VID: Which Whose Way After Convocation?

The past two years went by alarmingly fast.

Without warning, I'm days to finishing the last semester of my diploma. In fact, I have friends who have finished everything, and are now so free they can spend their time to read my nonsensical posts.

So, how were your diplomas, guys? Well, mine was fantastic. I managed to get my first Touch n' Go card, lost my identity card the first week of school, participated in countless debates with lecturers, created a blog, rushed assignments, and wrote lots of nonsense (both as homework and in the exam halls). Yeah, they're more nonsensical than the posts here, mind you.

Sigh... Anybody looking forward to the graduation ceremony?

Well, I happen to stumble across a, erm, performance, in search for a better word, for a university's graduation ceremony. So tune up your speakers, sharpen your ears, and enjoy the song below.



No, he's surely no Michael Jackson, but his he's way better than William Hung, I think.

Maybe we should request the same thing from our principal?

Credits to aguyin734 for uploading the fantastic video, and to Phineas Falcon for the referral.

So, whose way is it anyway?

The Matured Cellphone

No one can doubt that the cellphone (or what Asians call "hand-phone") is getting more and more sophisticated.

Thinking back to the olden days, I have to admit that this handheld gadget is the fastest evolving thing ever invented in modern history.

Well, take cars for example. How much differences are there between a 1930-car and a 2000-car? I wouldn't be surprised if some people only come up with, "Uh, the old cars don't have air conditioning?" Well, those people must have had their cars' broken down some time ago.

On the other hand, what about cellphones? While a 2000-car is considered quite new to the market, you would be probably be the most outdated person in the world if you're still using a 2000-cellphone. Heck, the Chinese even burn latest PDA-phone paper-gifts for the deceased nowadays, complete with chargers and Bluetooth 2.0 headsets (Bluetooth 3.0, anyone?).

And a 1930-cellphone? Well, I believe it as much as I believe Doraemon.

Yet there are still lots of space for improvement. Battery lives are getting longer, capacity of phones are doubling every now and then, stereo speakers are popping up (waiting for surround?), megapixels rating of camera are climbing, together with integrated flash. Connection to the internet is also better than ever, now reaching 3.5G. As if that wasn't enough, GPS is now included too. What's more, some phones allow you to pinch pictures to the size of a walnut or to pull images so that it stretches like a chewing gum, offering realistic controls. Not to mention the size and weight of those things - they are getting thinner, lighter, and sexier faster than a dieting 19-year-old girl.

No, I'm not asking for a wristwatchphone, not yet, I am pretty glad with my N-Gage QD at the moment. It's a great thing - I get to blog.

But one blog isn't enough - I need a few more blocks. Not a sunblock though. Something like erm, SpamBlock, or AdBlock.

Yeah... Too bad... the phone is evolving, and so are its services. Advertisements and spam mails are finding their way to my cellphone, disrupting me at the wrong times for the wrong reasons.

Beep beep!

"Join Jay Chou's concert by..." I couldn't stand to finish the message. With a jab of the button I removed the message from my phone and continued slumbering. Yeah, Jay Chou is great, but I can't stand being squeezed like I'm Spongebob in the...

Beep beep!

"Keep in touch wif ur frens n family wif..." I jabbed my phone again.

Beep! "Brighten up ur day wif..." Jab.

Beep! "Lonely? Find frens thru..." Jab.

Beep. Jab. Beep. Jab. Beep. Jab. Beep beep beep beep beep. Jab jab jab jab jab.

Honestly. This is my phone! Not the Colosseum! Why do I get beeped and have to retaliate with a jab so often?

In fact, sometimes, I'm receiving more junk messages than sensible ones. In other words, this means that the phone is more troublesome to me than it is useful.

What made it worse is that most of the messages were sent by the service provider itself. I guess they don't have enough brains to send the message when most of us are free, after dinner, for instance.

Oh wait, I just hear a beep. Please be patient while I return this jab. I may, or may not, survive at the Colosseum.

How Old is USB?

I couldn't believe I was so outdated.

It was only a few hours ago that I realised that the USB (abbreviation for Universal Serial Bus) has been around since 1996. I had always presumed that the ultra fast port was created well after the new millennium. How wrong was I.

OK, to be fair for myself, I wasn't even 7 by then, and could barely read simple English. While the words "Universal" and "Serial" would have made no sense to me at all, I perfectly understood misunderstood the meaning of the word "Bus".

USB was then upgraded to USB1.1 in 1998 and USB2.0 in 2000. So, if you're still using USB1.1, keep in mind that you're utilising a decade-old technology.

That's analogous to a century-old human. Or a month-old daily newspaper.

Oh, by the way, USB2.0's 8th birthday isn't too long ago. He's getting quite as young as your great-granddad is.

Well, there isn't much breakthrough to the USB family since the advent of USB2.0. No thanks to Intel and Microsoft, the mainpower behind USB, the former giving full attention at dividing their brains into twos, fours, or eights for the past few years, and the latter starting the woes wows by replacing XP with Vista. Yet we should be thankful that Intel has started working on a revolutionary USB3.0, and devices employing this port should appear in the market within a year or two.

And what do we expect of USB3.0? There are some sneakpeak from Wikipedia. Basically it is supposed to be 10 times as fast as USB2.0.

Now we just hope to get our hands on the real thing, USB3.0-speed.

In the Dark

I gently pushed the door open, and was frightened by the creak it emitted. I quickly entered the dark room, trying my best not to awake its occupant, who was snoring away peacefully.

I tiptoed across the room, and looked around, plans running through my head. After making a quick decision, I began attempting to locate my target. Laptop... In the drawer. I proceeded stealthily towards the table...

Shash.

I froze, not even daring to breathe. I had just stepped on a plastic bag, previously lying crumpled on the floor, invisible in the dark. I turned my head, observing the silhouette of the figure lying on the bed, which twitched for a moment, but went still after that.

I let off a silent sigh of relief, and carefully removed my leg from the booby-trap.

I reached the drawer. Just inches away from all the information i needed!

Rats. The drawer was locked. I glanced around. Hitting the lock would be too noisy, so would it be if i tried to move the table. I needed something like...

A key. There was a bunch of keys on the bed beside the table. I picked it up as slowly as possible, trying my best not to betray any jinggling. I felt for the smallest key, and stuck it inside the lock. I tried to turn it, but it was stiff. I tried harder, sweat forming on my forehead. Come on...

Then the lights flickered on. There he was, the first occupant of the room, woken up, tousled hair, staring at me with a stern expression, hands folded, towering over me.

I raised both of my hands timidly, the keys left dangling on the lock.

A few seconds' pause, during which i shivered a lot, and his faced turned bright red with anger.

"P-p-please, I just..."

"For the last time, do not make any noise when i'm sleeping!"

"l-I know. I just need my computer."

He stared at me for a few seconds as i cowered. Then he went back to bed, breathing like an angry bull, muttering "how unfortunate to have you as my roommate."

"Sorry," was all i managed to mutter.

"And mind you to turn off the lights after you've finished, noob burglar."