Something tells me I'm gonna end this year with a happy note after all.
I hope you enjoyed 2010 as much as I did.
A very happy new year to everyone.
Wednesday, 29 December 2010
Monday, 27 December 2010
Boggle
Wrote a small JavaScript routine to generate a regular 4x4 Boggle board, complete with a 3-minute timer. Read about the game at Wikipedia for the rules, if you're not familiar with it already.
It's pretty primitive now, but it's definitely usable. The 16 dice (and their faces) are fully scrambled, the timer counts down from 3 minutes and hides the board after the game to make sure no one cheats (the board can be shown again with a single click of the mouse). Best of all the game is fully HTML/JavaScript, which means it can be played without an internet connection.
If you find it lame, well, sorry about that. If you like it, however, more features may be added, such as a dictionary function, if I decide that I like this little piece of gadget. Even better, try some commercially available online Boggle games!
Enjoy Boggling, and a belated Merry Christmas to everyone!!!
Browser compatibility
It's pretty primitive now, but it's definitely usable. The 16 dice (and their faces) are fully scrambled, the timer counts down from 3 minutes and hides the board after the game to make sure no one cheats (the board can be shown again with a single click of the mouse). Best of all the game is fully HTML/JavaScript, which means it can be played without an internet connection.
If you find it lame, well, sorry about that. If you like it, however, more features may be added, such as a dictionary function, if I decide that I like this little piece of gadget. Even better, try some commercially available online Boggle games!
Enjoy Boggling, and a belated Merry Christmas to everyone!!!
Browser compatibility
| - Mozilla Firefox 3.6+ | Yes |
| - Google Chrome | Yes |
| - Windows Internet Explorer | No |
| - Apple Safari | Yes |
| - Opera | Yes |
Wednesday, 22 December 2010
艺笔童心5少儿书法展
开幕当天舞台布置
有什么好东西？！
司仪们开幕前来拍拍照。
开幕前七位主角都坐好了！
开幕前来个笛子表演。
颜思平小姐致开幕词。
谢凯炫（左）及余敏怡代表七位主角致词。
七位学生，七彩缤纷。
开幕咯！
开幕后，参展者开始动笔挥毫。七位当中唯一男生黄子轩带领。
挥毫后与妈妈拍照！
第二位，李函仙！
接下来是颜琬淇。
颜琬淇家人不在，就与朋友合照吧！
其中一位参展者代表余敏怡提笔挥毫！
余敏怡与哥哥——我啦！
另一位代表谢凯炫。
谢凯炫家人。
到陈泳佳了！
“风华正茂”！
最后一位了——刘颖珏！
大功告成！
看七位小朋友对作品多么满意！
“我们做到了！”
离开座位前来个扯铃表演。
到参展者为观众带来手语演出！
喂，你们都在干嘛？看表演啦！
学生及老师合照！各个那么开心！
散会前填饱肚子吧！
Magazines
Chapter 1: Fortune Magazine
Q: Once there was a man who worked as a spokesperson for the Fortune magazine. What is the title of his position?
A: "Fortune teller".
Q: Guess his favourite snack?
A: Fortune cookies.
Q: He was sacked one day. Why?
A: He was un-Fortune-ate. Not unlucky, just un-Fortune-ate.
Chapter 2: Time Magazine
Q: There was a man who worked as a photographer for the Time Magazine...
Q: Once there was a man who worked as a spokesperson for the Fortune magazine. What is the title of his position?
A: "Fortune teller".
Q: Guess his favourite snack?
A: Fortune cookies.
Q: He was sacked one day. Why?
A: He was un-Fortune-ate. Not unlucky, just un-Fortune-ate.
Chapter 2: Time Magazine
Q: There was a man who worked as a photographer for the Time Magazine...
Friday, 17 December 2010
Grampa (1989 - )
In case you haven't noticed, the Big Red Seal has gone white.
The explanation is obvious.
I've had a rather dramatic couple of weeks. I'll leave the talking to the photos, and have a minute of silence.
The obituary.
Newspaper article expressing gratitude for the RM20,000 donation raised over the funeral.
Yeo Guan Seng 1932 - 2010, Grampa 1989 - .
The explanation is obvious.
I've had a rather dramatic couple of weeks. I'll leave the talking to the photos, and have a minute of silence.
The obituary.
Newspaper article expressing gratitude for the RM20,000 donation raised over the funeral.
Yeo Guan Seng 1932 - 2010, Grampa 1989 - .
Wednesday, 15 December 2010
Sights of Malaysia: Petronas Twin Towers
I've been to the Twin Towers countless times before. And I had my camera with me on many occasions. And I shot quite some pictures over several of them. However, I never got any presentable photos.
Until now.
Took quite a few tries to get this, and the end result still isn't nearly as good as it seemed in my head. Stitched panorama of 3 individual images, resulting in a 24MP image.
Getting this photo was challenging, mainly because so freaking many people were trying to catch something from the same angle. Stitched panorama of 3 horizontal images. The stitcher churned out a .TIF file 37MP in resolution and over 140MB in size! And no, this is not a tone-mapped image.
Mind you, I'm still not particularly satisfied. May be visiting KLCC with my camera again soon.
Until now.
Took quite a few tries to get this, and the end result still isn't nearly as good as it seemed in my head. Stitched panorama of 3 individual images, resulting in a 24MP image.
Getting this photo was challenging, mainly because so freaking many people were trying to catch something from the same angle. Stitched panorama of 3 horizontal images. The stitcher churned out a .TIF file 37MP in resolution and over 140MB in size! And no, this is not a tone-mapped image.
Mind you, I'm still not particularly satisfied. May be visiting KLCC with my camera again soon.
Wednesday, 8 December 2010
The Run
There was this one time at Kuala Lumpur KTM station.
I bought a ticket to Klang from the counter, which I fed into the ticket barrier. Upon retrieving the ticket spat out from the barrier, I noticed a blue train with yellow ends pulling towards the platform, a red sign reading "PEL. KLANG" behind its windscreen.
That's my train! I thought, and my feet immediately started moving.
I squeezed past the crowd on the escalator, taking two steps at a time, cursing the uncilivised Malaysians who took up the entire width of the escalator stairs.
"Excuse me!" I snapped at a fat lady blocking my way and she jumped aside. She must've been annoyed by me, but I paid no attention to her after shooting past her humungous body.
Jumping the last three steps of the escalator and landing with a crash, I quickly picked myself up again and got into a full-speed sprint, as the train pulled to a stop some 150 metres ahead of me.
Bloody hell, that was a long platform! Well not surprising, considering the KL station was used as a intercity railway station until relatively recently, and those KL-Singapore trains were darn long, often amounting to 25 individual cars or so.
So I ran. And I ran. I dashed so fast the contents of my bags were ratting within their containers. I'm sure if I strained my ear, I could hear water splashing in my bottle. Wind rushed through my face, brushing my forehead in a fruitless attempt to dry up newly formed drops of sweat before moving on to my (unfortunately) short hair. My old, faded jeans were complaining at their seams, but I paid no attention.
I could even imagine a video of me running in slow motion. My eyes wide open, staring straight at the doors of the train, hands clawing the air as if swimming. Every couple of second saw my feet stretched out before falling to the ground in turn to the beats of Chariots of Fire playing in the background. Pushing a man dressed in blue aside with a quick, rather insincere apology, I was gliding -- flying through the crowd in the heart of the railway station towards my goal, sweat and smoke trailing behind me, and nothing was going to stop me.
Just a few more steps, it's so close now...
But the door snapped shut before my very eyes.
Fuming with disappointment and rage, I jabbed at the "Open" button, hoping it'd work. This is it, I thought, I'm doomed! The giant lady and the guy in blue suit are all gonna get me, all because of this lousily maintained train with buttons that don't work! I stabbed the button again, breathing fast, blood pounding against my temple.
Suddenly, to my utter amazement, the doors slid open in one smooth action.
I squeezed in quickly, and the doors fell close again a couple of seconds later. As the train left the station, I pulled a face to the blue-guy and waved farewell.
I bought a ticket to Klang from the counter, which I fed into the ticket barrier. Upon retrieving the ticket spat out from the barrier, I noticed a blue train with yellow ends pulling towards the platform, a red sign reading "PEL. KLANG" behind its windscreen.
That's my train! I thought, and my feet immediately started moving.
I squeezed past the crowd on the escalator, taking two steps at a time, cursing the uncilivised Malaysians who took up the entire width of the escalator stairs.
"Excuse me!" I snapped at a fat lady blocking my way and she jumped aside. She must've been annoyed by me, but I paid no attention to her after shooting past her humungous body.
Jumping the last three steps of the escalator and landing with a crash, I quickly picked myself up again and got into a full-speed sprint, as the train pulled to a stop some 150 metres ahead of me.
Bloody hell, that was a long platform! Well not surprising, considering the KL station was used as a intercity railway station until relatively recently, and those KL-Singapore trains were darn long, often amounting to 25 individual cars or so.
So I ran. And I ran. I dashed so fast the contents of my bags were ratting within their containers. I'm sure if I strained my ear, I could hear water splashing in my bottle. Wind rushed through my face, brushing my forehead in a fruitless attempt to dry up newly formed drops of sweat before moving on to my (unfortunately) short hair. My old, faded jeans were complaining at their seams, but I paid no attention.
I could even imagine a video of me running in slow motion. My eyes wide open, staring straight at the doors of the train, hands clawing the air as if swimming. Every couple of second saw my feet stretched out before falling to the ground in turn to the beats of Chariots of Fire playing in the background. Pushing a man dressed in blue aside with a quick, rather insincere apology, I was gliding -- flying through the crowd in the heart of the railway station towards my goal, sweat and smoke trailing behind me, and nothing was going to stop me.
Just a few more steps, it's so close now...
But the door snapped shut before my very eyes.
Fuming with disappointment and rage, I jabbed at the "Open" button, hoping it'd work. This is it, I thought, I'm doomed! The giant lady and the guy in blue suit are all gonna get me, all because of this lousily maintained train with buttons that don't work! I stabbed the button again, breathing fast, blood pounding against my temple.
Suddenly, to my utter amazement, the doors slid open in one smooth action.
I squeezed in quickly, and the doors fell close again a couple of seconds later. As the train left the station, I pulled a face to the blue-guy and waved farewell.
Tuesday, 30 November 2010
Sights of Manchester: Town Hall
Manchester Town Hall
Had the honour of a friend bringing me around Manchester about five months ago. Memories flood back to my little mind just by flipping through the photos, some so badly taken I half wished to delete them.
It was really awesome. The weather was lovely. Manchester was nice (still is, probably) with many attractions saturated in the city centre. It was the FIFA Football season and the England team was playing against US. The bars were crowded, people were friendly, buses were comfortable, and the Asda muffins extremely yummy.
Coming soon... More of Manchester!
Saturday, 27 November 2010
Into My Mind's Attic
"Wow. Nice sky. If only I have my camera with me."
I muttered that while going out one day, catching an attractive streak of colours in Semenyih's evening sky.
That statement was not exactly true. Yeah sure, the sky was nice, but I had digital eyes with me all along. I had my cameraphone right there in my pocket. It's imaging capabilities may be rather limited, but it has served me well the few times I put my faith in it.
I even had my Nikon Coolpix 3200 with me, in my backpack. Yeah sure, it's a 3MP, 7-year-old compact camera. It's so old and its specifications so dated that I'm not even sure if anybody wants it for a mere RM50 now. But it has certainly proven itself many, many, many, many, many times, especially over the year when I was in UK.
But no, now when I say "my camera", I probably don't mean the Coolpix. I mean my Nikon D90. I can't say I don't pity the Coolpix. The poor thing has gone from being one of my most loyal companions to being a camera that's not being considered a camera.
I was a little horror-struck when I realised this. Well to be fair, the D90 is lightyears ahead of the Coolpix. But without realising it, my practicality is rearing its head. It's like I'm not thankful for the hundreds of pictures the Coolpix has taken for me over the past two years.
Well if you think feeling guilty for abandoning an old camera is oh-so-geeky, what would stop me from forgetting my friends in university? My lecturers, perhaps? The kind lab technician who helped me with my internship? The nice people I worked with for 3 whole months when I did my industrial training?
I glanced back to my past and I suddenly realised the number of people missing from my mind. I'm starting to have trouble recalling all 40 of my classmates when I was in secondary school. I can't even remember the name of my physics teacher when I was in Form 4, and I kind of liked her too. A lecturer in college treated me to a movie once and I don't even remember if I said thanks.
There was even one time a few years back when I got my dad's birth date wrong.
There's obviously little I can do about my past, short of tracking down all those people and get to know them again. That'd be crazy, sitcom-worthy, even (remember My Name Is Earl?). But I'll try to be more thankful from now onwards. Don't kill me if I fail to recognise you some time in the future, just spill me with humiliation and accept my apology.
As for the Coolpix, well I promise I'll continue to keep it in my backpack. An SLR's not suitable for all occasions, and for that reason, I know I'll be thankful for having that Coolpix again one day.
I muttered that while going out one day, catching an attractive streak of colours in Semenyih's evening sky.
That statement was not exactly true. Yeah sure, the sky was nice, but I had digital eyes with me all along. I had my cameraphone right there in my pocket. It's imaging capabilities may be rather limited, but it has served me well the few times I put my faith in it.
I even had my Nikon Coolpix 3200 with me, in my backpack. Yeah sure, it's a 3MP, 7-year-old compact camera. It's so old and its specifications so dated that I'm not even sure if anybody wants it for a mere RM50 now. But it has certainly proven itself many, many, many, many, many times, especially over the year when I was in UK.
But no, now when I say "my camera", I probably don't mean the Coolpix. I mean my Nikon D90. I can't say I don't pity the Coolpix. The poor thing has gone from being one of my most loyal companions to being a camera that's not being considered a camera.
I was a little horror-struck when I realised this. Well to be fair, the D90 is lightyears ahead of the Coolpix. But without realising it, my practicality is rearing its head. It's like I'm not thankful for the hundreds of pictures the Coolpix has taken for me over the past two years.
Well if you think feeling guilty for abandoning an old camera is oh-so-geeky, what would stop me from forgetting my friends in university? My lecturers, perhaps? The kind lab technician who helped me with my internship? The nice people I worked with for 3 whole months when I did my industrial training?
I glanced back to my past and I suddenly realised the number of people missing from my mind. I'm starting to have trouble recalling all 40 of my classmates when I was in secondary school. I can't even remember the name of my physics teacher when I was in Form 4, and I kind of liked her too. A lecturer in college treated me to a movie once and I don't even remember if I said thanks.
There was even one time a few years back when I got my dad's birth date wrong.
There's obviously little I can do about my past, short of tracking down all those people and get to know them again. That'd be crazy, sitcom-worthy, even (remember My Name Is Earl?). But I'll try to be more thankful from now onwards. Don't kill me if I fail to recognise you some time in the future, just spill me with humiliation and accept my apology.
As for the Coolpix, well I promise I'll continue to keep it in my backpack. An SLR's not suitable for all occasions, and for that reason, I know I'll be thankful for having that Coolpix again one day.
Sunday, 21 November 2010
Tone-mapping
Tried tone-mapping an HDR photo.
Took three photos in quick succession, each 1.7eV apart.
-1.7eV, 0eV and +1.7eV shots.
Fused them together, tried many algorithms. Finally, this.
Looks like most of the image is taken from the overexposed shot. At least the name of the school and the needles of the clock were preserved -- that's my main aim.
Not really THAT awesome, but for a first attempt (second, actually) it's not too bad, eh?
Took three photos in quick succession, each 1.7eV apart.
-1.7eV, 0eV and +1.7eV shots.
Fused them together, tried many algorithms. Finally, this.
Looks like most of the image is taken from the overexposed shot. At least the name of the school and the needles of the clock were preserved -- that's my main aim.
Not really THAT awesome, but for a first attempt (second, actually) it's not too bad, eh?
Thursday, 11 November 2010
Mozilla Firefox 4 Beta 7 Released
The newest beta of the newest version of Firefox was released just hours ago.
Firefox 4 is the upcoming version of the world's second most widely used browser and features many upgrades over previous versions, including revamped user interface for Windows and Mac users (which we have seen previously), Tab Panorama (previously called Tab Candy), completely new HTML5 parser, hardware acceleration, support for newer HTML/CSS2/CSS3 standards and super speedy JaegerMonkey JavaScript engine compiler, among many others.
Beta 7 is the feature freeze beta -- basically, we don't expect to see many UI changes or new feature introduction after Beta 7, if at all. The upcoming betas (there will at least be a Beta 8) will probably polish the browser from behind-the-scenes, such as performance improvements, security fixes and hardware acceleration for a wider set of computers. For this reason, Beta 7 should give a pretty good idea what to expect when Firefox 4 gets officially released as a stable version.
Sadly, progress strips on the individual tabs have been removed, and I could not find justification for this action at Mozilla blogs or even Bugzilla.
I would recommend Firefox 3.6 users to give it a try, especially when installing Firefox 4 does NOT uninstall Firefox 3.6, and, um, the fact that my blog is specially designed for the upcoming browser (though all features are available at Webkit-based browsers too).
Download the new beta at http://www.firefox.com/beta.
Firefox 4 is the upcoming version of the world's second most widely used browser and features many upgrades over previous versions, including revamped user interface for Windows and Mac users (which we have seen previously), Tab Panorama (previously called Tab Candy), completely new HTML5 parser, hardware acceleration, support for newer HTML/CSS2/CSS3 standards and super speedy JaegerMonkey JavaScript engine compiler, among many others.
Beta 7 is the feature freeze beta -- basically, we don't expect to see many UI changes or new feature introduction after Beta 7, if at all. The upcoming betas (there will at least be a Beta 8) will probably polish the browser from behind-the-scenes, such as performance improvements, security fixes and hardware acceleration for a wider set of computers. For this reason, Beta 7 should give a pretty good idea what to expect when Firefox 4 gets officially released as a stable version.
Sadly, progress strips on the individual tabs have been removed, and I could not find justification for this action at Mozilla blogs or even Bugzilla.
I would recommend Firefox 3.6 users to give it a try, especially when installing Firefox 4 does NOT uninstall Firefox 3.6, and, um, the fact that my blog is specially designed for the upcoming browser (though all features are available at Webkit-based browsers too).
Download the new beta at http://www.firefox.com/beta.
Wednesday, 10 November 2010
Sights of London: Emirates Stadium
There are a few very notable stadia in London. I spent a few hours of a rather sunny Saturday afternoon visiting two of them back in June.
One of them was the Emirates Stadium, home of Arsenal FC.
I approached the Stadium from the Holloway Road Tube station, which was a bit of a shame -- I discovered afterwards that the journey between the Stadium and the Arsenal Tube station is more scenic and was almost literally a stone throw's distance away from the former grounds of Arsenal's previous home base, the Arsenal Stadium.
Panorama of Emirates Stadium.
Anyway, out of the respectable number of football stadia I visited when I was in UK, the Emirates was probably the newest one, being completed in 2006. In comparison, Chelsea FC, the other of the two London-based football clubs, had nothing to boast about when it comes to shelter for their beloved blue jerseys.
You'd be mad if you try to rob the Emirates. Because they're guarded by cannons.
The two cannons guarding the stadium. Notice that the firing point is stuffed with some sort of a cork. Maybe they use them as giant champagne bottles now.
Their gift shop is called The Armoury. Unfortunately the closest thing to firearms they had were stuffed cannons and whatnot.
The Armoury.
I left after snapping some rather mediocre pictures. I still have much to learn about framing.
Another panorama of the Emirates Stadium.
By the way, did you know that you could also refer to a stadium as an arena or a bowl? Yes, a bowl. The Emirates Bowl. Imagine that.
One of them was the Emirates Stadium, home of Arsenal FC.
I approached the Stadium from the Holloway Road Tube station, which was a bit of a shame -- I discovered afterwards that the journey between the Stadium and the Arsenal Tube station is more scenic and was almost literally a stone throw's distance away from the former grounds of Arsenal's previous home base, the Arsenal Stadium.
Panorama of Emirates Stadium.
Anyway, out of the respectable number of football stadia I visited when I was in UK, the Emirates was probably the newest one, being completed in 2006. In comparison, Chelsea FC, the other of the two London-based football clubs, had nothing to boast about when it comes to shelter for their beloved blue jerseys.
You'd be mad if you try to rob the Emirates. Because they're guarded by cannons.
The two cannons guarding the stadium. Notice that the firing point is stuffed with some sort of a cork. Maybe they use them as giant champagne bottles now.
Their gift shop is called The Armoury. Unfortunately the closest thing to firearms they had were stuffed cannons and whatnot.
The Armoury.
I left after snapping some rather mediocre pictures. I still have much to learn about framing.
Another panorama of the Emirates Stadium.
By the way, did you know that you could also refer to a stadium as an arena or a bowl? Yes, a bowl. The Emirates Bowl. Imagine that.
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