Save the world while you chat!!!

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

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?

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?

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

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!!!

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...

This is funny :D

What a great idea!

A great news video site

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!!!

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:

1. Getting used to the wxWidgets API.
2. Make it as simple as possible so lazy folks like me can manage to continue keeping record.
3. 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

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!

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:

1. 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 :-)
2. 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...

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

[ 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

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!

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

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?

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

New "Get a mac" ads.

Enjoy!

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

If Microsoft repackage iPod product...

Found this quite funny.

Microsoft iPod Packaging

Enjoy :D

Is this Japan?!?!

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

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?

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

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!

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?

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 -

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?

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 -

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...

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...

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

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

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

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

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...

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

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?

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...

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...

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

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...

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...

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?

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!!!

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

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...

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.

Just to update...

Haven't updated this blog properly for quite a long time. Just drop by to update you about my life and those things/events that interested me recently.

First of all, I am currently working on the evaluation of the system I have built for my final year project. Then I will have to write my thesis(or report) based on it. There is only one month left and I am still not very sure about how well I can do. But I will try my best :) Fight fight!

Apple always catches me in surprise. They just announced their new Intel Mac recently. Although we all have known and expected that they were going to move on to the Intel platform but I didn't expect they could build the product so quickly. But I love surprises :D Instead of telling people that there will be something nice and ask them to wait, I think it is better to first make the thing. And let's get back to the new Intel Macs. There are currently two products announced, iMac and MacBook Pro(only available in February, though). You can watch the clip of the keynote here. I would like to have a MacBook Pro but it is just too pricy for me at the moment. Let's see if they are going to have a cheaper notebook line like the iBook now.

The Theory on the Quality of a House

The quality of a house is decided by the ones living in it; not by the house itself.

Happy New Year!!!

First, I would like to wish everybody a Happy New Year!!! I have a feeling that this new year will be a better year for all mankind :D And I think this will be a year full of change for me. First of all, I will graduate(hopefully) in March and continue on Master Degree in April. And then last morning my landlord told me that they are going to tear down the building that I am now living and build a new one. So, I have to temporarily move to another building. But since changes always give birth to new things, I am going to face these changes positively :)

And since this is new year, I would like to make new year resolutions:

1. Be more focused and concentrated.


2. Do thing one at a time.


3. Be a smarter consumer.


4. Stop worrying too much.


5. Be more self-motivated.


6. Be nice to the others.

By the way, I went on a snow board trip from 26th December to 30th December 2005. Although we couldn't play much on the day we arrived because of the heavy snow, we managed to enjoy ourselves on the second and the third day. Like usual, I will post the photos on my static website when I have the time.

Starting off to ski trip

I am now in my lab having finished the mid-term presentation. Later I am going to take the bus to... (sorry but I forgot the name of the place) to play snow board(play?). So, for sure I am not going to update my blog in these few days but here I want to wish everybody a Happy New Year!!! (too early...) Well, since I will be busy during the end of the year(busy enjoying myself) so I just want to make an early wish. Hope that the coming year will be a better year for all of us :D

And next year is the year of the dog... woa! woa!

Added the ablum to static website

Hi, just as promised I have added the photos I have taken on the day which snowed heavily.
Check it out :)

HERE!

See you :)

Merry Xmas

Why do I need a forest if all I ever need is just a shade to rest under?

Merry Xmas.

A white Xmas & Beware of the Santa worm

Merry Xmas! Xmas is just around the corner and it has snowed quite heavily today. Above is the photo of my bike being covered by snow... poor fella... More photos will be uploaded to my static website when I have the time.

And while you are in the holiday mood, don't be fooled by this worm reported by ZDnet here. Viruses and worms tend to appear during holiday seasons.

So see you again :)

Life long debugging process

From a developer's point of view,
life may be a piece of software which needs constant updating and debugging. Now where is the next bug?

Tomorrow's a holiday :D

Late at night thinking...

Thinking about what? An algorithm for my current research :) And I finally thought of a way to make what I want it to happen happen. Well, since it has nothing much to do with other people so I am not reviewing it here :P

And now I can go to sleep happily :) Going to implement the algorithm tomorrow. Now I wish morning comes sooner :) See you and good nite :)

Template change again

Hahaha, I don't really like the girlie look of the former template, so I changed it again. And I added a photo in the profile box. It was my former handphone strap but since it tore off some days ago so now my phone is naked...

Changed the template..

Just tried to change the look and feel for this blog. Look a bit girlie? I think so, too. Anyway, will put it this way for some time and see...

Japanese Proficiency Level Test

I just sat for the Japanese Proficiency Level Test Level 1 today. FYI, level 1 is the highest level you can take in this test. Well, what can I say, I haven't actually prepared for it. I would tell you that because I want to know how well I can do without any preparation if you ask. But in fact I just didn't have the time + mood to prepare for it :P

The test is not as easy as I thought, but not extremely hard, too. Just feel a bit nostalgic answering all those questions. I haven't taken a test for language since the time I was learning Japanese 4 years ago. Just made me think about the good old days :D

Well, the test is one thing. The other thing is that it has rained heavily today. And it is very cold. Heard that it will be even colder tomorrow. >Sigh< So I suppose I will spend my whole day in my lab tomorrow.

Wanted to wash clothes but...

Ok, that's all for today.
See ya :)

Firefox 1.5 is out!

Quick, go download it from here. Amongst the new features are:

1. You can now rearrange your tabs.
2. Clear up sensitive informations(history, cookies, etc.) in one click.
3. Faster rendering.
4. Find out more from the above website!!!

I know this sounds like an advertisement but it is not. Those who know me should know that I am a hardcore fan of the mozilla team. I hope you enjoy it, too :)

See ya.

To test the template :D

Hello, please ignore this post, I am just trying to see how things get displayed with this design template :)

Now, this is a blockquote:

Well, a blockquote looks like this. Now just want to make it longer to see the whole of it. It looks nice. Oh now let's think about it. Why didn't just copy a block of text instead of typing it like an idiot? :P

I watched "Saw"...

Yeah the title of the movie is "Saw". Not the past tenst of "See" but the tool you use to cut thing. The story is quite scary but not without meaning. Highly recommended. But not for the weak-hearted. Watch only if you have no heart problems.

Have had many activities today. First, I would like to say "Selamat Hari Raya" to my Malay friends. And thanks for the Open House they had today. Nice food! Thanks.

After the Open House, we went to a garden(Bampakku) to take some photos of momiji(red leaves). But unfortunately, the battery of my camera died off halfway so I didn't manage to take many photos.

Then, went to eat sushi(nice food again), doughnuts. And at last watched "Saw".

Didn't mean to report the whole day at first but just feel like writing more.

See you next time until you have watched the "Saw", too :P

Good nite.

Just dropping by

Hi, sorry for not posting for almost a month. Just don't feel like writing about anything. Not that now I have something to share but just want to drop a line so that you guys know I am still living fine.

Last night went for a movie called "The Corpse Bride". Quite nice an animation. Very creative and some jokes about death. It is trying to show you that sometimes the deads are much sweeter than the living ones.

That's all for today.

See you then and have a nice holiday(if you are in Malaysia and Japan).

About the ads...

Recently I noticed that there are many random advertisements added to my blog here. Well, since I enable the option to let anonymous user post replies to my posts, so I suppose that this is unavoidable. So for the time being, please ignore them. I think it is pretty easy to recognise the ads from the real replies.

Anyway, I am looking for a way to get around this but since I am not that free recently so this may take some time. So please don't be cheated by them.

About OpenDocument

Having waken up earlier than I have planned, I am surfing the web to kill some time. And I have found this article about Microsoft Office's support of the OpenDocument Format(ODF).

As its name implies, ODF is an open format that every applications can adopt. Imagine this, how many times have you got a file that only a proprietary application(something that costs money) can open/save to from your friends, and you have to write back to them to convert the format to another one which you can open with a free software?

If Microsoft is kind enough to implement this ODF into its office suite, then we may be able to use an alternative office suite(which is free) without any worries about incompatibilities. However, There might be a catch behind. Even if they implement ODF into Microsoft Office, we can never be sure whether they will try to manipulate the format once again. (Just look at what have they done with the WWW standards and you will know)

Well, if you also wish to get rid of the lock-down of Microsoft Office, perhaps this is the time for you to download OpenOffice.org(which is totally free! No catch) that supports ODF. But just be careful not to download version 1.1.5. The version that supports ODF is version 2.0 and above. Although it is still in its release canditate(rc) state, I think it is reasonably stable enough for daily use. For the safe bet, perhaps you should wait for one or two months before the official release comes out.

Microsoft must support OpenDocument

OpenBSD Release Songs! Cool!

Just something to share. It seems that the other free and open-sourced operating system, OpenBSD, claimed to be one of the most secure OSes on earth, has a release song associated with their every release since 3.0. And many of them are quite nice to listen. Hope you enjoy it as much as I do.
Tips: Don't just listen to the songs, read the explanation on the left of the lyrics so you can understand the songs better :D

Here you go:
http://www.openbsd.org/lyrics.html

I have to go now since there might be a sales in town.
See ya! :)

The different feelings...

When I was in Malaysia, I liked to stay in my house most of the day. Watching TV, DVD, VCD; reading some books, magazines; doing some work I brought back. These seemed to be the most exciting things that I can do, and I really enjoyed doing them. Although the Internet connection back home was a merely 56Kbps dial-up, I did really take the time and read the articles on the web.

When I came back to Japan, I like to stay in my house most of the day, too. But doing basically nothing! Or should I say I am doing too many things, without one being at the satisfying level of accomplishment. Weird, huh? Despite all the resources I have here, I am not so keen on doing what I have been doing back home anymore...

So, what is the moral behind the story? Who knows...

Listen to this and amuse yourself :-D

This is a cool idea!!!

Someone has use the voice of those talking dictionaries to sing some famous songs. And it is really funny :D Enjoy!

http://www.dictionaraoke.org/

A lot to report...

Wow... the last post was posted before the Graduate School Entrance Exam... and you know what, the result has been announced more than one month. So I did passed the exam and that means I will stay here for another 2 and a half year.

After getting the result, I went on a trip with lecturers, seniors and friends. Right after that trip, I went back to Malaysia. And this morning, I came back to Osaka again. Time is fast. So, use your time wisely. :)

Didn't have enough sleep after coming down from the plane, so see ya for now. Good night.

Oh yeah, I came across this article when I was in Malaysia. Hope you enjoy it, too. But be warned, only interesting for technology people. :D

Get passed weekend blues (^ ^)

Har... Finally I got over the weekend blues and started studying like normal again. Should think of a way to escape the blues before another weekend comes. :P Any ideas?

Oooopppsss...

Sorry that I forgot about the promise that I would continue to write last night. But never mind, I don't think you care anyway :P

Just now I went to a local electircal store to get a light tube to replace the old one. And naturally I had a look at what softwares they are selling. And I just notice that almost half of the shelves is filled with antivirus softwares. Now I think these company should thank microsoft for its popularity :P

What I thought was that, there are in fact many free alternatives out there. Here is a list of some of them which I have tried:

Antivirus:

1. AVG Antivirus
   http://free.grisoft.com/
   I'm using this :D


2. Avast! Antivirus
   http://www.avast.com/eng/avast_4_home.html
   You need to register every year... although it is free


3. ClamAV
   Official site: http://www.clamav.net/
   Windows port: http://www.clamwin.net/
   An open source software. Under development now but I think it will be highly usable in the near future. So be sure to check it out frequently.

Firewalls:

1. ZoneAlarm
   http://www.zonelabs.com/
   This is certainly my choice! Since it doesn't nag on me :P For power users, the following two maybe better :)


2. Kerio Personal Firewall
   http://www.kerio.com/kpf_download.html
   An alternative


3. Sygate Personal Firewall
   http://smb.sygate.com/products/spf_standard.htm
   Another alternative.

If you can't find the one you like, just search for "Free antivirus firewall" on google :D

Enjoy the free world!!!

Gulugulugulu....

Now ignore the title since it doesn't bear much meaning.

There is an old Chinese saying, "Bitter now and sweet later". It means suffer now so that you can enjoy later. But what about enjoy now and enjoy again later? Of course you have to do your planning so that you can spread your bitterness evenly but not focusing it on one spot.

Oh, my room is getting hot so I am going. See ya. Perhaps will write the rest tonight, and perhaps not.

Bye bye.

A good idea (- -!)

It is so HOT~~~~~~~~~~~~!!!!!!!!!!

If someone has ever invented a time machine, I have thought of a good way to use! First, you make a hole that connect to the space on the other time on your wall. Then, set the destination time to which it connects a winter time. Then, the cold air would flow throw the hole to your room! With this, you don't need a heater in winter, too!!!

Arrggghh... how brilliant I am.... (_ _!)

To all my busy friends...

I have so many busy friends around me. What about you? Everybody just seems that s/he is so occupied by his/her studies, by his/her work, by whatever s/he is busy with. But why am I always the luckiest one who doesn't "seem" busy at all? Well, I think I am "optimally" busy. Have enough work to keep me busy, yet with a little time left for myself to enjoy my live. Good luck to those busy ones. I hope they will have their rewards for all their hard work :)

Today I would like to talk about the topic "Being Happy". I once told my friend, when he was miserable, that you can be happy anytime when you want to be. Of course he opposed to this idea and thought that I was crazy(Ok, I added this one... :P) But come to think about it, is that actually something that prevent you from being happy all the time? "Being happy" is just a state of your feelings. You feel good. If you insist to be happy, will anything outside you can stop you? Ya, maybe there are. This is a world full of challenges. Challenges that prevent you from being happy. But if you simply insist on being happy. Nothing can stop you :D Just like nothing can help you if you want to feel sad and miserable.

We often hear that one "can't help feeling bad", but I would hope that someday somebody would tell me that, s/he "can't help feeling happy" :D Isn't that nice?