My So Called Life

I am now blogging at Wekgna.com

2006-11-21T22:17:00.000+08:00

I no longer update this blog, for my latest blog postings, they can be found at

http://www.wekgna.com/blog

at the same time, do check out my photo blog at

http://www.wekgna.com/pblog

and my Honda City blog at

http://www.wekgna.com/mycity

Back to wekgna.com

2006-11-13T12:19:00.000+08:00

My host is up and I am back blogging over at wekgna.com/blog

http://www.wekgna.com/blog

Back to Blogger

2006-05-10T10:58:00.000+08:00

I am back to blogger, atleast for a short while, till I get my site setup. What happen was that my Host, hivehoasting.net had a HDD failure, and as a result, a year of blog post were lost. Luckily, the adminstrators was able to recover the files back to End of last year (so my photoblog with Movable Type were save), but unfortunately, the entire MySQL DB were wipe out, and I was using Wordpress for my blog, and as a result, entire year of posting gone. And I was stupid of not doing backup. I've wanted to move out of wordpress sometime back, I guess this is no better time...

Bored with Blogger

2005-03-03T15:14:00.000+08:00

I have grown bored of Blogger and have created a new blog under my photoblog domain. My latest postings can be found at http://sweetsour.uni.cc/blog/

Updated:

http://www.wekgna.com/blog/

Tak Lingkup

2005-02-04T13:30:00.000+08:00

The www.uni.cc domain is up and running. Ironically after I setup a new domain for penangblogger.tk this morning, the www.uni.cc service is back up. If only I have waited more, anyway, atleast the viewers have an option to access when one of the domain forward is down.

[Listening to: Just Friends - Gavin DeGraw - Chariot [Bonus CD] Disc 1 (03:25)]

Down or Lingkup

2005-02-04T07:57:00.000+08:00

The penangbloggers.uni.cc site has been down for a week now. This is mainly because of the www.uni.cc free domain service. Somehow, my sweetsour.uni.cc is still functioning however, the penangbloggers.uni.cc is not operational on the other hand. I suspect that the www.uni.cc is down and thus all domain hosted there are not operational. My sweetsour.uni.cc on the other hand is hosted at my web host and thus it was not affected.

Anyway, since penangbloggers.uni.cc are down, and there is no indication if they were down for a brief period of time or they are lingkup totally? I have setup another domain from the dot tk free service. The downside of this host is that they force a pop-up banner everytime anyone access the site. I will check the www.uni.cc service periodically and will update once it is up. In the mean time, penanbloggers can be access through

www.penangbloggers.tk

I have just set it up and thus, it would not be activated for another few more hours.

To Accomplish

2005-01-01T21:57:00.000+08:00

A new year, certainly a whole new set of feat to accomplish. In the past, I have never believed in any New Year Resolution. This year, though I still dont believe in one, I do have a few things that I would like to accomplish. Though some of them may be far fetch, it is still a nice thing to do or have... Here goes...

Walk from Penang - Taiping (and maybe down to KL or M'cca if time permits)
Make RM50K from investment
Revamp my photoblog template
Take a Train from Penang - London
Setup Wireless Digital Media for my home enabling the TV & Sound System to be able to stream Music & Movies from my PC wirelessly.

Everyone Chip In

2004-12-29T08:35:00.001+08:00

This morning, the Radio 4 guys were driving for some money for the Malaysian Tsunami Victims to help them to get back to their daily lives. One of the caller that pledge RM200 made a good point when he talk about the upcoming new year celebration. Every year there are fireworks and huge events to welcome the new year. He was suggesting that the nation grief for our lost and the money to the fireworks are channeled to the victims. I thought that was a wonderful idea, then again, up to this stage, the fireworks would have already been purchased, and I am not sure if the local government who would have paid for the fireworks could do anything about it.

In Penang, the new year is celebrated mainly in the esplanade and Gurney Drive. Since tsunami alert are given till end of the week, will the celebration this year still go on? By the way Siti Nurhaliza is to sing at Gurney Drive on new year eve... I wonder who could make the decision about the celebration?

Prison in our own home

2004-12-28T21:47:00.000+08:00

Grill, the one word that cross every house owner's mind, a deterrent, a fashion and a device that makes our home, a prison. All the houses in my Taman already have Grills installed in them. Every window opportunity that a thief could squeeze thorough are implanted by steel bars. Personally, I despise steel bars, they make the home to look more like a prison. But it is something that everyone can go without. The bars are meant to be a deterrent, and could never stop a persistent robber. However, when a home does not have any bars, it automatically becomes an easy target compared to the neighbors. I was recommended a new window that has steel bars built into the frame and they look pretty stylish, however, these windows cost a bomb to install. I am still at a delima on weather to install or not... I guess it is better to be safe and be sorry.. or in this case.. be broken into...

w.bloggar

2004-12-24T10:23:00.001+08:00

Testing out a tool that I stumple upon, it is called w.bloggar and it is able to connect to multiple blogs with on just one interface. It has a bunch of text formating feature which is great. I am still playing with some of the features... pretty cool... oh, the current version v3.03 does not support MSN Spaces...

[Listening to: Look What You've Done - Jet - Family Style (12/24/2004 10:20:54 AM) (05:29)]

Video for PPS

2004-12-24T08:18:00.000+08:00

Recently, there were a few bloggers who threw some ideas around on making video for PPS, and I was rather intrigue by the idea. I took a few snapshots of the resident Bloggers site and compile them with Photo Story 3. I could not decide on the music to include, so I just put in what I have been listening to for the past month. Anyway, it is a lame attempt, I would like to see what kind of response does this generate.

PPS Promo Video
3Meg .wmv file

Survivor Vanuatu Finale (No Spoiler)

2004-12-13T14:01:00.000+08:00

I remember once Jeff Probst, the host of survivor took the vote from the camp and then take a jet ski across the ocean to the Studio to announce the vote.... This time, the stunt 'tidak kurang dramaticnya'... He took a 'parang' and chop his way through a jungle from night till day to a plane, and then parashute down to a bike and ride to the studio and announce the winner. Everyone were already at the studio and the last two contestant were already waiting. The last two were all clean and neat and surprisingly, gain some weight, much weight actually...

Xinhua - English

2004-12-11T08:01:00.000+08:00

Xinhua - English

I am holding out for this...

My Space, My Words, My Domain ? New Guidelines For Banks

2004-12-10T13:13:00.000+08:00

My Space, My Words, My Domain ? New Guidelines For Banks

I just install the "Blog This" plug in on FireFox and tried it out on this posting. Regarding the new Bank Negara ruling, I believe it may not be a good thing after all. On the surface, it is good cause the banks no longer have the freedom to charge what they want, and so the price of service are regulated. The bad thing is now, other banks who do not charge, may start to consider charging. Why not? The price is regulated and no one can charge more, most likely, everyone will have the same charges. So, in all, the consumer may be in for a raw deal. But then again, this may not happen, the other banks may still decide not to charge anything.

MSN Space

2004-12-09T16:14:00.000+08:00

Microsoft started Beta on a new Blogging tool called Spaces. I notice Microsoft likes to put 's' at the end of a word and make it a name for their product. Windows for instance, and now Spaces. Well, this is beside the point. I have tested out the webhost / client and found many interesting features that are rather impressive. In many ways, it is much better than Blogger, and then again, in many ways, it fall far behind. Nevertheless, I did a mini review at Msn Spaces itself which I setup.

Check it out at http://spaces.msn.com/members/shagalot/

Yea.. the blog address is rather sad... I still love Blogger.com blogspot address....

Oh, by the way, read the review from bottom up...

IceCream at Cafeteria

2004-12-02T07:05:00.000+08:00

I found out yesterday evening that our Office Cafeteria sell iceCream from 2-3pm everyday… mmm… what a wonderful finding.. I am going to try some today…

Email Icon Generator

2004-12-01T08:22:00.000+08:00

I came across Earl Ku's site and was intreague by the little mail icon on the top right. I imediately searched in google and found a site that actually generate little mail icon. They not only genegrate for Gmail, but for other mail services as well, such as AOL, Yahoo, MSN, Hotmail, Rocketmail, etc.. I generated some dummy mail address below to illustrate how the icon looks like. Pretty Cool...

Mail Icon Generator - by nHacks

Digital Camera

2004-12-01T04:14:00.000+08:00

Everybody wants a Digital Camera, it is top of the US Christmas Wishlist this year, overtaking the favorite DVD player last year. Even my 6^th Form sister in-law tried to coax my wife into getting one for her birthday. Digital Camera is the latest device that changed the world. Developing films was once a way of life, going into the shop and some shops boast 30 minutes services. Digital camera have changed or revolutionized in how everybody live their life, especially in documenting them. The price of a digital camera is not that cheap compared to the old Analog Cameras, but, the freedom to just snap away and decide on the good prints basically put the cost to the back of the consumer’s mind. As time goes by, the price of a digital camera will drop, similar to the computer models, however the latest and greatest camera will remain to have a high margin and highly priced.

I do see a short life of digital photography though. How much Megapixel does the consumer need? Similar to the Gigahertz dilemma that computer manufacturers has. Companies like Intel and AMD are moving away from Gigahertz to features, like Wifi, multi-processor, etc. How will the digital camera evolved beyond today? I would think the Megapixel race will reach a certain mark. The next thing the camera manufacturers could do is making faster cameras with more functions. Today many camera comes with internal memory, that enable several features such as taking multiple shots at a time, and this enable the camera to break free from being dependent on the Flash Card Write Speed.

The digital cameras are still at it’s infant stage, and in time, better cameras that take much clearer photos will fill the market. Yet, there is a limit to that. There are many variables within the consumer cameras, such as zoom, special effects, etc that the manufacturer could enhanced and they do not have to do it all at once. By doing little at a time, it ill keep their business going for years to end.

Lord of the Rings Risk

2004-11-30T10:08:00.000+08:00

I had a go at the LOTR Risk last night with two of my colleagues. Many of my colleagues have bought this game and I was curious on why it is so attractive. Hasbro boast that one can play the game like the original Risk or play the LOTR story. We played the LOTR plot, however, we did not play the entire rules. The game setup is exactly the same as Risk, but the game have additional cards, which are the Mission / Adventure cards. These cards add twist into the game, making it more interesting and less predictable. It can enable you to quickly finish and win or prolong the game. There are many ways to win the game, eliminate all your opponents, have the highest score at the end of the game (when the ring is destroyed at Mt. Doom) or the one of Sauron’s Minion finds the Ring. With the plot similar to the epic, it is easy to lost one’s self into the game. The game only supports 4 players at a time, 2 good and 2 evil, this is 2 less than the regular risk game. I wonder why?? Nevertheless, this is one of the LOTR game that has a plot very similar to the LOTR epic and I highly recommend this game for LOTR fans. Me inclusive.. will probably get on if it is on sale…

Nirvana - With the Lights Out (Box Set)

2004-11-30T08:00:00.000+08:00

The new Nirvana box set was released late last week and I was curious to find out what was in the box set. The set comes with 3 CD of 61 Nirvana songs that have not been released before and one DVD. I am not much of a Nirvana fan, but was intrigue by some of their songs. I felt compel to check out the latest installment from them since Kurt eliminated himself. This release is full of live or demo (at least it sounds like it) recordings that are raw and unedited or enhanced. This is how Nirvana is like, loud, crude and at times, senseless. I believe a fan would love all the 61 songs, but for me, I will stick to the selected few. I would not spend my money on this box set. I would rather buy individual tracks from itunes or elsewhere. “You Know you are Right” was one of the last songs that Kurt wrote and sang and was tainted with some legal issues prior. Critics says that this was Kurt’s best. To me, I love the acoustic guitar moves and the way he sings the song which haunts. The recording was not that clear, and was rather soft. If this song were to be dressed up, it would be much easier to digest.

Energizer was my choice

2004-11-30T06:26:00.000+08:00

I finally decided on Energizer and bought the 15minutes charger that comes with 4 2200mAh batteries for $27 at Target. There was this guy at the Canon Talk forum at dpreview.com that advice against Energizer because the charger, according to him charge the batteries in burst mode, and is bad for the batteries and also cannot charge other types of batteries other than Energizer. I decided to get it to test it out, to find out if what he was saying is really true. To me, I don’t really care if the batteries last forever or just last 500 cycles. Nothing is forever anyway, the more we recognize this fact, the more we can deal with changes.

Anyway, I got the batteries and whola, the batteries were ready in 15 minutes. In addition, there was also a cooling fan built into the charger to cool off the batteries. This is the first time I sees any cooling fan in a battery charger. The fan is making a loud noise, like all fans do, and think this is more good than bad. First it cools down the batteries, which is good for them, and secondly, I can now locate where I charge the batteries. In the past, I have to go looking into corners to find where I charge the batteries. The noise was not too loud and it is softer than the computer fan sound.

By the way, Energizer.com boast that they replies all enquiries within 24 hours, and today is almost a week since I send them my question regarding the charger, and I have yet seen any reply.

DVD Burner & Media

2004-11-25T23:52:00.001+08:00

The question I have been asking myself is, do I need to upgrade to the DVD burner? Do I need the extra space that DVD provides? Today I backup all my photos onto the CD media, and we know that CD media have a data life of approx 5 years, which means, to be safe, I will have to transfer my photos to new CD every 3 years (to be safe). CDs are relatively cheap today however limited to 700mb of space. DVD on the other hand, offers triple the amount in space, but still the same of data life 5 years. Apart from the additional space which would translate to less media, there are nothing much to it. I think I will still stick to my CD-R’s for a while, till my next computer upgrade, maybe 8 years from now.. by then we may have better media..

One Touch Food Order

2004-11-25T23:52:00.000+08:00

I notice these buttons on the hotel phone recently. Will have to try them out before I leave….

Amazing Race 6

2004-11-25T23:48:00.000+08:00

Well, the race has begun again and I have not blog of it yet. The new rule in this round of the race is that each member of the participants can only participate in 6 of the road blocks. This will seriously hold some teams back. Also I have notice from the past two episode, the racer gets to overnight at midpoint before elimination the next day, this gives level the playing field and any gain accumulated earlier previous day is gone. Not sure if the entire race this will continue.

More on Rechargeable Batteries

2004-11-25T04:57:00.000+08:00

As I was prowling through the web, I found this site from Matt Blaze who have done some extensive testing and talked about reliability of batteries. The heat produced during charging destroy the batteries in time and if the charging temp is too high, our batteries will have a short life.

I was thinking, in the long run, does it really matter? Does it matter if the battery were suppose to charge 1000 cycle, and we are only able to charge 900 cycle? By the time, the battery reach say 700 cycle, the market would already have new and much higher capacity batteries, and the batteries price would be cheaper. In addition, by 700 cycle, the capacity of the battery would have drop significantly and where previously one could get say 100 shots off, now can only get say 60 shots.. by then we would be looking for a new battery.

Nothing last forever anyway…