamyx, then check your current connection settings with this command (replacing with a valid website address to test)

ping [website add here]-f -l XXXX <- that is lowercase 'L' and NOT numerical '1'

What I'm wondering now is when did those bloody f**king a***oles at TM change this value and without informing subscribers?

Who wins TARA 3?

2008-11-20T12:00:00.014+08:00

Its 12pm and I'm at work with 9 hours to go to the broadcast of the final episode of TARA3. Message boards at the official site have been blasted from supporters/fans/detractors/etc each one claiming a winner from their country. So I guess I'll have to wait and see who really wins.

UPDATED 30/11/2009
Everyone knows by now that the Hong Kong boys won TARA3 (can they actually be called Hongkies since Sam is Singaporean and Vince is Canadian ... oh well). The wonders of television and creative editing made the final episode of TARA3 seem like a close race between S&V with G&T but in reality they were 45 minutes apart to the finish line. Our final Malaysian team, I&T, were dissapointingly delayed for 1 hour and 30 minutes at the airport due to one lazy desk clerk and lost their lead and the race in the end (but kudos for still being good sports and completing the race!).

From what I can dig out, TARA3 once again sets many new records in the Amazing Race series (I could be wrong on these facts, but AFAIK they're correct)

It probably had the longest legs in any TAR race (some lasting over 40 hours non stop, hence the tagline "toughest race ever").

I'm also guessing that Tania is the first ever pregnant racer (she was about 3 months along during the race and only confirmed the pregnancy a month after it ended!).

Probably has the couple that changed detours the highest number of times (G&T changed 5 times in the last detour).

First TAR to be filmed in high-definition video but dissapointingly broadcast only in standard def.

Highest number of teams that gave up during race and quit in a detour/roadblock (5 out of the total 10 teams - Singapore, Hong Kong, Bangladesh, Thailand ×2). Team Malaysia did contemplate giving up during the detour to locate the right Bluray disc but didn't in the end. Team Phillipines G&T gave a passing mention during the minature museum task but also didn't opt to quit (and in the end were rewarded with Sam's blunder!)

This already adds to an impressive list of prior records made in TARA and TARA2 which include

First ever all female team to win an Amazing Race (Joe Jer and Zabrina, Malaysia in TAR)

First ever disabled person to win (and complete) an Amazing Race (Adrian and Colin, Singapore, TARA2)

So, only a year's worth of waiting until the TARA4 ... at least TAR12 is running and is FINALLY picking up the pace.

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What's new in the beta WLM9?

2008-11-17T23:01:00.008+08:00

Installed the beta version of Windows Live Messenger (Build 14.0.5027.908) and was pleasantly surprised with several new features and updated implementations of older ones. The installer integrates tightly with the Live series of products and upon installations asks if you want to install the other items in the suite (including Live Writer, Live Mail etc).

First thing you'd notice is the messenger window has been rearranged and display pictures now appear of the left side. The pictures and toolbar can be hidden by clicking on an arrow that appears when you mouse nearby to give you more messaging space. Typing indicators now appear in the centre of the window (where its written Last message received ... in the pic above) instead of at the bottom of which now houses the message options.

Display pictures are now more flexible and allow animated gifs to be properly displayed with the animations (previously only a still frame appeared). Additionally, integration with a webcam seems better here as there is an option to do a snapshot directly from within the picture dialog. If I'm not wrong (as I rarely used it before) you couldn't actually do this in the older version without resorting to additional software to do a snapshot and then add it to available pictures.

A new added feature in here is the option to create your own dynamic display pictures. You need a webcam as you are not allowed to import ready made pictures or animations (without resorting to tricking the software). You can then capture either a still or a 4 second video and assign it to the default picture or any other 4 emoticons you want. When that emoticon is entered as a message, the display picture will animate accordingly to what was recorded.

On the main program itself, the interface has been slightly altered and the left-hand tabs are now not/optionally displayed. Interface settings are hidden until you mouseover the top right corner of the program to reveal the configuration menu. By default, WLM9 includes scenes or themes that match the online Live series of websites (Live Hotmail and Spaces). If you don't like them you can add your own.

The contact list now supports 4 different sizes of icons (3 shown here) and can be set individually for contacts or favorites lists (you can still sort contacts according to groups or status)

Internally, now you have to option to disallow sign-in from another PC. Previously, whenever you sign-in onto another PC, any existing ones are disconnected but now if you do that, you are notified on which PC you're still signed on to.

The sounds panel has been heavily changed and now supports different sounds for different events and different users. By default, WLM9 uses the same sounds as before but it also comes with 10 pre-installed audio samples for you to assign. Additionally, you can assign different sign-in sounds to different people on your contact list (i.e. like different ringtones for different callers).

You can also assign your own 'signature sound' which other contacts will hear when you come online (note that they need to be running WLM9 too).

In use, the WLM9 beta seems pretty stable and so far no bugs have appeared on my PC although reports have surfaced that some beta users lost their contact lists, history and installed packs. So if you're not willing to take a risk, wait for the final release else take the plunge and download WLM9b here.

Based on personal tests, WLM9 beta currently does NOT work well in XP (even with SP3 installed). In the 3 XP PCs I tested, one would not connect to the messenger service no matter what I did, another would crash on startup and the third cause XP to crash along with it. If you took the plunge and installed it on XP and are facing problems, you're probably looking for a way to uninstall it to install the older version('cos it doesn't create an uninstall option for you surprise! surprise!). Fortunately, you can manually uninstall it by running this command in the Run dialog box of the Start menu (Vista users need not worry as the normal uninstall option works for them)

msiexec /x {B1403D7D-C725-4858-AACC-7E5FA2D72859}

This tip comes from Jonathan Kay, MVP at his blog here. Note that screenshots above were taken with Messenger Plus Live! for WLM9 beta installed along with the additional Live and Emoticon packs (Wall-e, Fantastic 4, BearRabbit , I'm a PC) so some items may not be available in the default installation.

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Why do we pirate?

2008-11-16T00:20:00.004+08:00

I was asked a funny question once in which the person said "Why do you buy original DVDs? Can get at the pasar malam for RM6 only-ma". This got me to thinking as I surveyed his living room which, not surprisingly, had pirated DVDs and VCD/CDs displayed amongst other things - Why do people buy pirated goods?

The most obvious reason of course is price - with knockoffs of originals selling at a mere fraction of the originals' price. With this alluring factor comes demand and with demand comes more piracy, thus we have a never-ending cycle that continues to flood the market with fake goods.

There are reasons why pirated DVDs sell so cheap. For one thing it relies on the work of others. By buying a pirated DVD, you have stolen a paycheck from the person who created the content on the disc. You have taken away the effort put in by the artwork designer that created the original cover and packaging for a cheap photocopy. You have thrown away all the hardwork of the staff at legal distribution and production companies. Not forgetting to mention, minisculed the hardwork of the hundreds (if not thousands) of people who work so hard on the film it contains just for 1-3 hours of your enjoyment. None of the money you've paid went to the actual people who deserved it but went into the pockets of pirateers instead.

FACTS you might not have known about piracy

Authoring something like a DVD can cost anywhere from US$10,000++. This does not include costs for obtaining copyrights and production of new materials (e.g. documentaries, commentaries), manufacturing and packaging as well as promotion and distribution.
Pirated DVDs may cost anywhere from RM3 to RM20 but the cost of each pirated disc? Maybe around 30 sen (maybe less or more depending on quantity). Buying a pirated DVD means you're probably paying for his third Ferrari car.
That RM100 Nike Shox was probably made in Vietnam by workers that earn few a sen a day (not saying that originals are that good either ... just better)
Piracy DOES feed into the black market. Watch the documentary on C&I channel and see how children (sometimes abducted) are shackled to sewing machines for hours at end making fake apparel for a few measly ringgit per day. Do you want to support this industry? What if it was YOUR child or someone you know?
Supporting piracy means attracting greed and greed makes man do the most despicable things. Worst case scenario occurs when piracy affects human lives (melamine tainted milk scare anyone? or killer cold medicine?) You wouldn't want to end up in the hospital suffering just because of faked goods would you?

Food for thought - if you buy pirated stuff, think of this REALLY HARD. How would YOU feel if someone stole from you behind your back? The act of piracy exists in many different forms and you might have experienced it before:

If you're a programmer, imagine not getting a paycheck because your colleague took credit for your work.
If you're a teacher, imagine giving classes and never getting paid for any.
If you're a software publisher, imagine a program you've toiled thousand of man-hours away being downloaded freely without your permission or worse being sold without you getting the profits.
If you're a student, how would you feel if your classmate copied your assignment and got better marks?
Would you be angry if someone wins a music competition with your composition?

There's a reason for the sticker price of a few tens of ringgit. It pays the people who work, just like how YOU receive a paycheck for the work YOU do. Don't deny them their means of livelihood and try not to support piracy of any form if you can. You don't want it to happen to you.

P/S: I might sound hippocrite, but this post does not mean that I myself don't buy pirated items. I just try to avoid them whenever I can. I most certainly am NOT going to pay RM1999 for something which I KNOW does not cost that much to make :D

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Quantum of Solace preview

2008-11-10T01:57:00.010+08:00

Attended the special premiere of the James Bond:Quantum of Solace movie at the GSC Gardens on Friday night. First of all, The Gardens is like any typical mall in KL ... same stores, same stuff, same atmosphere - so in one word, BORING. As far as I know in the quick walkthrough of the place, nothing really interests me to go back for a second time.

Secondly, are these developers THAT desperate to open? The building is still largely incomplete and the signage is terrible. Locating GSC from the carpark was terrible as doors lead to a dead ends or ended up going in circles. Walkways were unfinished and dangerous - imagine 7 floors above ground level with no walls to stop you falling out. I'm wasn't the only one, 'cos I ended up with a group of maybe 15-20 of us scurrying around the floors of the carpark banging on multiple doors looking for ways into the Gardens. Guards were of no help because they either didn't know or just didn't speak English/Malay/any local language. *sheesh*

Anyways, finally reached GSC Gardens with 10 minutes to spare but the halls were only open a little after 9:30pm, I'm guessing probably due to the lack of staff at the venue. As the crowd grew larger, noise levels went up as well as the heat. Those who won in the Discovery Channel contest were given a bag which featured a banged-up Buster with the slogan "Buster does all my stunts" along with a oversized pen and the current issue of the Discovery Channel magazine featuring James Bond. In the cinema, everyone had a large sized popcorn and Coke drink. The preview was held in Hall 1 which I later found out charges RM20 per ticket!! Pop corn and drinks were RM15 so for two people to watch a movie you would need RM55 ... kinda pricey!

So what about the movie? SPOILERS AHEAD - TO AVOID READING, SKIP TO ***!!! Hmm, if you're a James Bond fan you probably won't be dissapointed with the amount of action in this movie. Although its short (shortest so far amonst all the Bond films) it probably has the highest number of chase sequences in a single movie. It has foot chases (two actually), bike chases, car chases, boat chases and air chase scenes ... heck the only major mode of transportation not covered is on a train! After a while, it felt like there wasn't enough of a story to last the length of the movie so I'm guessing they added on these scenes - a bit too repetitive for my tastes but exciting nonetheless.

Predictably there's always the Bond girl that he sleeps with (no pun in name this time round though ... Miss Fields) and dies in a fashion uncannily like in Goldfinger. There are far less gadgets this time round other than the oh-so-obvious main sponsor Sony handphone that doubles as a camera with face recognition technology. Even the car gets banged up pretty bad after the first five minutes and is never seen again. Characters seem to appear in the movie such that they do not really support or move the story along other than to provide more evidence against Bond to bring him in to MI6 because of his actions.

***
Overall though I can't really complain too much. It IS a valiant effort trying to make a full length movie out of what is actually a short story as it attempts to conclude the story from Casino Royale (eventhough NONE of the story itself is used in the film other than the title). Basically, for effects, action and thrills it earns highest marks but otherwise its just OK and is probably worth the price of admission. Gardens on the other hand gets a dissapointing two thumbs down (for now, might change once its complete) as a place to shop/spend time ... you get more at Sunway/1U/Curve etc.

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Busy busy busy

2008-11-05T10:36:00.015+08:00

1034 hrs local (+8GMT)

Gonna try to make this a multi-post day as America decides who becomes their next president (As of now Obama leads 194 to 69 for McCain). Personally, I have no qualms or questions on who should win and neither do I have any preference, its just the current story that apperas on every news portal.

Anyways, have to rush out later and make a trip to ASTRO in TPM, then later to Menara Star and another drop off at Mid Valley at the end ... and I'm predicting a lot of cursing when I join the traffic jams at each area.

UPDATE 1110 hrs local (+8GMT)

Decided to go after lunch 'cos its raining :)

UPDATE 1200 hrs local (+8GMT)

Decided to help my dad fix up the dining room ceiling fan. The one that was there shorted out after a power surge and has been left hanging there since August. Since I have relatives migrating overseas, we decided to salvage one of their ceiling fans (since they were going to be sold anyways). Took around 45 minutes to disassemble and dismount the old one and put up the new one ... at least now there's a fan in the dining room again :D Only problem is that this 'new' one hangs 4.5 inches lower than the old one ... its so low I can touch the base without having even to go tippy toe (must remember not to stretch!)

UPDATE 1910 hrs local (+8GMT)

Its the evening and Barack Obama is now the next President of the USA. I'm back from a tiring day out travelling across the Klang Valley and collecting stuff.

Left the house at exactly 2.00pm and headed towards TPM first but by the time I reached Jalan Universiti, I was stuck in a traffic jam which took me nearly 35 minutes to get through. There are just too many traffic lights on that stretch of road and those bloody f**ing idiots who park illegally in front of PPUM only make things worse. Luckily it was a cloudy/rainy day so at least it wasn't too hot to drive.

Made it to Bukit Jalil circa 3:00pm and proceeded towards TPM for the ASTRO building to collect the first prize for today. After registration, had to make it into the building this time to collect (usually they just distribute at the registration counter).

15 minutes later, I was out of there with two tickets to the premiere screening of James Bond : Quantum of Solace for this Friday at GSC Signature, The Gardens. The remainder of the prize will only be handed over at the venue (*sheesh*) courtesy of Discovery Channel Asia.

Then it was back to the highways again as I proceeded to Menara Star for the second prize collection of the day. Took me another 45 minutes to get back due to heavy traffic, rain and of course, those blasted traffic lights again. Finally reached Phileo Damansara area at 4:00pm but decided against parking inside the building after seeing the long queue forming outside - so I parked behind BHP Petrol and walked there instead.

Took me another 15 minutes to get to the Menara Star lobby by foot (took wrong way and ended up in the wrong building ... hee hee) and had to go through the whole registering, deposit license, taking pass procedure just to get to the 7th floor. Collection was fast and I managed a sneak peek at the In.Tech offices at theStar (reminds me a lot of the IT dept at my workplace) whilst waiting ... wonder where all the staff are? There were only a handful there, so I'm guessing either meeting or convetion. The prize? Wall-e movie tie-in merchandise and Canon sponsored calculators.

The polo-tee is kids size unfortunately but I'll probably keep it just because. The automatic umbrella is really cute with the eyes of Wall-e silkscreened on the outer side but the inner side is really neat with a faint imprint of a night sky (the camera somehow picks up the 'stars' and shows them as bright dots ... is probably reflective or something). The Wall-e mousepad goes into my collection (nearly 30+ already!) and I'll figure out where the calculator will do its function.

I decided against going to Mid Valley after seeing the then-forming traffic jam. I'll leave that for another day and another journey.

UPDATE 2350 hrs local (+8GMT)

Just found out that the Canon calculator prize is actually made from recycled materials! This probably answers the question as to why give a calculator as a prize. Seems that Canon reclaims old hardware (printers, photocopiers, scanners etc) and disassembles them into its basic components to later remanufacture/remold to create this line of fully recycled calculators that run on solar power.

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Mamma Mia ... again ... ughs

2008-10-19T18:21:00.007+08:00

Took a walk over to Ikano PowerCentre just to catch the roadshow to "Mamma Mia! The Musical" today 'cos I missed the one yesterday at 1 Utama. The crowd was large (est. 500 maybe?) and mostly adult females ... screaming adult aunties ... not a pretty sight and sound. They were mostly screaming for free tix to the event which isn't even beginning until 17th of December! What's even more amazing is that it seems that many of the tickets are sold out for the show.

Anyways heres a clip from the roadshow featuring the female cast leads singing ABBA tunes (which are getting pretty grating 'cos my neighbour has been playing them over-and-over). The angle is pretty bad but I did manage to get a behind-the-scenes look at the roadshow crew dancing along!!

Best part of the event was this elderly couple vying to get free tix to the event. Kudos to them for being amazingly sporting to dance TWICE to the delight of the cast members and the public.

I won't be going for the musical anyways ... first thing is I'm not interested (storywise and music wise ... sudah jelak la) and secondly its running at Istana Budaya - a place which I find is absolutely the WORST for musical productions due to extremely poor AV conditions. At most, I'd prob sneak in for rehearsals when the time comes heh heh!

Header image change

2008-10-18T01:36:00.005+08:00

Was getting bored of the original header image on this blog which was simply done and needed a lot of tweaking. Somehow I never got that 'organic' feeling to work properly so I decided to create a new one. Its better but still not perfect ... still like it a lot though since it looks more realistic and more towards the look I'm targeting.

This header image was done in Paint Shop Pro and simplified from the steps shown here. Instead of using a vanishing point filter, I just used the text warp / deform option in the text tool. I also added two extra layers - one behind to create over-spray and one right on top to add grain and texture back into the sprayed areas. Lastly, an erase tool was used to create blank areas and flaws in spray distribution for effect. Only problem? Need to find a way to get the letters to overlap in the right order (real graffiti usually overlaps from left to right)

How old is your email account?

2008-10-11T00:17:00.003+08:00

Random thoughts into a post ... just how old are your email accounts. I have 13 email accounts (free, ISP, etc) and just found out the oldest one is from Hotmail. I got it waaay back when it was still plain old Hotmail (just before Microsoft bought it up) and it just got past its 11th year anniversary!! Whats more surprising is I still have mails all the way back from 1997 ... talk about a time-trip. Amazing how it has grown from the original 2MB mailbox right up to the current 5GB.

What's safe to eat nowadays?

2008-10-10T00:09:00.004+08:00

With the increasing concerns of melamine contamination in food/edible products, I began to wonder what are the actual products that are safe for consumption and what has been withdrawn from the market. A quick search on Google came up with the following health authority websites with latest postings on the melamine incident including which products are safe and which are not. These are focused mainly on South East Asian - Australasian authorities due to the higher number of imports but apply to anywhere in the world that sells the same products (note that a product might be manufactured in many locations but carry the same name/packaging)

Malaysian Food Safety & Quality Division (BKMM) - English / Malay [LINK]
Singaporean Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority - English [LINK]
Indonesian Badan Pengawas Obat & Makanan - English / Indonesian [LINK]
Korean Food and Drug Administration - Korean [LINK]
New Zealand Food Safety Authority - English [LINK]

There are many other FDA sites but these are the ones that seem to be still actively testing and releasing news about the contamination. Latest products include Cadbury chocolates, Bairong biscuits (those sold in Watsons and Tesco) and Dutch Lady milks from China manufacturers.

Amazing Race ×2 ... again

2008-09-30T01:03:00.013+08:00

Just concluded watching the first episode of Amazing Race S12 on AXN and this marks another round of double Amazing Race's for probably the next two months or so (The Amazing Race Asia S3 is coming to its fourth episode this week). I'm a fan of the series and have watched every single season of TAR and TARA and find each version has its own unique thing to offer.

This time round, TARA3 wins hands down in terms of content and can clearly call itself the "toughest race ever" based on first episode impressions. Heck! rumour has it that even the production staff fell ill during the filming of the race due to the stressful conditions.

The first episode of TAR12 was slow, boring, lenghty and didn't really work the competitors so far. The theme of the show felt like "grouping the teams" as each point in the race the teams were being segregated into groups that left for the next portion of the race at different time intervals. The sole challenge of TAR12 episode one is the choice in the detour - to climb down cargo net or crawl up the steps ... kinda lame IMO. It almost felt as if the producers ran out of ideas.

Compare that to the first episode of TARA3 - first challenge at the very start was to devour an entire bowl of bugs (containing fried scorpions, maggots, worms, frogs, grasshoppers etc) which I estimate amounted to maybe 800gms. Then its was to wash an entire two-storey passenger bus (a task which took most of the afternoon and night) followed by a pitch dark hunt for clues on temple grounds. An 18 hour bus ride later, it was the detour to race or rice - racing buggys or pounding rice resulting in muddy bodies or blistering hands. Definately much more exciting - even episode two was an extended length one since the leg lasted over 48 hours!!

Rants? TARA3 is the first season to be filmed entirely in FullHD 1080p but AFAIK, no carrier is actually broadcasting in HD, let alone FullHD - what a waste (but I could be wrong). TAR12 probably has more eye-candy in terms of competitors but TARA3 doesn't lose out by much there (but then Pailin and Natalie were eliminated last week). Competitors on TAR12 seem to be starting of pretty chummy except for one particular moment between Sarah with Nick and Starr. There hasn't been a breakdown in the first episode of TAR12 but Mai and Oliver have already showed their true colours during the end of the first episode of TARA3. Things might change as TAR12 catches up with more episodes, but for now TARA3 gets my vote for the better Amazing Race.

If only I can remember which teams go with which race (same prob last time with TAR12 and TARA2) ...

UPDATE 02102008 : Forgot about this ... whoever the subtitler is in ASTRO is doing a really bad job. Misunderstood words and sentences ("I'm so dumb" actually became something like "Aku sungguh gelap" or I'm so dark) and his/her crazy-ass spelling (why in heck would a simple word like Cyclo be subtitled as Xich Lo?). There is no need to translate and subtitle every single thing on screen, especially when the subs start to intrude into the actual screen action part. I cringe when I read the subs during the second viewing of episodes.
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Looking for karaoke tracks?

2008-09-28T09:45:00.027+08:00

No this isn't a post about me going to a karaoke bar (at least not this time round) but on how to get or create your own backing tracks for practise/ backup/etc. I've been asked this question quite a few times already, so I guess I'd do a write-up instead of repeating myself. Here are 6 ways on how I obtain my backing tracks - click on the [+/-] to read details.

Get original backing tracks (duh!)
Sometimes tracks are released alongside their instrumental versions (or karaoke/minus one) and these are the best bet to get a version that matches the original exactly. You can find these most often on CD singles and sometimes on bonus discs. Albums from Disney and Buena Vista sometimes have instrumental versions available (e.g. High School Musical OST Bonus disc and their Karaoke Sing-along CDG series).

[+/-]

Get commercial backing tracks
These are tracks released by recording companies specialising in creating karaoke tracks. Many of them are quite good but they might not sound exactly the same as the original recording because they are mostly renditions recreated by an arranger. Good backing tracks will use real/matching instruments and follow tempos and keys whilst there are cheaper ones that rely on cheap MIDI banks and lower quality arrangements.

Example of sites include : PocketSongs and SoundChoice

[+/-]

Music sharing websites/tools
Another option is to hit up music sharing websites looking for backing tracks. Sites such as Imeem.com usually have user uploads for backing tracks (some of them from official sources but illegally uploaded) which you can listen to and download. For this you would need additional software such as FreeMusicZilla to download the FLV files and then FLV extractor to extract the MP3 file from the downloaded FLV. Registration is required to listen to whole tracks on Imeem.
Other options include the free website Sims on Stage (formerly SingShot) which offers free backing tracks to sing online. A simple trick allows you to download the tracks permanently to your harddrive for your own personal use which I will not discuss here. They offer quite a varied selection from 50s to current hits and other family favourites and their tracks seemed to be sourced from the SoundChoice library

UPDATE 2009 : Singshot link removed as EA has decided to close down the service.

P2P networks are another great source for obtaining tracks - be it through Kazaa/eMule/eDonkey/VeryCD or through torrent sites. Just be wary of fake files, RIAA trackers and long download times due to unavailable seeds.

[+/-]

Write your own in MIDI
Those well versed in music theory can try their hand at writing their own MIDI backing tracks although this would take time and quite a lot of skill (not forgetting to mention the hardware required). One option is to visit MIDI sites and try out user submissions there ... you might be surprised at what some users can come up with. Depending on your MIDI hardware, you can possibly render out a pretty useable backing track.

[+/-]

Vocal removers
If you have a Realtek audio device in Windows, you probably have a corresponding audio manager control panel installed and within the settings there is one for vocal removal. This is a basic voice removing algorithm which basically takes the difference between individual channels from stereo audio file as the output (i.e. (L-R)÷2). At best, the vocals on a track can be removed - at worse, everything else is also removed. One problem with this simplified algorithm is that it affects the whole spectrum and removes everything in the phantom centre channel including vital parts.

If your hardware does not have this setting, you can still obtain similar effects using the Vocal Remover effect with your audio files in Audacity.

My own trick instead is to use a plugin called "center cut" (yes, I know I switch between American and British spellings for centre) written by Moitah (who also wrote the FLV extractor referenced above) which itself is based on a plugin found in Virtualdub written by Avery Lee. The plugin runs in Winamp and no installation is required other than to copy the files into the plugin directory of Winamp. This plugin is available here.

To use, just activate the plugin in the Preferences—DSP/Effect page and set to "Center Cut - Sides (Bass to sides)" which is basically still using the same algorithm above, but this time it ignores the bass frequencies and allows them to pass unfiltered. The difference is quite obvious and really helps the output result sound better. Here are several examples comparing the original audio, conventional vocal remover and center cut plugin (note Google video muxes audio back to mono when hosting)

Using a combination of the center cut plugin and the diskwriter plugins in Winamp, you can generate your own backing tracks from any audio files you own and later recompress them or burn to CD. Note that results may vary depending on file and channel separation.

[+/-]

DVD rips
This last method relies on how audio is encoded on a DVD and works best on animation and musical type movies (especially those from Disney!!). At a bare minimum, this method requires the audio to be properly encoded as discrete 5.1 Dolby Digital audio and will NOT work with 2.1 or PCM/MPEG stereo audio. This is because we need the vocals to be encoded in the centre channel and the audio only portions duplicated in the front or rear L/R channels. What remains is just to extract this digital stream, delete the centre channel and you're left with the backing track!

Extracting the audio from a DVD is pretty finicky, requires patience, quite a few tools (all 100% freeware of course), plenty of harddisk space and obvoiusly, the actual DVDs. First you need to extract the correct VOB file (or the whole movie but that wastes space) and remove any CSS protection if necessary. You can use tools like DVD Decrypter to get this done. Certain AVI files (from *ahem* sources) may also have a 5.1 Dolby Digital/AC3 stream and those can also be used.

The digital audio stream is then extracted. For AVIs, you can use VirtualDub to save the audio stream. Open the AVI file, select "Source audio" and "Direct stream copy" and save the WAV file with an ac3 extension.

For VOBs you need an AC3 extractor - I usually use Ciler's AC3Tool with the AC3 extract function. Open the VOB file, select the audio track and location to save to and click Extraire to get the stream. What you end up with is a raw AC3 file for further processing to delete the centre channel.

To remove the centre channel, there are two possible options - AC3tool (mentioned above) or HeadAC3he (thats read as headache). Both have options to convert the AC3 stream to PCM wave format and allow you to select which channel to decode/downmix/ignore. I can't really say which tool is better 'cos some streams work in one program and not in the other and vice-versa with others ... go figure. This is where the trial-and-error phase comes in - some tracks will work better with just the front L/R channels whilst others get better results with rear channels only.

The end result (if successful) is a raw PCM wave file ready for compression or burning to CD for use. Here's a sample clip ripped from two DVDs to show you what I mean - the first using front L/R channels from the Mandarin audio track (I ripped the wrong track but it worked anyways) and the second combining front and rear L/R channels for the final result.

[+/-]

Legality issues aside, all methods discussed here are for your own use only and might not be approved/allowed by the copyright owners. All clips/videos shown here retain their original copyrights and are used - with apologies - to illustrate concepts only

Today Is Gonna Be a Great Day!

2008-09-26T23:43:00.015+08:00

Can't get this song out of my head no matter how hard I try. Performed by Bowling for Soup, it constantly reminds me of their earlier single "Greatest day" which also had me humming the tune for weeks. This particular song has catchy chorus with great chord progressions, funny lyrics ... hey! where's Perry? :)

There's a hundred and four days of summer vacation,
'Til school comes along just to end it,
So the annual problem for our generation,
Is finding a good way to spend it
Like maybe...

Building a rocket, or fighting a mummy,
Or climbing up the Eiffel tower,
Discovering something that doesn't exist,
Or giving a monkey a shower,
Surfing tidal waves, creating nano-bots,
Or locating Frankenstein's brain,
Finding a Dodo bird, painting a continent,
Or driving our sister insane

This could possibly be the best day ever,
And the forecast says that tomorrow will likely be,
A million and six times better,
So make every minute count,
Jump up, jump in and seize the day,
And let's make sure that in every single possible way,
Today is Gonna to Be a Great Day!

Crossing a tundra or building a rollercoaster,
Skiing down a mountain of beans,
Devising a system for remembering everything,
Or synchronizing submarines,
Racing chariots, taming tiger sharks,
Constructing a portal to mars,
Building a time machine, stretching a rubber tree,
Or wailing away on guitars

This could possibly be the best day ever,
And the forecast says that tomorrow will likely be,
A million and six times better,
So make every minute count
Jump up, jump in and seize the day,
And let's make sure that in every single possible way,
Today is Gonna to Be a Great Day!

Let's put our heads together and design a master plan,
We may miss dinner, but I know mom will understand,
We got our mission and suppliers, yoghurt gumballs and desire,
And a pocket full or rubber bands, the manual on handstands,
Unicycle, compass, and a camera that won't focus,
And canteen full of soda, grab a beach towel here we go!
(this is Ferb-tastic)

This could possibly be the best day ever,
And the forecast says that tomorrow will likely be,
A million and six times better,
So make every minute count,
Jump up, jump in and seize the day,
And let's make sure that in every single possible way
Today is Gonna to Be a Great Day!

(Seriously this is gonna be great)

This could possibly be the best day ever
(Today's Gonna be a Great Day)
This could possibly be the best day ever
(Today's Gonna be a Great Day)

************

For those interested, I found this downloadable MP3 version (while the link exists) here. I did not upload this, so don't ask if why if the link no longer works.

UPDATE 27/09/2008 : Second download link found at mediafire. Same file as the first. Download link available here.

Both files are clean versions without dialogue.

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Cringe-worthy Mamma Mia!

2008-09-23T16:22:00.006+08:00

Attended the preview of Mamma Mia! yesterday nite courtesy of nuffnang at GSC 1Utama and as is the usual case of most bloggers, cameras and handphones were flashing everywhere to capture the moment for later blog posts (me excluded).

The movie was so-so in my opinion with a few genuine laughs at several points that kept my interest awake. ABBA music, no matter how catchy, kind of gets on the nerves after a while especially with the repeated chord transitions and patterns (ughs ... I'm analyzing the music too much). Two songs that really made me cringe was S.O.S. and The Winner Takes it All which felt too forced and too long for the moment.

Pierce Brosnan's singing was credible but bland (he should avoid musicals IMO) and he felt soooo out of place, wooden and uncomfortable when Meryl Streep was screaming out Winner. You could almost read Ms. Streep's mind as though she is thinking "Ughs, why won't that bloody wind stop blowing my shawl/wrap around" as she continuously fidgets with it on screen. A bad choice of filming location there.

Seems several songs were removed from the broadway version (as is the usual case with the limited running time) including Thank you for the music and Knowing me, Knowing you although the former is included in the soundtrack. Could possible mean it was filmed and cut during production. Additionally, Our Last Summer was moved from a duet between Harry and Donna to mostly a trio between Sophie, Harry and Sam with interjections from Donna and Bill. I could be wrong though as I'm basing this on the PVG score book.

Choreography was limited to big leaps and jumps along with dated moves from the flower power era although they did a funny thing with swimming flippers on the docks with the guys and with the girl power scene featuring Dancing Queen and aged old ladies dancing.

Overall? Watch it if you're a fan of ABBA music or musical genre, else give it a miss and wait for it on Astro or the nearest pasar malam dealer/torrent site. The movie has been ever-so-slightly censored to obtain the [U] rating in local cinemas.

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New BIOS update for Acer M5640

2008-09-18T01:50:00.013+08:00

NOTE 18/01/2009

This outdated post has been updated here.

Took a MAJOR risk today and updated the bios on my Acer M5640 Aspire desktop with the latest revision number R01-B2. Why major you may ask? Well ... from what I can figure after searching around, the bios version IS official from Acer/AMI but it hasn't been released in many countries. As of yet, the bios firmware is only available on the Taiwan and Thailand Acer support websites whilst ALL other countries are still stuck at R01-A3 or worse at R01-A1.

Anyways, I downloaded the one from the Thai Acer website (both sites have different packages but the same firmware file) and proceeded with the firmware update using the Windows flash utility ... was too lazy to create a DOS bootdisk. It ran, it erased, it programed and then it 'hung' and Vista went into its familiar "Application is not responding" period. About 45 seconds later, the PC went into auto reboot and voilà the firmware update was complete (*phew*)

Whats new?

Major changes are additions to the "Advanced Bios Features" section of the bios which now has the option for "Installer OS select" with the options for Windows, Linux or other (supposedly to help in correctly booting OS installer discs) and an option to enable and disable speedstep on the CPU labeled "Speedstep Tech". Other menus seem to remain the same but I have nothing to compare to as I forgot to note down the changes prior to flashing (my bad).

Upon entering Vista however, it detected a new device and promptly installed drivers for PCI standard RAM controller and it now appears multiple times in the device manager. Have no idea what this device is and what it does but so far it doesn't seem to affect Vista in anyway.

For those interested, here are the direct download links to the new bios revision for the M5640 (also for M1640 and M3640):

R01-B2 firmware from Thailand Acer Support website available for Windows/DOS and Linux
R01-B2 firmware from Taiwan Acer support website available for Windows/DOS. Instructions in Chinese.

NOTE 18/01/2009

This outdated post has been updated here.

DISCLAIMER : Any attempts of this update is at your own risk and I do not take any responsibility. Attempts at changing hardware settings are not approved and may void your warranty if not done properly. All trademarks, tradenames and program names are property of their individual owners.

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Vista vs. SB Live! Value (Round 1)

2008-09-14T21:42:00.009+08:00

This post is about my experiences with older hardware in Vista.

I had two Soundblaster Live! Value audio cards lying around collecting dust - one came from a disposed computer which I salvaged for parts (CT4830) whilst the other was salvaged from a friends' Dell Optiplex desktop before it was sold to a secondhand buyer (CT4780). These are the second and third/oem generation versions of the wildly popular Live! series but has since been dropped like an illegitimate child by Creative Labs (citing it as end-of-life) when Vista launched.

Just for fun, I installed one to see how Vista would handle this unsupported audio card.

Opening the case and inserting the card was tricky as the mobo on the Acer was a micro-ATX and space was scarce. With only two PCI slots free, I had to pick the lowest one to allow the graphic card seated in the PCI-e slot above some breathing space as it gets pretty hot. Its a tight squeeze but it manages to get in without much fuss other than the re-arrangement of several port extension cables.

On startup, Vista detected the card and promptly asked for the drivers which I then opted to search for online. 10 minutes later - surprise! surprise! - the card started its installation procedure with the drivers and basic apps (ctfmon.exe, cthelper.exe, ctxfispi.exe, etc.). It completed without any problems which completely threw me off guard since I was expecting it to fail. So, the SB Live! Value DOES install properly in Vista with supplied drivers as shown in screenshots below ...

Now, once installed, how does it actually sound? Terrible unfortunately ... but it DOES work. Applications can use the card for audio playback (confirmed using Winamp, WMP11, Videolan, PowerDVD and Vista Media Center). Vista sounds and alerts also do get playback once the default audio device has been set to the Live! card.

As reported, bass and treble management is totally hopeless in Vista. By default the bass is set so high that it over powers everything. Using the tone control panel helps a little bit, but if only the sliders went a little more then it would sound more balanced. I'm guessing there are also buffering problems with the drivers because during playback, the quality of the audio gets worse as it progresses ... sounding almost like its connected to an overdrive stompbox thats stuck.

MIDI still works and you get both SynthA and SynthB running a basic 2MB Soundfont bank (with no means of changing banks) but the softsynth is missing. Both available synths still sound better than the default GS wavetable on any Realtek AC'97/HD set. MIDI apps such as Cubase and Finale do see the MIDI I/O port but I didn't get a chance to test them to see if they actually work. One thing to note however is that the joystick port doesn't install and no drivers are available for it.

Next step, try other drivers. I forced the installation of the SB Live! 24-bit vista drivers and everything seemed to go well. They installed, complained a bit about compatibility and then requested a reboot. This is when all things when to heck. Vista wouldn't bootup and kept repeatedly going to restore mode. I then shutdown the PC, removed the card and will leave it as that for now until I have time to try out the kX drivers and how they actually sound.

So what did I prove today? Contrary to what has been written earlier, the Live! Value WILL work in Vista, just not the way you expect it to. If there is someway to access the tone settings other than through the control panel applet, there could be a possibility that this card may still have some life as a device in Vista PCs, but for now its back to the Realtek for me.

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Windsurfer WiFi tests

2008-09-04T23:11:00.020+08:00

Saw this posted a while back on DL.TV in which a paper template called Windsurfer (or Ez-12) was used to create your very own super cheap WiFi booster but I never got to trying it out until now (because I wasn't using any WLAN hardware back then ... duh!). Basically, when the pattern is cut and assembled it forms a parabolic 'dish' of sorts that focuses or boosts the signal towards a particular direction instead of letting the signal roam freely. The original site boasts an increase of 9dBi to 12 dBi and many people have also written in claiming that it managed to boost a signal to parts unreachable before.

Intrigued, I downloaded the template and did my own tests (and adaptations described later in this post).

My hardware consists of a D-Link DIR-615 wireless router running solely 802.11N mode with WPA2-PSK as the access point. The receiving end makes use of the D-Link Rangebooster DWA-140 USB wireless adapter also running in 802.11N. The signal has to travel through two solid brick walls before reaching its destination and often contends with two other APs located nearby. Here are the results using the installed software.

Signal strength at 7% when NO antennas attached.

Signal strength at 51% with single antenna attached.

Signal strength at 63% with dual antennas attached.

Signal strength at 85% with single antenna attached and Windsurfer.

Signal strength at 39% with single antenna attached and Windsurfer facing opposite direction
(to prove that the Windsurfer does actually affect the signal)

Based on my rather crude tests, I have to say that I'm impressed with how well the Windsurfer works. What's amazing is how a single antenna and the Windsurfer manages to beat a dual antenna setup.

Problems?

First off, the original JPG template was serviceable but rather crude and was a bit too large for the antennas of my router and the shelf space I had them in. Scaling the file resulted in the lines getting blurry. Secondly, the template itself was a little wonky for my liking 'cause the tabs didn't really match up with the slot positions. The resulting Windsurfer was ever-so-slightly skewed because of this. Additionally, the slots were too big for the tabs thus making tape or glue necessary to hold the parts together securely.

So I did a little tweaking and came up with my refined version of the original Windsurfer which I guess I dub Windsurfer 2. All instructions remain the same as the original Windsurfer and each template prints out for two (2) Windsurfers onto either Letter or A4 sizes. You can download the templates in PDF format below which will print out in colour or black-and-white. Coincidently, all test results shown above were made using these templates.

Click HERE for A4 size || Click HERE for Letter size

If the templates are the wrong size, you can download the following high-resolution .PNG files and scale them however large or small you like in any graphic program (or even Word or OpenOffice). Just make sure that the two squares next to the parts remain square and are the same size between them so that they can fit together later. My own rule of thumb, make the dish side height the same as your antennas to ensure that the entire signal is reflected back. You can even customize and add your own fills, logos, text, slogan, clipart onto the templates to suit your taste.

The original Windsurfer template is still available with full instructions at the site here.
Original webcast on DL.TV is available for download here.

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Microsoft slashes product prices by 80%

2008-08-23T20:16:00.008+08:00

Microsoft Malaysia has launched a program which caters specifically to higher education students and offers its most popular products for up to 80% off the retail price. The program is very much similar to the one currently being held in the US (details here) but has even more products listed than the American counterpart.

The list includes home software like Microsoft Encarta 2008, Office 2007 Pro, Visio Pro 2007, Expression series and also upgrades to Vista Business and Ultimate. The Vista Ultimate upgrade seems pretty worth it since an OEM version already costs around RM700 and retail boxed versions running well over RM1000 whilst Office Pro OEM is around RM800. Heck! Encarta is going for a measly RM48 (approx US$15).

So whats the catch? Well, the offer is open SOLELY to students studying in local IPTAs (Institut Pengajian Tinggi Awam or Government-based Higher Education Institutes) because they have to purchase and register their details at their local Kedai Kooperasi in order to get their software (full physical media supposedly included). Each student is only allowed to purchase one (1) license for each listed product and each license will be registered to the student's name. More details about this offer and the complete list of participating IPTAs and available software is available here.

Hmm ... last year Microsoft Malaysia distributed for free, full versions of Vista Business at my workplace (and WinXP four years before that) and I thought that was pretty neat although I had to queue for nearly 2 hours. Both offers seem to benefit Microsoft in more than one way - in decreasing pirated software in educational institutes and also increasing its customer base in IHLs, many of which are now turning to open source options to do research and development. We'll just have to wait and see how the campaign works out.

BTW, how many people realise that most of their campuses actually purchase open licenses for their software and students are often provided copies (either downloaded or through a drop-by install facility) to use on their own desktops? Ask around and you may be surprised. UM and MMU provides this but not many actually know about it ... go figure :P

One Sick Psi Guy

New bank notes for the new year?

More and more cloud services

Wants and Needs

DDR2 > DDR3?!?!

899 apps and no iDevice

I should write shorter posts...

Need - to - update *gasp*

Another month, another toy ...

File-sharing block in Malaysia

10 things you learn ...

Upgrading in progress .....

muh new toy ^.^

25th Anniversary Studio Ghibli Concert DVD

Lion King @ Marina Bay Sands Theatre

ウォーリ ーペパクラ = Wall-e Pepakura

Doncha love multiparty conferencing?

Mac OSX on Windows 7

Farscape Party Kit

Its a conspiracy I tell ya ... Amazon UK Black Friday sales are rubbish

And once again I've left you alone ....

Splurge, spend, buy!!

Unannounced firmware for DIR-615 rev B

Free time experiment

Hmmm

World Cup fever is back ...

IP restrictions ... *sigh*

I'm getting bored ... bored of Feseni :(

Faking a nude pic (or I'm bored and started photoshopping)

Waaaay overproduced and over the top = EPIC FAIL

Whoa ... flashback on MyTown!

10 years and this is all?

What was supposed to be this year's song(s)?

Astro B.yond ... good or bad?

Yeah ... I'm a sucker for novelty items

Is this the future of Streamyx?

No ... I'm not dead

The KLIA Chime

He said it best

R.I.P Yasmin Ahmad - Our Nation's Storyteller

R.I.P. Michael Joseph Jackson

Hooked on iTunes 2 !!

Anyone still using Finale Notepad?

Whats wrong with Google Followers?

Getting surround sound working in iTunes downloads

My Worst Day Ever (so far ... )

Virtual XP download for Windows 7 runs in Vista!!!

Embarassing ...

Four word per sentence

KK9.BBQ.SS.VDO ... hee hee

What are the odds?!?

Video tests

Archuleta fever hits Malaysia hard and fast

When no mic problems, they actually sound great!

Earth Day 2009

More KK9 choir BTS/SS videos

KK9 Choir ... behind the scenes and SS videos

Five years and running!

18 hours to go

Don't be fooled by this water filter scam!

Hooked on iTunes ... wierd

Earth Hour is back!!

RROOAAWWRR!!!

Happy Chinese New Year

Web discoveries and gems!

Another BIOS update for M5640 / M3640 / M1640

How I tuned my pitch pipe

First post of 2009!!

Creeping towards 2009

Wanna see something crazy?

Merry X'mas — Feliz Navidad — Selamat Hari Natal — メリークリスマス — 聖誕快樂

Four weddings and a funeral ...

Something fishy with my Streamyx connection ...

Who wins TARA 3?

What's new in the beta WLM9?

Why do we pirate?

Quantum of Solace preview

Busy busy busy

Mamma Mia ... again ... ughs

Header image change

Need - to - update gasp

ウォーリーペパクラ = Wall-e Pepakura

IP restrictions ... sigh