dotKoyi

Which way are you looking at?

2010-04-20T22:46:00.002+09:00

Susan Boyle you gave me energy

2010-01-24T18:01:00.002+09:00

I can't deny that as years go by, I become worried about why I am still doing what I am doing. I should be big or famous or rich or successful and already got what I dreamed for at this age. Well, life is not that easy anyway. So, sometimes I just try to give up hope. Thinking to live on easy and comfortable, perhaps hoping for chances on the way but this is more like winning lottery instead of trying to do some real investment to reach my goals.

Today, I was writing some work when I tumbled upon this. Susan Boyle is 47 years old when she joined Britains Got Talent 2009. And she is really good. I think she is a good example of as long as you are living on doing what you believe you should and you like, you might be successfully some day, no matter how long that will take. Or well, even if you failed to be successful, you should have no regret.

While writing the above, I can imagine many would say that, if she has fought and tried harder before, she might be successful even at an earlier age. Well, I do not know much about Susan so I do not know whether she had tried hard before. But I do believe that everyone has a place or role in life, that you can perform in the most optimum way. Get out of that and trying to be someone else will no doubt gets in your way to be anything in life.

Again, writing the above leads me to another incident that I met a while ago. On my way back home from the train station, I saw a man running to the station in the hope of catching the train which was reaching the station. This made me thinking that, there might be two types of people in the world. One type, like the running man, would rush to their goals in the fastest way they can, and do not mind taking up some risks on the way. (If the train was gone when he reached the station, he wasted his energy and need to wait longer at the platform, now that is a risk you see...) And then there is another type of person who does not mind taking some time relaxing on the way. The goal is just something which motivates them to go on and enjoy the process. Put in the exact same situation, I think they would be still walking towards the station, being happy that if they keep this pace of walking, at the time they reach the station, the next train would be just there so they don't have to wait on the dull platform, can enjoy their way there more :-) (Now guess which side I am on...)

Of course, in different situations people react differently. I just mean as a whole there are easy-going and don't mind some waits type of people and totally purpose oriented people. Perhaps most of us are somewhere in the middle of the two extremes.

How to use ImageMagick convert

2010-01-23T00:49:00.001+09:00

convert -size 1920x1080 -depth 8 rgba:source destination.bmp
convert source.bmp rgba:destination

Sorry if I bored you ;P

How to enable the wireless rum driver in FreeBSD 8.0

2010-01-17T23:03:00.003+09:00

In /etc/rc.conf:

wlans_rum0="wlan0"

ifconfig_wlan0="WPA DHCP" # using WPA

In /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf:

network={

ssid="myssid"

psk="passphrase"

}

Run "kldload if_rum" to load the driver while plugging in the wireless adapter.

Then, it should be connected!

How to enable FreeBSD/Xorg on iBook G4 with ATI Radeon card

2010-01-17T21:44:00.003+09:00

This is just for my personal notice but if it can also help the others configuring FreeBSD/Xorg on the old iBook G4.

Please refer to this page and this page.

The important thing here is:

1. Run sysctl hw.ofwfb.relax_mmap=1 as root.

2. Add the "AllowEmptyInput" "off" option in the xorg.conf generated by running Xorg -configure (after running the above command).

The best singer ever

2010-01-07T22:26:00.005+09:00

Long time never post, and what just made me feel the urge is not new year, not tech gadgets, not programming and not work or future or career. It is just a song. A song all know and love for so many years.

我只在乎你 - You are what I care about

時の流れに身をまかせ - Let yourself loose with the flow of time

- by Teresa Teng

So many times I listened to this song, but this is the first time I actually paid attention to the lyrics. Besides the perfect singing performance by Teresa Teng, tribute should be sent to the music composer and the lyrics writer, too. If you happen to understand both Chinese and Japanese, you will soon find that the lyrics are in sync, they have the exact same meaning no matter it is Japanese or Chinese. This is very rare in translated cover songs afaik. And the lyrics are so soft and so full of subtle feeling that perfectly expresses the feeling of women when in love. Everything blends in so nicely and perfectly.

Then, I went on to listen to the same song covered by other singers, but no one actually reaches the same level. Personally feel that they paid too much attention to showing their good voices and singing techniques, but forgot the fact that this song gotta be sung from their hearts.

Lastly, I would like to quote the Chinese sentence appears first on the Japanese version of the video above.

There is this sound that you do not need to deliberately remember, because you never forgot.

Create PDF Forms with OpenOffice

2009-05-19T00:03:00.002+09:00

Emm.. it has been a long long time since I last posted so I guess most of my readers has left this site already :P So have to write something to pull them back.

Well, the title says it all. Did you know that you can actually create PDF forms, the ones with interactive fields that your users can fill in Adobe Reader (but cannot save), with OpenOffice?

The fact is I have been looking for a cheap, or free solution (Adobe Acrobat is costly, my friend). I didn't expect it to be so near. All the while I know you can create PDFs with OpenOffice but never thought that you can create fillable PDFs with it. So, in my quest for the cheap solution I found out that Adobe actually opens up the specifications of the PDF format online for free. While reading through the specs I was wondering why nobody has ever made something for it. And it suddenly got into my mind, would OpenOffice have already supported this?

And YES!

Here is how you do it. Not something difficult but I think OpenOffice should advertise on it more :)

Hope this helps.

Enjoy!

Happy New Year!

2009-01-28T22:56:00.002+09:00

I don't care what day is it now. I just want to wish everyone a Happy New Year!

New Year often gives us hope. But what about a New Day? Isn't that as important as a new year? Or perhaps it is more important.

I remember reading an article that said, we should live each day through as if that is the only day we need to live. Just imagine, how often do you decide to do something in the beginning of the year but quit a week later? If it is just one day, perhaps everyone can do it then :-)

New Year! New Year!

Shanghai Trip

2008-11-10T21:32:00.004+09:00

Went to Shanghai to join a friend's wedding party from 23 - 28 October. This is my first trip to Shanghai and also my first time became the best man. It was sure a busy day. Here I once more wish them Happy Wedding and Happily Ever After (^ ^)

Some photos of architectures:

Statue watching over a building

Pagoda of ancient time

Relaxing :)

Another pagoda of ancient time

Sunset reflection

Sunset reflection II

Sunset reflection on a lake

Photographer taking picture of sunset reflection

A Web CM (which is also a clock)

2008-07-23T23:22:00.001+09:00

PC Maintenance Tip 2: Keep your PC clean

2008-07-13T12:35:00.003+09:00

Many times, people complains that their computer runs slower than it has been running before. And here are a few common reasons:

Disk fragmentation
Bloated registry database

So, today I would like to introduce a few tools which I personally are quite useful in fixing these problems. No guarantee though :P

Auslogics Disk Defrag
A defragmentation tool which is better than the default one that comes with Windows.
Auslogics Registry Defrag
Yes, it is right. Registry can be defragmentationed, too :D
CCleaner
This helps you clean temporary files and also the registry.
WARNING: Backup before you clean your registry.

By the way, I think the best sequence to run these software is: CCleaner -> Registry Defrag -> Disk Defrag.

Enjoy.

Computer Addiction ... the reversed way

2008-06-26T07:53:00.003+09:00

It seems that the worrying role in the computer addiction issue has been reversed recently. It used to be mostly parents worrying about their children but now it is the other way round.

This made me think about one question: would it be less addictive if you grow up with it since young? Or the other way round? Anyone knows of such research?

PC Maintenance Tip 1: Connection Boosting

2008-05-10T11:39:00.005+09:00

If you are interested in the technological terms, check out Maximum Transmission Unit (MTU), Time To Live (TTL) and TCP Receive Window (RWIN). Of course you can tweak these settings in Windows registry, but it is not recommended to edit the registry unnecessarily. Therefore, download a tool like TZ Connection Booster and let it do the tweaking for you.

It is generally believed that good connection can be achieved by setting MTU to 1500, TTL to 64 and have a reasonably large RWIN value. However, you should experiment with various different values, for example, I think I get the best performance at MTU:576, TTL:64 and RWIN:130000+.

The above settings would affect the overall network performance of your system. But some firefox tweaking might help in improving your web browsing experience, too.

Moving back to dotkoyi.blogspot.com :D

2008-04-27T00:15:00.002+09:00

Hi, long time no see on dotkoyi.blogspot.com.

According to my last post, I have moved my blog to dotkoyi.hobby-site.org, which was hosted on my home server, but why am I still posting here? The simple answer is: I have moved back to blogspot.com :P

The longer version of the answer is that, I moved house. In this new house, I switched my Internet provider from ADSL to Cable, which unfortunately caused some trouble with publishing my own server. The real problem is yet to be found out, I just need to have a channel to write :)

Below you can find some old posts which I have posted on dotkoyi.hobby-site.org, in case somebody missed them :P

A lover too confident

2008-04-27T00:11:00.001+09:00

This post was originally posted on dotkoyi.hobby-site.org, which is my home server on 20 January 2008. This home server has to be taken down due to some technical reasons.

I bought an iPod Classic 80GB last Thursday. The guy in the shop asked me whether I was using a Windows PC or a Mac machine, and said that this iPod only works on Windows XP, Vista and Mac OS X more recent than 10.4.x. I said, “OK, but I have both types of machines so it shouldn’t be a problem.” or at least so I thought, although my iBook G4 is still running Panther which is version 10.3.x. I thought there might be some incompatibilities or lack of functions, but the basic functions should work well under Linux or Panther. But I was wrong. Apple did something to the new iTunesDB file in iPod making it impossible to work with other players except iTunes, and even Panther can’t handle iPod anymore COMPLETELY! I just couldn’t get it. If it works with iTunes in Windows XP, what is preventing it from working under Panther??? Disappointed

However, I was lucky that the team at gtkpod (an open source iPod management software in Linux) had managed to reverse-engineered the problem and made iPod working again under gtkpod. Now I have been playing around with my new iPod for a few days with the help of newly compiled libgpod, gtkpod and gpodder, although I feel there are something wrong (I have only used an iPod Shuffle 512MB) so I don’t really know how other models of iPod should work :-P) like the not showing of covers and played podcast episodes don’t get sync’ed correctly with gpodder/gtkpod, I can still live with it

Once again I have to say a big thanks to the open source world

And I have felt much disappointment in Apple. I am still somehow OK if they only block out other players but they have gone too far by blocking out their own OS, too. Those who know me know that I am a big fan of Apple’s products, but now I feel like being betrayed by someone I loved Sigh.

Happy New Year!!! (^^)

2008-04-27T00:10:00.000+09:00

This post was originally posted on dotkoyi.hobby-site.org, which is my home server on 4 January 2008. This home server has to be taken down due to some technical reasons.

Wow it is year 2008! How fast. Here I would like to wish my family, all my friends and all the people a Happy New Year and a fruitful year to come

I used to make new year resolution in my blog, …, ok, only once in year 2006. Oh no, I think I haven’t improved much since then (^^!).

Anyway I think I have somehow managed to realize some of them in certain degree, and my priority for this year changed a bit. So, here I go.

Don’t give up easily.
Be patient and take things slowly.
Be nice to the others from my heart.

Having a lot is just like having none, so this is it. (^^)

Hope that this will be a great year for all of us.

A Christmas Tune

2008-04-27T00:07:00.000+09:00

This post was originally posted on dotkoyi.hobby-site.org, which is my home server on 26 December 2007. This home server has to be taken down due to some technical reasons.

Merry X’mas everybody!

Err… I wouldn’t try this with my board, though (^^!)

A long wait…

2008-04-27T00:05:00.000+09:00

This post was originally posted on dotkoyi.hobby-site.org, which is my home server on 1 December 2007. This home server has to be taken down due to some technical reasons.

Just bought a new 320GB external USB hard disk from the Internet and it was delivered in the afternoon. The last one I bought was about 3 years ago. Since then data has been growing and recently I couldn’t even defrag it since Windows complained that it has too little free space left. So, time for a new one I thought (or a new filesystem without the need to defrag and acessible from all major OSes?). So here it is.

I have been spending the whole afternoon just for moving data from the old to the new one, so I would have my personal stuff on one and work-related stuff on the other. And I noticed something funny regarding the time needed to move data.

First, I moved some 40GB worth of files, which consist of some individual 2GB files (smart reader would recognize this as the consequence of using FAT filesystem which can only handle 2GB per file at most). And surprisingly, it didn’t take a very long time. Now, I am moving about 3GB of files, consisting variable file sizes which are comparatively small. And the time it took has already exceeded that of the 40GB worth of 2GB files. Well maybe this is not something new to find out about and rather predictable, I didn’t know the difference would be so big.

10 Career-killers to avoid

2008-04-27T00:01:00.003+09:00

This post was originally posted on dotkoyi.hobby-site.org, which is my home server on 25 November 2007. This home server has to be taken down due to some technical reasons.

This is the first post I have since I moved my blog from Blogspot.com to here. This article from the career section in Computerworld tells about what you should watch out for if you care about your career path, especially in the IT sector. I just want to keep this link as a reminder to myself and at the same time to share it with you. See ya next.

Please update your bookmark

2008-01-01T23:59:00.000+09:00

Hello fellow readers, I hereby announce that dotkoyi has been moved to the following URL hosted at my home server (^^)

http://dotkoyi.hobby-site.org/

From now on, all updates will be added to the new site. However, I will leave this site active in case there are any troubles with my server at home.

Happy New Year (^^)

Some nice songs

2007-11-15T13:56:00.000+09:00

A long-time-no-see friend sent me a link of a nice song, which led me to this site which provides a collection of more nice songs :-)

To all my friends: I know sometimes when I am too stressed with my work load, I will be very down and this might cause you a bad time dealing with me :-P I am sorry about that and really appreciate you guys being there. Thank you. - from a sometimes-not-so-friendly friend ;-)

For those who are in hunt for a job!!! Must read!!!

2007-11-09T13:18:00.001+09:00

Oh... I absolutely know that I should be doing work now. But this article would certainly help those looking for jobs, this would include many of my friends and juniors. So, let's find out how to answer interview questions properly. I don't know if this works in Japan, too, but I think it would at least impress the interviewers in a good way :-)

10 types of programmers you’ll encounter in the field

2007-11-09T12:58:00.000+09:00

Ya, I totally agree that working at work is more productive than surfing the Internet, but I can't ignore this article. Again, only for programmers, don't say I didn't warn you. Emm... I think I fit in the following types:

The Evangelist
The Code Cowboy

Eating makes you full faster than not eating...

2007-11-09T12:45:00.000+09:00

Found a funny article which claims that working at work improves productivity. This must have been conducted by some frustrated managers who see their employees walking or talking around each day in the office not doing what they are supposed to do. Of course I totally agree with it. Perhaps working is 100% more productive than doing research like this, too. :-P

Mama Stands Up for Her Fun with the Kid

2007-10-28T11:44:00.000+09:00

The copyrights war begins, again. From this piece of news from ABC News, a mother got a take-down notice from YouTube for her post of below home-made video, featuring her toddler dancing to the music in the background. Can you actually tell what is playing on the background? At least I don't.

This brave mother has fought back with a lawsuit against Universal, who has sent the take-down notice. From the mother, after the incident,

"I'm constantly thinking about what's going on in the background, what's on the TV, what's on the CD player, the characters on my kids' clothes, the characters on the toys that they are playing with,'' she said.

"I'm cognizant of what's going on at every step, instead of focusing on my kids, which is where my attention should be."

Are you a right brainer or a left one?

2007-10-17T10:43:00.000+09:00

A friend sent me this link yesterday. I think it is quite fun so here you are.

The Right Brain vs Left Brain

You can find out you are on which side of the camps through a simple experiment. Well, whichever side you are on, I think both are good.... (Now what will happen if both brains perform equivalently well...)

Those who couldn't wait

2007-10-07T00:01:00.001+09:00

Took this photo on the way back from a station not-so-near-by. Some of the leaves are starting to turn red. That means autumn is just around the corner. Weather in autumn can be strange. Hot and sunny in day time, cold and windy at night. So you will have to watch out what you wear. Ha... I don't really know what to write about this photo. But anyway, the photo is not original, which is too dark because I didn't adjust the camera to the right settings. I cut out part of it and made it brighter. Sorry about that.

OK. I am going to take a shower now and go to bed (^^) Somebody might be disappointed seeing this post about nothing. Just like I told you, it is nothing important. Haha. Good night.

China Trip Photo Album

2007-10-02T22:26:00.000+09:00

Hi, I have added some photos taken during my week-long trip to China on Facebook. Take a look. (^^) And below is a short clip of a panda.

Search and Win some prizes!

2007-09-13T01:52:00.000+09:00

Yeah, that's right. Now you can test your fortune by doing searches online with this new search engine called wabbadabba (Why are the names so hard to remember nowadays?). According to their FAQs, they are trying to give back something to the people who are helping them make money. The search results are provided by Yahoo (I wonder why not Google), so those of you who are Yahoo supporters might like it since it gives you a sense of thrill :-P

By the way, I am supposed to be sleeping now since I have an early flight to catch tomorrow. I successfully got into sleep two hours earlier, but woke up feeling some pain in the stomach, thanks to the KFC and ice cream mix I had for dinner :-P But I am OK so don't worry :-)

By the way, recently found an alternative to VMware Server. Let me introduce to you VirtualBox! While both of them are available free of charge for personal use, VirtualBox has an open source edition, too with cut-down functionalities. I tried installing FreeBSD on it and found the results quite satisfying, except for some troubles in the network setup.

OK, I think it is time for me to get back to bed. See you when I am back :-)

Experience some frustrations if your life is too wonderful :-D

2007-09-10T17:10:00.001+09:00

Windows RG (Really Good Edition) Online

Have some frustrations!

Well, I think only those who have used earlier versions of Windows will get the sense of humor in this little flash animation. Later versions of Windows which are based on the NT architecture have suffered less of these problems (for example, the notorious BSOD - Blue Screen Of Death).

Well I think this flash game helps recall some good-old-day memories, doesn't it? :-)

It has been a month :P

2007-09-03T16:19:00.000+09:00

Ok guys, I am still here alive. Just hasn't been in a mood to post anything :P But that doesn't mean that I do have a mood to post now. So I would like to make this a short post, too.

It seems that many people nowadays are cyberslacking during work time through the Internet. Whether this is beneficial or inefficient depends much on individuals. But I think it is important to hit a balance in between.

On another article, interviewers now like to ask spontaneous questions which don't have a definite answer. Well, I like this style of questions though. So there is nothing to prepare for :P

Have a nice nice day.

Programming might be fun as LEGO!

2007-08-01T17:44:00.000+09:00

MIT's Lifelong Kindergarten research group (what a cheerful name ^^) has introduced Scratch, a programming tool used to teach kids how to program. Of course it would be fun for adults, too. Give it a visit and be amazed what the kids are making :-)

Have a nice day scratching (^^)

Microsoft in China

2007-08-01T17:08:00.000+09:00

Found an interesting (but a bit lengthy) article about Microsoft's business in China here.

As I once commented in an older post, Microsoft gains a lot of its market share from software piracy. Seem that even Mr. Gates agreed with me.

"It's easier for our software to compete with Linux when there's piracy than when there's not," Gates says.

I thought I was young but apparently I am not

2007-07-24T01:03:00.000+09:00

Kids say e-mail is, like, soooo dead

I got online since 1997 when I got a 14.4 kbps modem from my sister's friend. I just realised that it has already been 10 years! Wow! How could this be? I thought e-mail was still the simplest technology to keep in touch with people, while SNS was so complicated. But apparently young people think the other way.

In SNS, you have to log in and click around to check what your friends are doing, sometimes it gets so irritating having to check different networks for different people. It reminds me of the time when ICQ was still alive ("What is ICQ? Uncle", some teens might ask :P Give yourself an education here) and Yahoo! Messenger and MSN Messenger were still infants, people tended to use different IMs and you had to keep different clients running at the same time (believe me, you wouldn't like doing this on a Pentium 166 MMX with a mere 48MB RAM).

Luckily, someone came up with all-in-one clients which can communicate with all major IMs and that did help a bit. I did not benefit from that since I have settled down with MSN messenger for a long time.

What is next? A multi-site-compliant SNS, or SNS-for-SNS in short? I am really looking forward to it. :^D

SeedPod Music beta - listen to music while you surf

2007-07-22T10:08:00.000+09:00

SeedPod Music beta.

Take this as a search engine specialized in finding music on the web. You can listen to the songs on the site and no download is needed. Enjoy! :-D

Random posts

2007-06-22T15:19:00.001+09:00

Have been cleaning up my mail box and read about some interesting news that I would like to share.

First, now you can buy books by chapters, said the people at O'Reilly. Those who know me well know that I like to buy books, now maybe this will save me some money :-) Let's see what else can we split into small pieces and sell. "Give me the sleeve of that shirt." :-P

Then, there is a survey on looking for the next generation search engine after Google. Personally I like the idea of KoolTorch, which focuses on the user interface instead of search results. However, I think they should work a little more on their search results, too.

I think an angel sings like this :-)

2007-06-15T02:04:00.000+09:00

She is 6 years old, and her voice is just fantastic :-D

More Free Photos for Public Use :-D

2007-06-13T14:56:00.000+09:00

The title says it all.

You can find free high resolution digital stock photography for either corporate or public use at Morguefile.com. I am happy to have more materials for making pretty web sites.

Read the FAQs and related terms of use if you are concerned about the rights to use the photos.

Sorry, this is just for programmers :-P

2007-06-07T17:39:00.000+09:00

To find out which type of programmer you are.

>>> Programmer Personality Test <<<

This is my result:

Your programmer personality type is:

DLSC

You're a Doer.
You are very quick at getting tasks done. You believe the outcome is the most important part of a task and the faster you can reach that outcome the better. After all, time is money.

You like coding at a Low level.
You're from the old school of programming and believe that you should have an intimate relationship with the computer. You don't mind juggling registers around and spending hours getting a 5% performance increase in an algorithm.

You work best in a Solo situation.
The best way to program is by yourself. There's no communication problems, you know every part of the code allowing you to write the best programs possible.

You are a Conservative programmer.
The less code you write, the less chance there is of it containing a bug. You write short and to the point code that gets the job done efficiently.

Enjoy!

For all the web designers

2007-05-11T13:42:00.000+09:00

For those who have to create a website for someone, the most exciting part might be to present the websites with the coolest design! But, for many, this is also the biggest headache. Personally, I always start with some good designs created by others. (Although recently I would prefer to use some CMS systems and simply apply a theme to it :P)

So where do you find those inspiring designs? Here comes a complete list of web design galleries, created by Web Design Blog.

Hope this comes in handy :)

お弁当のブルーズ

2007-05-10T01:14:00.000+09:00

朝10時台の新幹線で東京に行くとしたら、最初から冷たいコンビニのお弁当を買って、12時に食べるか。。。。それとも。。。最初は温かくておいしそうに見えるお弁当を買って。。。冷めていくのを覚悟しながらそのおいしさが保つこと期待するのは。。。自由だ～！～！～！～！

お弁当 is freedom... お弁当 is freedom.... お弁当 is freedom... お弁当 is freedom....

でもな。。。期待のあまりにめっちゃくっちゃまずいときもあるんで。。。そのときは自己責任でお願いします。。。

by 新幹線でまずいお弁当を食べているコーイ（T T)

皆さんそういう経験はありませんか。＾＾

SuTree - free video how-to lessons

2007-05-06T12:51:00.000+09:00

Now, here is something like YouTube with more useful contents (^ ^) While YouTube is a fine place to kill your time(sometimes over-killed :P), the clips over there are mostly for entertaining purposes. What if you would like to find some video lessons that are more useful for your daily life?

I was looking for more ways to tie a tie yesterday. I didn't look hard enough so all I ended up with was some pictures with text instructions. If I have found SuTree then I would not have to struggle over those mysterious moves shown in the pictures(they certainly look like the Kung-fu figures carved into the wall of Shao Lin Temple :P).

So, here you are, hope you find some useful videos for yourself (^ ^)
http://www.sutree.com/

「要らないプライドを捨てなさい。」

2007-04-21T16:24:00.000+09:00

Throw away your unnecessary pride.

A few years ago, a friend told me that. I don't think that she still remembers that but I do. I kind of agree with her, though.

Pride, while keeps you motivated and feel good about yourself, might hurt you in some situations. Sometimes you don't even realize that it is your pride which hurts you more than any other reasons you struggled to think of.

Following is the list of common unnecessary pride:

You don't ask questions because you think you know more, or you think you can find out the answers yourself.
You get upset and angry when you found out that others are doing better than you do, instead of trying to improve yourself.
You think the world should treat you better because you are just so good. (But you can't really tell how good :P)

More to add but I can't think of them now. Would you please help me out? :)

GOM Player - The Ultimate Solution

2007-04-19T00:20:00.000+09:00

I finally found the almighty video player. Come welcome GOM Player! It just plays! Everything from WMV to RMVB! Including XviD, DivX, FLV1, AC3, OGG, MP4, H263 and the list goes on. Quick! Dump your current media players and get this one (^ ^)

Btw, I have been sick these two days... (-_-)

This explains a lot!

2007-04-10T23:35:00.000+09:00

Official: Powerpoint bad for brains

The title says it all. (^~^)

Blogs by CEO

2007-04-10T00:42:00.000+09:00

企業家ブログ
http://www.kigyoukablog.jp/

企業家たちのブログ集。
これを読んだらなかなか面白かったのでメモしときます。

それではおやすみなさい。

Read faster, can you?

2007-03-23T00:31:00.000+09:00

Many of my friends read, be it novels, technical documents, research papers, whatever. The 6 tips mentioned in this article, "Double Your Reading Rate" by Scott H. Young might help you to improve your reading skills. Here I jot down the points for my own reference, please refer to his article for more detailed explanation on each point.

Remember, Reading is Not Linear
Stop Subvocalizing
Practice Reading
Use a Pointer
Eliminate Distractions
Find Your Motivation

I especially like the idea of "Stop Subvocalizing".

Does distance really make hearts grow fonder?

2007-03-21T22:57:00.001+09:00

I doubt it.

Father of Fortran, John Backus dies

2007-03-21T22:35:00.000+09:00

Although I have never used Fortran before, I heard quite a lot about it from my friends in the engineering fields. Fortran, short for Formula Translation, is a programming language invented in 1950s, but still widely used in today's modern computing world. It is also the first high-level programming language ever created.

Prior to Fortran, computers had to be meticulously "hand-coded" -- programmed in the raw strings of digits that triggered actions inside the machine. [Technology, CNN.com]

The creator of Fortran, John Backus, who also invented Backus-Naur Form(BNF), died at the age of 82. BNF is a way of formally describing the syntax/grammar of computer languages. These two inventions have a great impact of today's IT world.

It is sad to know a great person like that has left us (_ _ )

Rest in Peace.

Microsoft exec said...

2007-03-18T13:26:00.000+09:00

If You're Going To Steal Software, Steal From Us

According to this article from InformationWeek, this is how Microsoft business group president Jeff Raikes thinks about software piracy. I kind of agree with him. Without software piracy, Microsoft wouldn't have their large market share that they are having today in poorer countries. Once the users got accustomed to their products, it would be much easier to sell their products later on when the users get richer and want less troubles(pirated software comes with legal copies of viruses, worms sometimes :P).

Yeah, steal from them, since there is nothing to steal from the open source world.

So, what is software piracy really bad for? The open source world! With cheap commercial products being available at a price of a lunch, no one(except those with a conscience) would even care to use the open source products which might come at the same price. So, who is the actual victim of software piracy? I will leave the answer to you.

I couldn't believe I saw snow in March!

2007-03-18T05:06:00.000+09:00

Yeah, it is still snowing outside.

I am in my room now. Came back to home quite "early" today after having some chit-chat and poker games with my friends in Gusto(a restaurant), on the way back we saw snow falling from the sky! How amazing! Come on this is already March. It hasn't snowed in March since I came to Japan 6 years ago(or at least I haven't seen it before). The weather is strange this year... Hope that the real spring comes on time and we can see the Sakura bloom soon.

Ok, I've gotta go.

To those who joined the poker games, Otsukaresama and Have a good rest :-)

MIT course material went public

2007-03-14T17:12:00.000+09:00

If you are in the technology world, you must have heard of MIT, the world famous academic institute of technology. Now they are kind enough to publish the materials they use in all their courses online. Feel free to browse around and discover what you might have missed in your own studies :-)

Video of the fastest car in the world

2007-03-13T12:22:00.000+09:00

Somebody might wonder that I should be working around this time and shouldn't have the time to write in blog. Well, I was having my lunch when I saw this clip and I am still having my lunch when I am writing this post :P

Although I am not much into cars but some of my friends are. Just want to share with them this video of the fastest car in the world running at its highest speed. Even the camera didn't manage to catch it properly. Enjoy.

Wow! Wow! Wow! This is just so cool!

2007-03-12T22:52:00.000+09:00

Come on you have to read this! This is just so amazing!

New Technique Stores Data in Bacteria

Artificial DNA with encoded information can be added to the genome of common bacteria, thus preserving the data... According to researchers, up to 100 bits of data can be attached to each organism. Scientists successfully encoded and attached the phrase "e=mc2 1905" to the DNA of bacillus subtilis, a common soil bacteria.

I wonder if your antivirus software would accidentally kills them? (^ ^)

Save the world while you chat!!!

2007-03-11T21:18:00.000+09:00

Hi everybody, now(or later) you can tell your boss that you are helping the world when s/he complains that you chat too much!

* This currently only works in the US.

It is pretty difficult to explain what it is about, so I will leave it for you to find out. This post just serves as a reminder for myself if I happen to forget the URL :P

Tata.

A long-awaited Chinese New Year

2007-02-27T21:54:00.000+09:00

Since I came to Japan 6 years ago in 2001, I have been spending Chinese New Year in Japan sitting for exams almost every year. This year I finally had a chance to go back to my hometown to celebrate Chinese New Year with my family. Everything is so nostalgic, the firecrackers, the angpows, the food, the people. Although I haven't made it to finish my report before I went back to Malaysia on 10th Feb, thus having to spend the first week doing report at home, I am very contended with this short trip.

After spending the first week doing report, I met up with someone I had wanted to get close to but had never been too close before. We went to shop, went to Old Town(a new cafe chain store in Malaysia), went to a movie, went to karaoke and spent almost everyday together the week after the 1st day of CNY. I even sent her off to work early in the morning. Honestly, I haven't been so energetic for a very long time.

Then, we spent a really sweet night on the beach. Soft music flowing from her mobile phone through the air along with the soothing sea breeze. And the sky was so full of stars(alright, not the whole sky but part of it). The atmosphere was just so perfect! We talked about many things, her life, my life, and the probabilities in the future.

However, time seemed to pass faster when you enjoy it. Soon I had to come back to Japan to continue what I had left off. Well, among the holidays that I spent in Malaysia, this is definitely the one that I will never forget.

Stack Overflow: How to make the stack bigger?

2007-02-08T02:02:00.000+09:00

Hi, fellas!

It has been a long time since I have posted something really technical. So here I am again.

We have been asked to implement a quicksort-based selection algorithm and another one based on random sampling to compare them to each other in one of the lectures. But wait. I am not going to tell about these algorithms. What I want to say here is more general, more system related.

Ok, by looking at the algorithms, everyone can tell that the quicksort-based method, because of its simplicity, runs faster in a usual case when the target array size is small. So, in order to be able to say that "the random sampling based method performs better when the size of the data set is large", I have to make sure the sample size is large. And here the problem begins!!!

When you run a program, the operating system puts your program into the RAM. At the same time, it also allocates some spaces for the consumption by the program, in case it needs it. There are two types of allocated memory, stack and heap. I don't really remember but I think that the stack is used for function calls and variables, whereas the heap is used when you allocate memory dynamically by calling malloc().

Stack overflow occurs when your program needs more memory than allocated to it. In my case, I need a lot of space to make sure the data set is large enough to see the difference between the algorithms, so the default stack size allocated by MinGW gcc is not enough for me. I later found out also that stack size allocated to a program is handled by the operating system it is run on, so there is no sure way to turn around this problem. Luckily I came upon this file. It provides exactly what I wanted. I link to it here in case I will need it again some day, and maybe you would find it useful, too.

It is kind of late now so I have got to go.

Good night.

Hi, isn't this a nice desktop?

2007-01-28T11:51:00.000+09:00

Wow, I haven't made a post for almost a month... Not that I didn't want to but I have been busy configuring my new desktop computer :P Now you must have guessed that I have finally got a mac but you are wrong :P After much thought I stayed with PC for one more round. Why? Although the entry level for a mac is not that expensive, but when you think that you can get much better specs with a PC, you will give it a second thought.

However, after I have watched the presentation about the new APIs and technologies of the new Mac OS X, Leopard, at WWDC 2006 for developers (you can download it via iTunes for free if you are a ADC member, free registration :D), I really think that the coming Vista is going to lose some share :P

Ok, now let's have a look at my new desktop PC, which has the following specs:

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6300
Memory: PC6400 1GB x 2
Motherboard: ASUS P5B-V
Graphics: Intel G965 Express on-board
OS: Windows XP MCE

Well, these are about all that you need to know :) Now please look at some pictures :D

From the front

From a different angle

Desktop: Skinned with Flyakite OS X

Desktop: Yahoo! Widgets

Running Kubuntu on VMware Player

Running Kubuntu on VMware Player: Login Screen

Running Kubuntu on VMware Player: Kubuntu Desktop

Virtual Desktop Manager that comes with Microsoft PowerToys

I will try to make some tutorials on how to make your Windows desktop look that way when I find the time. Since it is not exactly that hard, maybe you can just google the keywords yourself and get yourself up and running :P

Till then.

Suki - SUper K Iconizer - Release 1.0

2007-01-04T17:19:00.002+09:00

First of all, Happy new year!!!

It is so fast that 2007 is here. Let's hope that this will be a better year for all of us.

And the first good thing in year 2007!!! Suki - SUper K Iconizer - is released!!!

Suki - SUper K Iconizer - is a small tool that helps you convert any supported image files(*.jpg, *.png, *.bmp, etc.) into icon resource files(*.ico) which you can use as favicon in your website or as shortcut icons in MS Windows platform. Besides converting existing files, it also lets you capture part of your screenshot and convert them into an icon.

You can download it from my static website here.

See you again! (^ ^)

This is awesome!!!

2006-12-29T11:57:00.000+09:00

Sorry for keep posting YouTube clips here, but I really think that this piece of work is awesome!!! This proved only one thing, with some creativity and time(much time?) spent, even annoying things like the MS Windows default sound theme can make good music :P

So let's stop complaining and start composing :)

Super hero living inside the computer...

2006-12-27T12:39:00.000+09:00

This is funny :D

What a great idea!

A great news video site

2006-12-19T01:02:00.000+09:00

Hi, I know I told my friends that I would go to sleep soon more than 30 minutes ago, but I am still here blogging :P But I have an excuse... err... reason. I found this very good news site with lots of videos. Take a look! It is definitely far better than reading a lot of text just to get some new information :P

New York Times Video

And this is what took me there, funny: Windows Vista.

Keep On Budgets! 0.1 Released!!!

2006-12-14T21:32:00.002+09:00

Have been thinking of making a software which can help me to keep track of my spending pattern. I know there are many good softwares which can do many amazing things out there, but I have the following reasons to write my own:

Getting used to the wxWidgets API.
Make it as simple as possible so lazy folks like me can manage to continue keeping record.
Just for fun.

So, here you are: The Home Page of Keep On Budgets! and the Downloads link for Linux and Windows.

Thank you for your attention :D

Let me know if you have any problems using them.

Why Windows Vista is so delayed

2006-11-28T09:47:00.000+09:00

Hello guys, sorry for not updating for so long. Have been busy with assignments for the past few weeks.

I came across this article by Joel a few days before. It is an article which criticizes on the unnecessarily bloated shutdown menu in the oncoming Windows Vista.

Then today morning, I found another article, in reply to the above, written by a former developer in Microsoft. What amazed me was not that it takes so many people to implement such a trivial feature, but the fact that:

So Windows has a tree of repositories: developers check in to the nodes, and periodically the changes in the nodes are integrated up one level in the hierarchy. At a different periodicity, changes are integrated down the tree from the root to the nodes.

It is so wrong from the software engineering point of view. The bazaar style of the open source development might be more manageable compared to this. At least you see changes commited by others right after they have done it. Heard that the windows kernel is a microkernel and they should be able to divide the tree of repositories into independent ones. But, well, integration is always the strong point of Microsoft :P

The Falldown of the Laundry Empire; The Heater Strikes Back!

2006-11-12T10:44:00.000+09:00

The pile of laundry has been accumulating since I came back from Malaysia. Today I finally made up my mind to do something about it although it is a rainy day. But well, since the place to dry the clothes has a roof so who cares :P

And then, the temperature falls below 15 degrees finally. And thus I have to switch on my heater again. In my last room, I can more or less guess the temperature and do whatever preparation accordingly. But since I just moved to this new room the last Spring, so it is hard for me to do that. How cold will it get? Stay tuned and be updated about the latest temperature :-)

Side report:

The new MacBook with Core 2 Duo inside has been finally available!!! But since I don't need a laptop now, it is just pure excitement :-)
Read a report somewhere that said Windows Vista will be released on 30th January, 2006. So be prepared to update your hardware if you wanna use it :-P

Ciao.

No wonder everybody thinks logic is no fun...

2006-10-27T11:04:00.000+09:00

Vampires a Mathematical Impossibility, Scientist Says

Well, although that might be true but shouldn't we leave some space for our life to be less realistic so that we can still have some fun? :-D A "research" which matches the oncoming Halloween, though...

By the way, I don't really believe in vampires. I believe more in spirits and ghosts :-P

Setting up Windows XP SP2 as a WEBDAV client

2006-10-26T16:29:00.000+09:00

[ This is just a personal note for myself, but of course I hope it can be useful for the others, too :D ]

On setting up Windows XP SP2 as a WEBDAV client, I referred to this webpage. However, it didn't let me upload files to the server, without asking me for any username and password. I checked further in the Internet and found the reason and solution. It seems that Windows XP SP2 turned the necessary BasicAuth parameter off. To enable it, you should add the following key to the registry with regedit and set its value to non-zero.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM \CurrentControlSet\Services\WebClient\Parameters\UseBasicAuth (DWORD)

I am not sure about other environments, but on my machine, this alone didn't help much. The response of the client was painfully slow. I don't remember where I read about this, but if you add a tailing "~" to the address of the WEBDAV folder that you are accessing, some black magic is done in the background and your problem goes away.

For example, instead of saying "http://www.mydomain.com/", you should say "http://www.mydomain.com/~".

The above solution solved the authentication problem partially. It still doesn't allow me to drag-and-drop files into the WEBDAV folder directly. And here is a trick to do that. Right after you open the WEBDAV folder, right click on the empty space inside the folder, and choose "Create new folder", then it will (hopefully) ask you for your username and password. Enter your username and password here, and check the box to remember it so that you don't have to do this again the next time.

And this is how I have done it and I hope it helps you, too.

Firefox 2 がリリース

2006-10-25T16:38:00.000+09:00

なぜか日本語でブログを書いてみようと思ったので今回は日本語で．

先週あたりに Internet Explorer 7.0 がついにリリースされた．個人的には試してみたかったけど，友人にしばらく様子をみた方がいいって言われた．（＾＾）まあ，私はいつも Firefox を使っているから試しに IE 7.0 を入れてもいいかなと思いつつ，未だに入れてません．

その内に，何と Firefox 2.0 がリリースされた（＾＾）！！！Mozilla のホームページが更新される前に FTP サーバーからダウンロードしてインストールした．2日間使っていたが特に何も問題はありません．色々なところで改善されているらしいけど，私は地味に基本機能しか使ってないのでよく感じないが．．．

It is about art!

2006-10-14T23:13:00.000+09:00

Hi, sorry for not updating the blog for a long long time. Have been back to Malaysia for two weeks plus, busy with work for another week (- -!)

So here is the recent update, I went to 万博公園(Bampaku Park) today to join an activity in which you use natural materials to make something out of them. Although I didn't make it to create something extremely nice, I really enjoyed the process. And below are two of my masterpiece :P Actually, there is another one but I gave that to a friend as her birthday present. And would like to say Happy Birthday for her once again. Best Wishes :)

Inuyama Castle

2006-09-11T19:31:00.000+09:00

Hi, guys.

I am now doing my internship in Inuyama, Aichi Prefecture. I visited Inuyama Castle last weekend and here are some photos I took with my handphone :)

Magnatune: Is this the answer?

2006-09-03T11:36:00.000+09:00

The music industry has been suffering from piracy since the introduction of the MP3 format. Many online music stores have been trying to solve the issue of piracy with many different ideas and models but with little success.

Magnatune appeared as a rather promising solution to the situation. Instead of trying hard to protect their rights, they generously respect choices of the consumers by making many restrictions loose. Just to name a few:

All of their albums can be listened in full before you decide to buy. And the sound quality is very nice, too.
All of the work you purchase has no copy protection mechanism(DRM) in them. You can play the music everywhere.
You decide how much you pay! Starting from $5. Furthermore, 50% of what you pay goes straight to the artist.
You are allowed to share the music that you purchased with up to 3 friends. And according to this page, "If you abuse our generosity, we're not going to break down your door and throw you in jail. We just want you to feel a little guilty about it ".

There are other freedom you can get which show why magnatune is not evil. Not a very long one so you should find it out yourself :)

With the advances in the IT industry, I think sooner or later artists will have their own websites selling their own work instead of going through an agent. When that time comes, they might use this model of payment without the 50% limitation. In other words, "Pay me as much as you like me" :P

New "Get a mac" ads... funny as usual

2006-09-01T23:31:00.000+09:00

New "Get a mac" ads.

Enjoy!

I know this is short but bear with me... :P

If Microsoft repackage iPod product...

2006-08-24T17:03:00.000+09:00

Found this quite funny.

Microsoft iPod Packaging

Enjoy :D

Is this Japan?!?!

2006-08-19T19:49:00.000+09:00

I went on a 3-day trip with the members of my laboratory. And below are the photos taken at one of our destinations. The place is called 太陽公園(Taiyo Koen, Sun Park). Although you have to walk a lot, I found it quite fun and worth a visit if you have nothing better to do :P

The Grand Entrance

Tien-An Square

A closer look

This was impressive

Some familiar statues :P

How would they miss the pyramid?

A nice read about the linux kernel

2006-07-27T16:11:00.000+09:00

Myths, Lies, and Truths About the Linux Kernel

And lengthy yet interesting presentation on the linux kernel. Even if you don't read the text, please scroll down and check out the slides. I like them very much :D

WARNING: Only for those who know what a kernel is :P

Have you helped spread ads not knowingly?

2006-07-27T10:27:00.000+09:00

I remember arguing over the genuinity of a short video clip circulated in the Internet with a friend some time ago. Unexpectedly, I found the answer this morning, here.

It is reported in BusinessWeek Online that companies are making advertisements so funny that viewers don't even notice that they are watching an advertisement themselves, and later on forward the ads to their friends. I believe that you have at least got some of these clips unknowingly, and might have forwarded some of your favourites to your friends :P

I myself have been enjoying watching TV commercials for a long time(Believe me, Japanese commercials are so funny :D), so I don't really mind this phenomenon of circulating funny ads through the Internet, as long as they make them funny enough. In fact, neither the sites, nor advertising companies, want virals to become the new online spam. So I think we can relax and enjoy ourselves.

However, just to avoid the same argument that I had with my friend over the genuinity of the video clips, I would appreciate that they at least put a statement stating that the clip is just a creation but not real :P

This is what I would like to see :D

2006-07-27T10:09:00.000+09:00

Finally it is here!
(I later found out that it has been there since 2000 :P)

A website through which web designers share their great designs!

Open Source Web Design

And don't think that these designs are only made by amateurs, the founder of the project owns a web consulting firm, and many of the designs look professional.

Time to change the looks of some of my websites :P

Birthday Party (^ ^) --- Thanks!

2006-07-24T17:04:00.000+09:00

Had my early birthday party last weekend with many of my friends :D Thanks a lot guys! This is really one of the best birthday parties I have ever had (^ ^) And thanks for the birthday presents, too :) Can't say enough thanks for everything... thanks thanks thanks... (^ ^)

↑My birthday present :D

Are they trying to bring the image of Open Source down?

2006-07-19T10:09:00.000+09:00

From this stupid article, Hackers learn from open source, it says that "hackers" are using cvs, the Concurrent Versions System, which is used widely in the open source world to share and manage their malicious codes.

Firstly, they made a very big mistake in that statement, hackers never write malicious codes, those who write malicious codes are called crackers. Since programmers and developers in the open source community often proudly refer themselves or their counterparts as hackers, this mistake might bring down the image of the true contibutors to the free software community.

Secondly, hackers don't learn from the open source development model, they actually created it. Those who need to learn are the crackers.

Thirdly, I would say it is a good thing if those crackers actually share their codes with the world, in that case, those working at the antivirus/anti-malware/anti-phising department will be able to easily peep into their codes and find solutions even before the malwares work. Oh, they don't share their codes with those in the anti-virus sector? Well, too bad... since they say those crackers are learning from the open source development model, I thought that they share with everyone... :P

Just to release my anger towards this type of irresponsible report.

FlashView - A Flash Animation Manager -

2006-07-16T17:12:00.000+09:00

Attention everyone!!!

FlashView is the first application that I wrote and made public (^▽^) It is a little utility that helps you grab flash files that you viewed in Mozilla Firefox and organise them so that you can view them easily afterwards. Below are some screenshots of FlashView.

And from the home page of FlashView:

Have you ever wanted to store those flash animations(esp. games) that you are playing with a web browser onto your local disk? Now with FlashView, you can do just that :)

By the way, please note that you need .NET Framework, which is distributed for free through the Microsoft's website, to run FlashView.

Download FlashView Right Away!

Enjoy and please let me know if you face any problems with it.

Thank you.

Have you googled(TM) today?

2006-07-15T11:34:00.000+09:00

The word "google"(TM) is finally declared as a verb in the latest edition of Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary. However, be warned that there is a possibility of receiving a strongly-worded letter asking you to either remove the offending use of the term or note that it is trademarked.

YouOS - The possibilities -

2006-07-14T12:18:00.000+09:00

Imagine a full OS running inside your web browser.

What do you think?

My first reaction was, "who would need an OS inside a browser?", and "If I had a browser running, then I must have an OS running behind it. So why would I need 2 OSes running at the same time?". However, after I played around with this web operating system for a while, I realized that there might be more than I have thought.

The basic idea behind YouOS is an web-based operating system running on one big virtual machine. Users who log in and use YouOS are thus sharing this virtual machine and its filesystem. Therefore, YouOS implements the idea of sharing from the ground up! It just depends on whether you allow the other users to view/edit your files, whereas the real sharing is done by the OS. Those files are not on your local machine anyway, so you don't have to bother to send your files back and forth, making backups in the process.

Another good thing about YouOS is platform independency. You can access the same interface, the same files and the same environment from any gadgets that you own, be it a real PC, or other handhelds as long as you can run a browser on it.

Of course, as it is stated in the website of YouOS. It is still on an early experimental stage and the goal is still far away. But what is important here is the idea of the web operating system. I think I will register for an account and play around with it for a longer while so that I wouldn't be left behind when everyone else have already got used to it.

One more thing. As it has been happening all the time, there might be more web operating systems like this popping up in the near future. If there is no standard established amongst them, then we will end up where we have started, facing all the problems caused by the differences amongst several platforms, once again.

And this is a more in-depth article on Slate.com. Have a good read.

I am Professor X... wanted to be Wolverine...

2006-07-06T23:45:00.000+09:00

Just watched X-men I and II. Trying to find some character info but ran into this quiz. As a quiz lover, I took the quiz and see what I have got. Professor X.... well... since 16% of the people who took quiz got this answer, I think it is not that bad afterall. Take the quiz yourself if you like.

See ya.

Which X-Men character are you most like?

You are Professor X!You are a very effective teacher, and you are very committed to those who learn from you. You put your all into everything you do, to some extent because you fear failure more than anything else. You are always seeking self-improvement, even in areas where there is nothing you can do to improve.
Take this quiz!

Quizilla |
Join

| Make A Quiz | More Quizzes | Grab Code

An old film...

2006-07-02T16:33:00.000+09:00

Just watched a movie which you would't believe that I only watched it the first time today. Well, that might not be true since there were a few chances for me to watch it. In fact, this is the third time I rented this movie. I don't know why. But every time there seemed to be something distracting me watching it. Then the rental periods were dued and I had to return it to the video rental shop.

Well, all that aside, it is indeed a very good movie like everybody else said. Although many think that the essence of the movie lies in its ending and if you have known the ending there is no fun watching it, I still think it is good even with the ending known(thanks to a really nice fellow who was kind enough to tell me the ending... don't remember who exactly, though...).

Someone who looks bad-intended might not really want to hurt you. Indeed, they just need some help. They just can't help to look bad. But most of the times we just turn them away, and let them down. I think this is pretty sad. I think I have done this myself many times. I will try to remind myself next time.

And I think you should have guessed what movie that is. If you still don't, I won't tell you the title straight. But I will just tell you its famous line,... "I see dead people...". Those who don't know please google for it and find out the name of the movie and go rent and watch it.

Gonna enjoy the rest of my day. :)

See ya.

Immaturity Levels Rising

2006-06-26T00:10:00.000+09:00

According to a research, adults nowadays are more "like a kid at heart" compared to last time. Surprisingly, although it states that "the faults of youth are retained", the article is more on the bright side of this phenomenon, referred to as psychological neoteny amongst scientists.

Serious Study: Immaturity Levels Rising

So, don't blame yourself for not being mature enough. It might help you succeed someday :-D

Okayama Tour

2006-06-22T09:26:00.000+09:00

Good morning! I am waiting at home now because I woke up too early. Later I am going to Okayama for an "academic gathering"(研究会) at the Okayama University. Since I have nothing better to do I just came to leave a goodbye message here before I go.

Finally, after my presentation tomorrow I will have a short time to relax myself :D

See ya again.

1000 vs. 1

2006-06-18T18:26:00.000+09:00

There are always a thousand of reasons to make yourself unhappy. Therefore, that one reason that makes you happy becomes so precious that you should never forget about it. If you can't find any reason to make yourself happy, keep trying because it just means that you are not looking hard enough.

Today is the Fathers' Day. Here I wish you all, whether you are a father or not, Happy Fathers' Day!

And for my family, there is another big event today. My sister is no more single from this day onwards :D Here I would like to congratulate her and my brother-in-law and wish that they will live happily ever after (^ ^) Gong xi, gong xi...

New Apple ads

2006-06-15T10:07:00.000+09:00

Hi, I don't remember if I have posted about this before here. But anyway, Apple just added 3 new ads to their collection of "Get A Mac" advertisement series. I especially like "Network" and "Out of the box". Enjoy :-D

http://www.apple.com/getamac/ads/

Wanna get a mac, too...

Job seekers, research yourself with Google...

2006-06-12T10:10:00.000+09:00

Found a link to this article in Slashdot just now. Just thought that this piece of information is vital to students who will have to look for a job in the future. Perhaps this is just happening in the U.S. for the moment. But who knows? The U.S. tends to set "good" examples for the other countries to follow.

For Some, Online Persona Undermines a Resume - New York Times

So, think twice before you make something public next time. You can never make sure who is paying you a visit online.

I had better go check out about myself now :-D

See ya.

Flower along the road to school

2006-06-06T09:47:00.000+09:00

Someone just complained to me last night that I haven't updated my blog for such a long time. Well, have been busy with many things and if I have posted an entry during that time, it would just be full of complaints and frustration :P Now I have finished many of the tasks and finally feel like posting an entry again.

This is the flowers that I saw blooming in front of a house when I walked to school one day. I thought the colour was very attracting to me and therefore I took a photo of them with my handphone. I especially like the fading colours that it showed, not sharp, not outstanding, but beautiful in its own way.

I always find ending a blog entry hard. It is not like I can make a conclusion out of what I have written up there. So... just see you :D Hope the next entry won't take that long again... :P

An unlucky day?

2006-05-11T22:24:00.000+09:00

Hi, I am tired. I am tired but feel like posting an entry here. Saw the title? Wonder what have I had today? Hahaha, I kicked a pile of dog's shit on the way back home. Not stepped on but kicked. How often do you kick a pile of dog's shit? Come to think of it, I might not be unlucky but instead quite lucky. Well, it was dark so I couldn't see it. Moral of the story, leave your leg higher from the ground so you don't kick something on the road.

And ya, I am tired now. But sometimes I like the feeling of being tired. Not the tiredness itself but it is the feeling of accomplishment after completing some of the work that makes me feel happy. Although there is still work left, I think it is enough for the day.

Recently I like to listen to the songs from two artists, Norah Jone and Jack Johnson. I knew their songs through a friend of mine so I would like to thank her here. Their songs are really relaxing. Yesterday, and it was a Wednesday, I listened to their songs in the train with all the working people around me, yet I felt like it was a Sunday. :) Check them out if you like relaxing music, too.

Going to Oita, Kyushuu tomorrow night for a meeting. So see you after I come back. Take care.

A cooking day...

2006-05-05T15:16:00.000+09:00

Had my house warming party at my friend's house last night :D Thank you all who have helped and contributed to the party directly and also those who came to the party :)

And today, I cooked again just now. The menu today is the Kimuchi Chicken + Squid's tantacles. I know the name is a bit funny but I don't really know where it should be named, too. But it tastes not bad :) Below is a photo of it. Looks spicy but actually it is not. And see ya.

New advertisements of Mac... Funny...

2006-05-03T01:55:00.000+09:00

Hi, long time no see. Since it is quite late now and I am going to Kyoto tomorrow morning, I have to make this post as short as possible. Just before I wanted to go to bed I discovered about the new advertisements for Apple's Macs. Check it out. I especially like the one about network. I think you will like it, too, if you speak the language of the new digital camera from Japan. :P

http://www.apple.com/getamac/ads/

Enjoy. Good night.

Hanami

2006-04-13T00:40:00.000+09:00

Hi, I am currently recovering from a minor cold. But I think I will be ok tomorrow.

School starts. Nothing special yet. Just like the same old days.

Went for Hanami(Sakura Seeing) on the past Sunday. Taken a few pictures with my old film-based camera. Quite nice but not as I expected. Since I didn't take any picture of myself with that camera, here are two pictures of me under the Sakura tree taken by my friend's digital camera.
I think it is a controversial topic whether I should smile with teeth shown or hidden. What do you think?

With teeth hidden.

With teeth shown.

Ok, time's up. See you next time.

Long time again...

2006-04-06T12:31:00.000+09:00

Wow... I don't remember when is the last time I posted a message here :P Sorry about the blank time. It might be a blank time in this blog, but there has been no blank time in my life. Done quite a lot of things in the spring holiday, including moving my room from one building to the next. Well, those are not important things, so let's forget about that.

Read a news last night saying that you are now able to run Windows on a Mac machine natively(dual-boot with Mac OS X). And it is officially supported by Apple. You can get the beta here: http://www.apple.com/macosx/bootcamp/

Enjoy :D

Oh, I seem to be Brown in Colour...

2006-02-08T12:30:00.000+09:00

Haven't updated this blog since I am busy working on the report of the final year project lately. Well, everyone needs a break and I needed a longer one :P So I took this test and it said that I am Brown. Here is my result:

Brown

You're brown, a credible, stable color that's reminiscent of fine wood, rich leather, and wistful melancholy. Most likely, you're a logical, practical person ruled more by your head than your heart. With your inquisitive mind and insatiable curiosity, you're probably a great problem solver. And you always gather all of the facts before coming to a timely, informed decision. Easily intrigued, you're constantly finding new ways to challenge your mind, whether it's by reading the newspaper, playing a trivia game, or composing a piece of music. Brown is an impartial, neutral color, which means you tend to see the difference between fact and opinion easily and are open to many points of view. Trustworthy and steady, you really are a brown at heart.

!!!CAUTION BEFORE YOU CLICK ON THE FOLLOWING LINK!!!

It will ask you about your e-mail address but since you don't need it to see your result, just give them something that you don't mind being junked.
Now go find out what is your colour (^ ^)

Wow... Am I that good?

2006-02-01T17:39:00.000+09:00

The result of The World's Shortest Personality Test:

Your Personality Profile

You are nurturing, kind, and lucky.
Like mother nature, you want to help everyone.
You are good at keeping secrets and tend to be secretive.

A seeker of harmony, you are a natural peacemaker.
You are good natured and people enjoy your company.
You put people at ease and make them feel at home with you.

The World's Shortest Personality Test

Take the test yourself and tell me the result :)

Happy Chinese New Year!!!

2006-01-29T13:28:00.000+09:00

Today I feel so good! The wheather is fine. The temperature is warm. And the most important thing is that this is the first day of Chinese New Year!!! Although there is not much celebration over here in Japan, I went out with some malaysian friends and had a dinner... then went to karaoke with them last night to celebrate the great event. :)

Once again, 新年快楽!

Oh ya, I made some wallpapers for the Linux operating system. Download and use them freely if you like. It comes in blue initially, the red one is here for the festive season. Enjoy!

Hi, there

2006-01-26T14:11:00.000+09:00

Another post from the lab.

Recently I have been keeping to a very healthy schedule, waking up at 09:30 and sleeping at around 01:00, until last night. Last night, I worked on my research until 4 in the morning. Although I woke up at 11:00 today, I feel good. Not that I want to say that I feel good because I have had 7 hours of sleep, what I want to tell is that sometimes it is good to break out from a routine. Of course in order to break the routine, you will first have to have a routine.

We always hear people complaining that they are tired of routine work. And we feel good when we can get out of it. So, what I would like to suggest here is, why don't we purposely get ourselves a routine and then delibrately break it? Then we might feel good.

Alright, enough non-sense.

Just read a comparison by CNET between the AMD's dual-core chips and Intel's dual-core chips. I have gained some interest in Intel's since Apple's new iMac and the coming MacBook Pro are using its Core Duo chips, but this article has reminded me about the truth. Go to look for yourself, AMD is certainly the winner. However, there must be a reason why Apple has chosen Intel's. And I think I know the answer. You see. AMD's chips, although powerful, has a bad reputation on energy consumption and heat problems. After experiencing the consequences of these weaknesses with Power PC, I think Apple has made the right choice. However, I think if I am going to buy a desktop, AMD is the sure way to go. On the notebook side, stick with Intel.

Just some thoughts.

You can read the review here.

Oh, ya. Before I forgot.

Happy Chinese New Year!

Watched 2 movies today...

2006-01-23T01:56:00.000+09:00

It is 1:56 in the morning and I should be sleeping now since tomorrow is Monday. But obviously I am not. I was very tired and sleepy just now but now I feel a little refreshed after brushing my teeth and washing my face. The effects won't hang around long I suppose. So this might be a short post.

I watched 2 DVDs in a row today. They are "Batman Begins" and "National Treasures" and I think they are fun to watch. Although not really good but good enough to kill some free time. Before I forget, I would like to mark down two sentences that I like from "Batman Begins":

"Why do we fall? To learn how to pick ourselves up." - Thomas Wayne

"It is not what underneath you, but what you do that defines you." - Rachel

Perhaps not exactly what they are in the movie but I think this is pretty close.

Now I am going to sleep. Good night.