Owl Order - best of the eleventh hour

Klangites! Who is This?

2011-08-11T08:54:00.000+01:00

For your info, both my parents are artists, having graduated from Singapore Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts and some French university with a French name which pronunciation and spelling I can never be bothered to remember.

Some of their paintings now hang in my house. Some were given away to relatives. Another big portion were sold, a number of them for good prices. Well the others just lay somewhere at my parents' art centre (or at home), collecting dust over the years.

This coming Saturday, NAFA Alumni will be holding an exhibition in Kuala Lumpur. My mother painted a portrait and intents to present it to the person who officiates the opening ceremony.

Guess who that person is. Hint: portrait to be presented pictured below.

Mum's painting of pastel on wood.

Sights of Singapore: Marina Bay

2011-08-08T05:54:00.001+01:00

Been a while since I went that far south. And I have to say, things have changed.

View of Marina Bay at night.

Some for the better, some for the worse.

Well time changes everything.

Sights of Mount Kinabalu -- Sneak Preview

2011-07-30T08:04:00.000+01:00

That's right.Photos from the peak of South East Asia coming soon.

Two of my friends enquiring at Kinabalu Park lodge counter before we started our hike to the top of Mount Kinabalu.

Customising Wikipedia -- Truly the Encyclopedia Anyone Can Edit

2011-07-10T11:40:00.004+01:00

I have always loved Wikipedia. Having the world's knowledge in your hands is rarely a disadvantage. I always say this -- if I have access to Wikipedia in Who Wants to be A Millionaire I could probably go all the way easily.

Browsing is so addictive that I would frequently spend hours Wiki-hopping. However, reading large chunks of text for long periods of time on a computer screen is very tiring. If only Wikipedia is in black, I thought.

But few days ago I realised something -- that could easily be true.

In Wikipedia's preference menu (you need an account for this) you get to choose which skin to render Wikipedia in. I kept mine at the default (called 'Vector') because IMO the others just looked horrendous.

However, beside each skin, there are two buttons, one of which is labelled "custom CSS".

Well, well, well. This is where the fun begins.

To save you the trouble of having to read through all the CSS terms and my painful and repetitive testing phases, we'll just skip straight to the results I get two days after I started.

Tada! Wikipedia in Black. I even removed the (in my opinion) rather redundant sidebar to save more space in case I want to go Wiki-hopping on my phone instead.

Cool, eh!

Sights of Ipoh: Pee

2011-07-08T08:21:00.002+01:00

P. The 16th alphabet. This letter is awesome. It stands for Power. And the all-yummy Pizza. Not to forget Pasta. There's P for Pass. Even better, P for Perfect. P for play. P for Pentium 4 (OK maybe this isn't so good) and P for er, prawn.

But there's also P for Piss. And of course Pee.

Found this in Ipoh, at an outdoor restaurant not far away from Kek Lok Cave.

But don't underestimate the power of passing water. Trying to wet that disgusting frog at the backyard, the so-cliché hand-in-warm-water prank. The guys enjoyed reading advertisements strategically placed above urinals in public toilets, and apparently the girls had fun engaging in cross-cubicle chats.

How many times have we used the ultimate I-really-have-to-go excuse without arousing any suspicion at all?

We owe that much childhood fun and laughter to it. So much that the word 'piss' became an integral part of the spoken English.

OK I really have a lot more to share about this but I really have to pee. Till next time then.

Sights of Ipoh: Kek Lok Cave

2011-07-04T09:04:00.001+01:00

I spent the past Chinese New Year with my family in Cameron Highlands, which isn't new to me at all -- dad used to drive us up there a few times every year.

This time, however, before driving all the way back to Klang after the trip, we made a small detour and stopped by Ipoh for a half day.

Before you go bombarding me with questions like "Oooh, did you try the Ipoh xxx?" (replace xxx with one of the many famous delicacies in Ipoh) let me first tell you that we only ate one meal there, and it was just a simple fried rice, which in Malaysia is as common as salt in the sea.

Nope. But we spent our time in Kek Lok Cave, a Buddhist cave instead. I went around taking pictures while my parents set up their tools and started sketching.

Main entrance to the cave.

The place is genuinely interesting, even before entering the cave. There is a koi pond, and another tortoise pool. I'd never seen so many tortoises in such a small area before. Small man-made miniatures line up along the path into the cave. While I'm not a big fan of still life photography, I approached a few interesting looking ones and snapped a number of pictures anyway.

Everything gets darker once you step into the cave. It wasn't actually too hot inside, despite the blazing hot Malaysian sun, probably due to the high ceilings. Floors are fully man-made with cement to ease navigation.

Staircase not far away from the main entrance.

Not being a regular visitor of Malaysian caves, I was impressed by the natural structure of the ceilings and the walls.

Most sections are artificially lit with lamps strategically positioned not just to illuminate the surroundings, but to increase contrast of the walls and ceilings to bring out their shapes. I personally prefer them to be naturally lit, though, as lamps usually introduce a yellow cast, which I don't really fancy. Check out this following picture of a naturally lit section of the cave.

From some angles, the texture and structure of the walls are simply astounding.

If you're lucky, like I was, you may be able to notice the internal layering of the walls.

Took me so many tries (and that much dust on my beloved camera) to get this shot.

Once you read the end of the cave, though, you'll reach another exit.

The exit at the other end of the cave.

Beyond, you'll see a park with a huge lake, surrounded by hills. Breathtaking view.

The scene that caused so many to suddenly stop in their tracks. A panorama -- click on the picture to see a bigger image.

Guess what this little building is? Hint: zoom in to see symbols of a man and a lady.

So next time, when you visit Ipoh, stop thinking about xxx (replace xxx with favourite Ipoh cuisine) and start looking around for things you may have missed.

Live!

2011-07-01T15:51:00.005+01:00

As of 2300 hours (or the 'eleventh' hour), 1st July, my new blog is now live! That's really a lot sooner than I thought, but the crucial pieces seem to be in place to make the place functional. Please drop in for a quick visit at http://owl-order.appspot.com/

LIVE!!!

With immediate effect, all developments on this very blog have now officially ceased (not that I've been developing this blog at all recently). I urge my visitors (if any, though I'm not hopeful) to switch their attentions to the new blog instead.

However, blogposts will be posted to both blogs for the time being, just in case.

Hope you like the new place!

Progress

2011-06-28T16:11:00.007+01:00

I've been free for four whole weeks now. However, I haven't blogged as much as I did some time ago. Sorry about that.

Actually that statement wasn't exactly true. I have been blogging, just not this blog.

Yes! I have been working on my new blog. It's not exactly functional yet, but here's some sneak preview.

The new blog header.

I've spent days redesigning it. It required the use of several markup and programming languages.

How tweets show up in the new blog. This is not finalised (as is much of the rest of the website) and will probably change in the coming weeks.

I've also tested it on multiple browsers, namely Firefox 5, Google Chrome, Safari 5, Opera 11.50, Internet Explorer 8 and Internet Explorer 9. And I can guarantee compatibility across all of them, with only minor features missing from the Microsoft browsers.

How Flickr photos show up in the new blog.

I didn't realise how draining all this work is until one day, when I shifted my laptop and out fell strands of my precious hair.

So stay tuned, because with any luck, you're in for a treat in a few weeks' time.

PS. These screenshots are taken off live webpages. In other words, parts of the blog are already accessible via the web. Link is provided er, somewhere in this blog. Happy digging.

Updating used to be fun

2011-06-16T04:09:00.005+01:00

Just a few years ago, any internet user who cared about stability and performance of their rig would be excited by the release of browser updates.

Updates to your favourite browser was a huge thing. Backend changes aside (huh? JavaScript? Canvas?), various revamps were prominently visible to users the first time they see their new, updated browsers. Remember the joy of seeing tabs when you first went from IE6 to IE7? Or found out how awesome the AwesomeBar of Firefox 3 was?

The Updating-Hype back then was phenomenal. Firefox 3 garnered over 8 millions downloads the day it was released, even setting a Guinness World Record for most downloads in a single day. Requests were so frequent that at one point, Mozilla servers were unable to service all of them and were taken down temporarily.

Updating was just plain fun. The downloading, the installing, the exploring and the benchmarking. It's like a parent seeing a kid growing up.

All these changed in 2008 when a new browser was born.

Google Chrome led the way to many browser innovations, the same way Apple iPhone introduced the world to an intuitive touchscreen interface. Minimalistic user interface, lightning fast JavaScript performance and optimisation for multi-core machines are just three of the lot. These innovations then slowly found their way to other browsers, widening their reach, Chrome or not.

Chrome had a new update and version numbering system too. New "major" updates are released every two months or so, with the version number incremented. The rationale behind this is to push new features to end users quicker than usual. Updating is fully automatic -- the browser downloads and installs a new version behind the scene whenever it is available.

The cool automatic-update feature makes sure that every Chrome user uses the latest (and greatest, as Mozilla put it) version. However, with releases so frequent, each "major" release isn't so major anymore. Relatively few people can name 10 improvements Chrome 12 (the current stable release) has over Chrome 1. Heck, most people don't even know which version they're using.

Worst of all, they took the fun out of updating. Users don't update anymore -- the browser does. Updates present too few changes and come too frequent to garner press attention.

And guess what, Mozilla and Microsoft are adopting this update approach on their Firefox and Internet Explorer browsers respectively. In short, it will be soon before long when people start saying "Update? What update?" like a clueless llama.

Now, Mozilla Firefox 5 is getting released next week, on the 21st of June. But who cares?

Thank you, Google Chrome.

Thank You for the Years

2011-06-07T14:20:00.003+01:00

Five years of tertiery education. 12 semesters. More assignments, courseworks, presentations and exams than I want to remember.

All we've been through, we've been through together.

The ridiculous, no-you-can't-get-more-than-70% modules.

The karaoke sessions and the after exam parties.

Q and A sessions with insatiable lecturers.

The group study sessions which helped prepared us so much for the exams.

It's been a good few years. I sincerely thank everyone from the University, including my friends and lecturers, many of which I do not have photos of, for making these years unforgettable.

My FYP supervisor and a few of his FYP students.

June has been my favourite month of the year since a few years ago. It marks the end of the tedious exam weeks and the long academic years as well as the beginning of the awesome three-month summer break. There's also the Chinese Dragon Boat Festival, usually at the end of May or beginning of June, when I get to eat Chinese dumplings. The very second day of the month also happens to be my birthday.

But nothing beats June 2011. All the best to your future.

Summer Project

2011-06-06T15:46:00.004+01:00

I officially started on one of my two summer projects last Friday. I had those projects planned for months and was looking forward to the start of my summer break to get cracking.

Four days later, the project finally left its first trace of laymen-comprehensible interface at http://owl-order.appspot.com/. There's nothing much to see yet, but if you head over for just a second, you'll find an interface very similar to this very blog. That's because that website is intended as a complete rewrite of my blog.

So with a bit of luck, I'll get a new, feature-rich, next-gen blog to share with my pathetically few readers.

Happy Birthday To Me

2011-06-01T12:57:00.004+01:00

OK. My birthday's coming in... 4 hours' time. Time to get the facts right.

In four hours, I get full rights as a Malaysian adult. I get to enter casinos. I can be declared bankrupt. I get to vote for the stupidest councilman ever and no one can say no about that. I can easily walk into a strip club worldwide, pay for a hooker in the dark streets of New York or even get myself starred in an adult film, and no one person on Earth has the legal rights to stop me.

The feeling of having raw power in your hands is awesome. Trust me.

I had wild dreams about this day. I'd rent a small, cosy apartment, hook it up with the best internet connection, procure a 42" LED television set in front of a smooth, glossy coffee table surrounded by couches with leather cushions. Hanging unobtrusively from the living room walls were surround speakers. Instead of connecting them to a DVD-player, I'd get them linked to a Blu-Ray- and internet-enabled computer for the best entertainment system ever. I could easily decorate the place with my best Chinese Calligraphy work, a couple in the living and another one in the bedroom.

Then I'd stare at my beautiful house for 200 minutes daily. My cool gadgets get their chance to collect dust for the rest of the day while I sleep, go for work or engage in (real-life) social activities.

But then again...

Finishing my studies also implies joblessness. Right now I'm still surviving on my parents' hard-earned cents and the amount I get could hardly pay for the electric bills, much less monthly rental and the cool gadgets I had in my mind.

As of right now I'm still sharing a house with my parents. Worse still, my bed is barely 3 metres away from theirs. That's kinda embarrassing for a 21-year-old man. I could hear the annoying guy from my class saying "Ha! You still sleep with your mama!"

Oh wait, I'm turning 22 tomorrow, not 21.

Darn.

I Miss This

2011-05-14T05:18:00.003+01:00

Some of you may remember the huge stack of Pringles I ate back when I was in UK. Some of those people who saw the picture of the Pringles Pyramid exclaimed, "OMG, how much weight have you gained from those crisps?"

Yeah true, Pringles are some kind of unhealthy snack. Unseen from the photo of my messy room, however, I had another large stack of empty snack containers stowed inside my closet (literally).

At leas this snack is healthier.

I still remember the sheer joy when my friend told me about Co-Operative selling them at £1.50 each. I would store boxes whenever a there was a promotion, and finish them one by one, alternating between flavours.

I bought two boxes home to Malaysia last summer and had since finished them with my friends and family. Some of them appreciated them like I did, others found it rather bland or boring. Whatever.

Sadly, I haven't found any of these in Malaysia. If I do, expect me to stock up like a squirrel.

Ah, Jordan's Muesli. Just another reason for me to miss UK.

Thank You Badminton Club

2011-04-07T13:06:00.003+01:00

Some people know me as the photographer of the University of Nottingham (UNMC) Badminton Club. I've been known to shoot with my camera while others do the same with their racquets, most notably over the few prominent events organised by the club over the past weeks.

Those who know me as "badminton club's photographer" may be surprised to hear that I joined the badminton club because I love badminton. The truth is, few people on campus have ever seen me holding a racquet before, while they're so familiar with the Nikon strap over my shoulders.

But yeah, it's true. I joined badminton club because I enjoy badminton.

But approximately half a year ago, when I received an email from the club's secretary about several vacant positions in the committee, I knew the UNMC Badminton Club could bring a different kind of opportunity to me.

I looked at the vacant position labelled "photographer" and my mind started to wander.

I was really interested in that position. It would provide me with various opportunities to shoot and giving precious experience hard to come by. I'd been toying around with photography for the past two years. I'd learnt a lot, and looking back to my photos captured over my nine months in UK told me how much I'd improved.

However, there were various missing tiles in my portfolio. Most of my photos were mainly of landscapes and architecture (see here for proof). I had virtually zero experience in any fast-moving genres (which guarantee to provide skills for candid photography) save for some time chasing fat bees with my Coolpix, and worse still, I had virtually no human portraits that I'm happy of. The problem is, how do I know if I'm allowed to take pictures of the random people I meet on the street? Ask them? That's hardly candid. Take the risk anyway? Yeah, I've tried that and I vividly remember that lady shooing me away. How was I supposed to fill the shoes of the club's photographer when I lack important experience like those?

I hadn't seen any photos by previous photographers of the club, and I didn't know what they were expecting. I was also starting my final year in university and probably couldn't devote too much time to anything other than my Final Year Project. My photo-editing skills were limited, and made even more so by my refusal to install a pirated copy of Adobe Photoshop (thank you, GIMP). The real deal-breaker, however, was that I was still using my dad's then-6-year-old compact camera which struggled in indoor avenues, let alone in the sports arena.

For the next few days, the same question plagued my mind -- Do I nominate myself for the position?

The EGM (Emergency General Meeting) soon arrived, and they started to take nominations for the vacant positions. The photographer, being a relatively weak voice in the committee, was the last position to open for nominations.

I remember the scene extremely well, down to the cold seat I was sitting on, how I knew almost nobody in the lecture hall, the light-hearted nature of the meeting (obviously everybody else knew almost everybody else there), the (then-)president hosting the nominations, and the blank PowerPoint slide to put the names in. My heart was pounding furiously. Despite days of sleepless nights, I hadn't made up my mind yet. I had never volunteered myself for anything, unless you count answering questions in class or going for First-Aid duties as a St. John First Aider.

Someone else got nominated, and Ka Eng the president put his name on the PowerPoint slide. It's now or never.

I decided to let the public to decide for me.

I raised my hand and said, with much stuttering, "If it's OK, I'd like to nominate myself because I'm interested in this position."

There was a two-second pause, during which the light-heartedness of the meeting disappeared like a candle flame doused with ice cold water. Nobody said anything, and I could feel every single eye turning towards me in unison. I swallowed in nervousness.

Then, an applause broke out, echoing across the hall.

Not the sarcastic, sneering type of clapping you do when you find your best mate kissing a fat-assed girl. It's the type of applause you give someone when he managed to diffuse a bomb two seconds before it exploded.

"Your name?"

"Uh, Wenqi. W-E-N-Q-I." And I sank down on my seat, heart still thumping, blood pressure still through the roof. Now I only have to wait for them to vote for me, I thought. Oh wait, there's still the speech. Maybe I can show them my Flickr account...

But the nomination closed with two nominees. And since the other nominee was already a committee member, the photographer position defaulted to me.

I started panicking shortly after that. What if I made the wrong call? What the... I don't have the experience! I don't even have an SLR!

But things worked out well over the next few months. Mum bought a Nikon D90 just days after the EGM, and I told her I may want to use it at "certain events in school". (She never found out about my being in the committee until few months later.) I went to the badminton court a day before my first duty to test out certain camera settings I need (mainly how high an ISO I needed and what sort of shutter speed to freeze the players and shuttlecocks) so I wasn't totally unprepared during my first day. I even got myself a cheap prime lens which is 3 stops faster than the kit lens.

Being the photographer wasn't too bad. All I had to do was to turn up during events and take some pictures. I wasn't really needed to make much preparations (except charging my camera battery), which is good because I needed all the time I could spare for my Final Year Project. My presence over meetings was even optional (though I attended every meeting I knew of).

I spent quite an amount of hours on duty, and I learnt a lot from them. Everything down to focusing, employing burst mode effectively, predicting good windows of opportunity in quick-action scenes, framing with a prime lens. I still have much to learn, but these experiences brought me closer to my goal. I easily averaged around 1000 clicks per night, which also showed me how power-efficient an SLR is -- the D90 easily lasted for 2000 shots before hitting 20% battery life. This large image count guaranteed at least dozens of satisfying photos per day.

And best of all, I made friends. The people never complained about having a huge lens barrel pointing their way. Most of them just ignored me. Some of them even posed for the camera. Wearing the label of the event photographer gave me power, the license to shoot, and I was more than happy to make full use of it. It takes time to hand-pick good photos out of the lot and edit them one by one, but once they're up on Facebook, the satisfaction I got from all the comments and likes was worth it. We joked and teased each other by posting even more comments on the photos, some of which were instantly made profile pictures.

I received over 500 emails from Facebook over a weekend, after uploading pictures of the UNMC Badminton Tournament.

The year is coming to an end, and I'll pass on my position as the club photographer as the 2011/2012 committee forms next week. Things have gone extremely well after I volunteered for Badminton Club, and I thank every member for all the laughter, experience and memories I'll cherish for the rest of my life.

I joined the Badminton Club because I love badminton. But combining it with something else I like made the experience unparallelled.

Life at Nottingham

2011-03-31T09:56:00.004+01:00

There was this photography competition in school a couple of weeks ago. The theme was "Life at Nottingham". Or something like that.

I never thought of joining this competition out of the fear for pressure, until I went to this Charity Carnival, an event held on campus, and caught this picture.

I call this picture "Malaysian Disneyland". My prime candidate for the competition.

I caught this picture the day before the deadline, but I needed more time to work on it (they need printed hardcopies of the photos we're submitting, which is a little hard to obtain in a short period of time). In the end, I missed the deadline and didn't participate in what would be my first photography competition ever.

"Adrenaline-Aided Bliss". Second-in-line for the competition.

Ah well. At least I got a couple of pics I like.

Sights of Cameron Highlands: Botanical Gardens' English House

2011-03-12T16:32:00.002Z

There's this English House in the Botanical Gardens, Cameron Highlands.

Went at the wrong time. How was I supposed to catch an HDR image while that many people was moving around?

Stood there for quite some time until my sister got kinda bored.

The result is this.

Note the light halo on the roof of the English House. Undesirable effect from HDR, but in this case I actually kinda dig it.

New CBox coming soon

2011-03-09T15:05:00.004Z

Due to recent visits by certain "blogwalkers", whom I highly suspected to be scripted bots, spamming links of their sites (usually URL shortened) on my CBox, I've decided to take matters into my own hands.

I've spent the past three hours coming up with my very own version of CBox -- the CBox that I have full control over, and we're not just talking about looks here. Everything including whether I should get an email whenever someone posts on the CBox (not implemented yet), whether I should allow anonymous messages, the rights to prevent users from posting empty messages, which IP addresses I allow to post, the use of asynchronous technology (to speed up response) and such.

Since the blogwalkers frequently use shortened URLs, this CBox I wrote (which I call Chirp Box) blocks two types of shortened URLs -- tinyurl and bit.ly in the URL/Email field. If I need to expand my blocklist, I need only to spend a few extra seconds to add extra items into the blocklist and we're done.

So if you need to share (shortened) links with me, throw them into the message field.

Here it is. I'm not replacing it with my CBox yet -- it will be done some time later when I export all my CBox messages over to my server. In the meantime, you can start toying with it.

Blogwalkers, you have been warned.

Making Firefox 4 Your Own

2011-03-05T17:41:00.006Z

The development cycle of the upcoming Mozilla Firefox 4 is coming to an end. Few days ago, a great number of bugs mysteriously disappeared from the blocking list. Does this mean that the new iteration of the world's favourite alternative browser is getting released soon?

Firefox 4 features many improvements, including better compliance to web standards, quicker startup, hardware acceleration and over 600% faster JavaScript speed. However, one change is attracting all the attention -- the User Interface (UI) overhaul.

The default User Interface of Mozilla Firefox 4 for Windows Vista and Windows 7. Much of its appearance can be modified.

While most people prefer the new, clean look to the clunky old Version 3.x interface, there's no satisfying everyone. If you find some of the changes rather annoying, it's fine -- Mozilla Firefox is the world's most customisable browser, and a lot of the changes can be (at least) partially reversed.

Firefox 4 is still not ready yet, but Mozilla have made good beta releases. Download the latest Release Candidate at http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/RC/.

Restoring tab bar below navigation bar

Restoring the menu bar and bookmarks bar

Restoring old-style Reload and Stop buttons

Duplicating tabs by overriding Switch-to-Tab

Checking state of hardware acceleration

What happened to the progress bar?

Disabling taskbar preview

Use the URL Bar as a Search Bar

What happened to Back/Forward dropdown box?

What are App Tabs?

Firefox 4 doesn't ask me to save my tabs before quitting?

What happened to the RSS button?

There you go! I hope you find these tips useful in making Firefox 4 a browser you can call your own. Also make sure you drop by http://www.getpersonas.com/ to skin your browser (try some animated personas like this one!) and get some cool addons at http://addons.mozilla.org/.

I hope you enjoy Mozilla's latest browser as much as I am. All the best.

Sights of Sheffield: More Things I Saw

2011-03-02T12:17:00.003Z

I walked non-stop for two days when I was in Sheffield. Save for the occasional meal and potty breaks, and of course, bed at night.

You bet I saw lots of stuff.

I saw that Sheffield was an architecturally modern city, with modern shapes, glass and steel making up a number of high rise buildings scattered across the city.

I saw pretty parks of various sizes, with all sorts of people walking every kind of dogs.

And gardens so pretty you could just sit there, watch the bees buzz away and breathe in the smell of the flowers for hours at a time.

Or of course, you could grab a book and read on the bench.

I saw graffiti on a great number of walls in Sheffield, scratching my head once in a while, trying to interpret them.

I saw great trees, with their generous shades, offering me shelter from the hot, sizzling sun rays in the middle of the summer.

I don't know why -- I have a soft spot for big trees. There's also a particularly oversized tree in the University of Nottingham that I kinda miss.

I saw great fountains, streams of water splashing splendidly, droplets glittering like diamonds under the brilliant sun.

I also saw this particular sign, trying to confound me.

Lastly, I saw the voice of a child -- metaphorically.

Great things, the things I saw in Sheffield.

Wish to be Taught By French-Trained Artists?

2011-02-26T10:01:00.003Z

Dad loves to give me assignments. One of the recent assignments involved designing a name card for him.

Well actually that's not entirely true. He made a rough sketch of the cards on paper and my job was just redraw everything digitally. The problem is I frequently disagree with dad when it comes to designing. When I saw that he wasn't around, I took the opportunity to twist the design around to my liking.

Like father, like son, my sweet behind.

Here are the name cards, one in English and another in Chinese.

Wish to be taught by French-trained artists? Contact us!

Sights of Sheffield: Things I Saw

2011-02-21T10:56:00.004Z

So we return to UK (metaphorically speaking) after what? Four months?

One of the few places I visited over the nine months I spent in England is Sheffield. Tempted by my friends' offer to visit them and the cheap coach tickets (£4 for a return ticket!), I decided to take a look around the City of Sheffield.

Sheffield was famous for manufacturing steel weapons in early 20th century. Its important role in providing weapons in World War II and proximity to Manchester City have led to a number of bombings in the 1930s and 1940s.

Weapons (presumably manufactured locally in Sheffield) on display.

One of the first places I stopped by in Sheffield is the Sheffield Hallam University.

SHU after a drizzle.

Not too bad a campus, but I still prefer Nottingham. (No offense.)

Interior of one of the main buildings of SHU. Vertical panorama of 3 horizontal shots.

Then a few of my friends toured me around Sheffield.

I wonder what's up with English cities and ferris wheels? There's one in London, another in Nottingham (albeit only temporarily), and now Sheffield.

I also took the time to drop by Sheffield Hallam Football Club on my second day. Not nearly as impressive as, say, Arsenal FC's Emirates Stadium.

Members of SUFC are also called the Blades, a nickname earned for the important export of weapons from Sheffield decades ago.

There's a second university in Sheffield besides SHU. Unlike SHU, the prestigious University of Sheffield is located a little further away from the city centre and doesn't look that modern.

I passed by this door to University of Sheffield's Student Union building labelled "Fire Exit". It was ajar and there was no one in sight. Maybe there was a fire. Or maybe students there tend to ignore the "Fire Exit" sign because they have trouble reading.

Not too far away from the University of Sheffield lies Weston Park. Just like Nottingham's Wollaton Park, you can't miss the museum in Weston Park.

But the most memorable of all places is the Botanical Gardens. Amazing place.

I literally spent hours doing nothing there.

Bah. How I wish I can return to UK for real.

University of Nottingham

2011-02-16T15:14:00.008Z

The University of Nottingham logo has changed several times, most recently in 2001 (if I'm not mistaken).

The futuristic and minimalistic logo is definitely a real looker. It is prominently featured in so many of UoN lecturer's presentation, papers, journals -- you can find one on the covers of every single FYP thesis by UoN students here.

However, the lack of a high-resolution image circulating among the students have caused various low-quality images (probably the tiny ones featured in Nottingham's official website) being used everywhere. And I'm telling you, they don't look good when stretched to fill all four sides of a regular A4 paper.

Wikipedia has an SVG version of the image, but it's of relatively poor quality -- the text are all jagged up, and while they may look "cute-sy", it's no where near the official logo.

So I fired up a vector graphics editor and started working. The result is this. (Click here to open in a new tab.)

Open it in a new tab, hold down the control key, scroll your mouse wheel upward and enjoy a super high-resolution logo of the University of Nottingham.

PS. To certain someone -- a very warm welcome to the University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus!

My CNY 2011 Outfit

2011-02-09T11:20:00.004Z

I don't camwhore. Even if I do have the biceps to show off (which I don't), my rather unassuming looks will easily make any lens crack in despair and disappointment.

And I didn't get an SLR so I could catch pictures of myself. The effect is downright stupid -- the action of capturing it and the resultant picture alike.

But as Lady Gaga said, promises are promises, and ever since my tweet about the new shirt my mum got me for Chinese New Year, some people have expressed interest in seeing it.

So I grudgingly set up a tripod in my room in the middle of the night and started snapping.

Sounds stupid right?

OK this is where I look stupid.

Are you done laughing yet?

If you have, let's talk about it. Mum picked the shirt for me, and I wasn't there when she paid for it. She actually picked something else at first, but it turned out so small I couldn't even button it so she exchanged it for this.

You'll notice I was wearing something around my neck. We'll take a closer look.

Well in my opinion this looks rather cool, although I have no freaking idea what it's supposed to mean. Anyway, mum didn't get his. I got this from UK (for £1) because I needed the chain that came with it for, er, my thumbdrive.

The shirt, however, came with these on a metal chain.

Nope, not the glasses. The rings.

Yeah. I know.

How many mothers dress their sons like this?

The Power of Life

2011-02-06T17:12:00.001Z

Ants.

Cockroaches.

Spiders.

And now this.

What do you see?

Yes. A plant. Ivy, probably.

Wildlife is so taking over my room.

Vid: A Rainy CNY Eve

2011-02-05T16:17:00.008Z

The frequent rain the few days before Chinese New Year got this song wedged to the tip of my head for hours everyday. I even got my piano rendition of it recorded, something I haven't done for quite some time now.

It's not exactly good, but I assure you it sounded much better "live".

This is actually more of a video-test of my D90. In terms of image quality, it passed (I wasn't even recording in 720p, D90's highest quality setting). But when it comes to sound quality, there's much to ask for. A sampling frequency of 11kHz is lightyears from enough.

I truly dread the day I hear my voice recorded by this camera.

Oh well. It is the first SLR to record video after all.

Hope you enjoyed the video. Happy Chinese New Year.

The Reunion Dinner

2011-02-02T10:56:00.003Z

Mum's a busy person.

She takes care of us, cooks meals at home, clean up the house, bakes cookies to earn a few extra bucks, and still manages to find time to work as an art teacher.

However, one only has so much time to spare, and here comes the compromise — she usually spends no more than 45 minutes preparing dinner, usually closer to 20.

Not that I mind eating simple dinners. While they may not smell (or look, I guess) as good as the fried fish prepared by the grandma next door, they're still healthy, and most of all, my mum made them.

Today, however, mum finally managed to spend more time preparing her dishes.

This may look like a mess, but the looks don't justify for its taste. The fish were first fried before cooked together with the rest of the ingredients, a double-process mum usually would not bother to pull off. Sorry for the blurry photo, was in a hurry to resume my sumptuous meal.

And boy, when she puts her time, effort and heart into culinary, I could never eat enough to satisfy my tummy.

Boy, this sure looks good, does it? Some people may point out the shininess of the dish indicate usage of seasoning (say, MSG) but I assure you my mum's against artificial seasoning — you'll even have to convince her to add more than a pinch of salt to her cooking.

I felt like I was the luckiest boy ever as I indulged on my mum's masterpieces.

Maybe I am.

Five Spice (Wu Xiang) made by my mum. I remember my maternal Grandmother making awesome Wu Xiang, and that's probably where my mum got her recipe from.

If only my sister were here to enjoy this meal.

Wishing everyone a blessed Chinese New Year.

Guan Yin Ting: The Camera in Mum's Hands

2011-01-31T12:14:00.004Z

I'm lucky I have a mum who actually understands (albeit a little dated) photography.

I actually shot this, but mum told me where to frame so I guess the credits go to her.

While many of my budding photographer friends have to hide their newly bought SLR from their parents, I am quite proud to say my first SLR was actually paid for by my mum.

I wasn't spared the fun of having to play hide-and-seek with the camera though -- mum and I hid the camera for a couple of months before dad found out about its existence.

I was expecting the worst, but since he left his camera in China accidentally (and the Panasonic compact cost more than half the price of a new Nikon D90 body) I guess he couldn't be too angry at us without blaming a bit on himself too.

So here are a few shots taken by my mum at Guan Yin Ting. I've already put some of my best ones up, and now it's her turn for the limelight.

All the photos here are out-of-the-cam -- no editing at all.

These photos look nothing like mine, right?

HDR Attempt No. 2 -- Guan Yin Ting

2011-01-28T09:58:00.004Z

No elaboration needed -- the title of this post is self-explanatory.

The original exposures of the HDR image.

Multiple shots with my D90.

Over 2 hours of tweaking.

Three separate software programs on two operating systems.

Two HDR programs.

Two tone-mapping editors.

Three different tone-mapping algorithms.

Three layers of overlapping images with different opacity.

Individual editing of specific parts of the image.

Countless failed attempts.

Finally, I present... 回头是岸 (Hui Tou Shi An).

A tone-mapped HDR of Guan Yin Ting. Note the ghosting around the leaves and the flags at the top-left corner.

Guan Yin Ting, Klang

2011-01-26T16:11:00.005Z

One comment: Malaysia is sure hot!

A tone-mapped non-HDR photo.

Guan Yin Ting is this Buddhist temple in Klang, recently renovated.

A rather elaborate sculpture on the roof of the temple.

Honestly, I've never heard of this place until the day my mum asked me to bring that D90 for a walk.

If you were to visit Klang, you wouldn't blame me -- the two rather magnificent mosques in Klang town centre overshadowed the temple.

The temple is really a beautiful place, but surrounded by busy roads, a roundabout and a flyover, it wasn't as peaceful as the one in Cameron Highlands.

Another non-HDR tone-map.

Nice place to shoot, nevertheless.

For some reason, I really like this shot. This is how temples are supposed to be like.

Portraits

2011-01-23T10:47:00.002Z

Certain past history has made a rather large impact on my love for photography. If you've noticed, I rarely take portraits of people -- next to none at all.

But I can only avoid taking portraits for so long.

Maybe it's time to suck it up and move forwards.

Shot this photo at a Pasar Malam with my sister's encouragement. I wouldn't even have bothered to pick up the camera if she weren't nagging me and pointing out how cute and innocent the girl looked. One of my very, very few portraits, including the bad ones.

Everybody has a new year resolution they may or may not ignore over the course of the next 12 months. What's yours?

The Angels

2011-01-18T12:53:00.003Z

Many thanks to my sister for the cute (and a wee bit obscene) little angel.

Minli: So this angel is thinking 'Hmmm... Nice ass!'

KetamGuys Reunited

2010-12-29T16:38:00.000Z

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.

Boggle

2010-12-27T06:46:00.008Z

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

- Mozilla Firefox 3.6+	Yes
- Google Chrome	Yes
- Windows Internet Explorer	No
- Apple Safari	Yes
- Opera	Yes

艺笔童心5少儿书法展

2010-12-22T15:22:00.006Z

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

2010-12-22T12:54:00.003Z

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...

Grampa (1989 - )

2010-12-17T13:04:00.005Z

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 - .

Sights of Malaysia: Petronas Twin Towers

2010-12-15T06:41:00.005Z

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.

The Run

2010-12-08T09:44:00.001Z

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.

Sights of Manchester: Town Hall

2010-11-30T07:56:00.004Z

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!

Into My Mind's Attic

2010-11-27T17:54:00.005Z

"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.

Tone-mapping

2010-11-21T15:25:00.005Z

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?

Mozilla Firefox 4 Beta 7 Released

2010-11-11T03:37:00.003Z

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.

Sights of London: Emirates Stadium

2010-11-10T13:09:00.004Z

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.

The Future of Owl's Eyes

2010-11-05T17:45:00.004Z

Owl Order is evolving!

Yes, I've just got new eyes. The best of the eleventh hour just got better.

I Have an Android Device

2010-11-01T13:32:00.001Z

Yes, you heard right. I have an Android device.

Android's boot up screen!

Without spending a single penny. Literally.

Android 2.2 Froyo's locked screen.

Did I get lucky? Well, no, not really. It's actually a simulated Android device that runs in my computer, under Ubuntu. And it's actually part of my Final Year Project.

Android 1.6 Donut homescreen.

Cool, eh! Aw come on, a Linux device running in another Linux device, that's cool!

Ah well. I DO have another Android device.

Oh it's real, with hardware and all. Wait and see.

JavaScript at Owl Order!!!

2010-10-27T15:36:00.010+01:00

Since March, I've been adding bits of JavaScript code to my blogs. These codes really make this blog a true dynamic website.

Some features you may (or may not) have noticed include

Random background image on load. Refresh the page to randomly load a new image!
Time-based background colour. Bluish in the middle of the day, and dark gray at midnight. Changes automatically at the tick of the hour -- no reloading required!
A certain surprise for an hour every day...
digital clock, at the top of the page. My very first piece of JavaScript code! (Though it was refined and updated some time later.)
Blogpost images with silver frames that glow when you hover your cursor on them! On some browsers, this happens with a smooth dark-to-light animation.
Also with animation (on some browsers), "Hi-Res on Flickr" tags overlay images with high resolution copies over at Flickr upon mouse-over. Clicking on these images open their Flickr pages in a new tab.

Unfortunately, some of these features don't work on all browsers.

Feature	Mozilla Firefox 4	Google Chrome	Mozilla Firefox 3.x	Apple Safari	Opera	Internet Explorer 9	Internet Explorer 8
Random Background	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Time-based Background Colour	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Midnight Event	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Digital Clock	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Glowing Image Frame	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Buggy	Yes	No
Image frame with Animation	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Buggy	No	No
Hi-Res Tag	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No
Hi-Res Tag with Animation	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	No
Feature	Mozilla Firefox 4	Google Chrome	Mozilla Firefox 3.x	Apple Safari	Opera	Internet Explorer 9	Internet Explorer 8

It is rather obvious that I designed my blog for the open-source Gecko (used in Firefox) and Webkit (Chrome and Safari) rendering engines. For this reason, I heavily recommend Mozilla Firefox 4, Google Chrome or Apple Safari to unleash all features at my blog.

Download them here:

Have fun, and watch out for more dynamic features to come!

Sights of UK: Scars

2010-10-12T13:05:00.005+01:00

Note: High resolution images of all of the following photos are available. Click on the photos to view their higher resolution images.

It's been over three months since I came back from UK.

Two long rows of Union Flags leading to Buckingham Palace.

Any sane person would have been glad to be in Malaysia. The weather's much cheerful here, especially in the mornings, when the local kopitiams bath in the sweet aromas of Nasi Lemak and Chinese coffee. Everything is dirt cheap here compared to English food, whose prices' only possible explanation is shipping fees from Mars. Best of all, it is now again possible to find badminton buddies without having to resort to virtual Facebook-based matches.

Things have all returned to normal. No longer do I have to wake up at 6 in the morning to prepare my lunches. Nor do I have to lug a thick jacket around with me wherever I go, or track my expenses to the pennies (literally).

However, part of me thinks the nine months in UK was actually more extraordinary than abnormal. It was the same me who was rather reluctant to readjust back to his Malaysian routines.

Westminster Clocktower, also known colloquially as the "Big Ben", seen in the distance from Trafalgar Square.

Because of him, my luggage is still not fully unpacked yet. Unzip its top and you'll be greeted with a colourful assortment of undergarments, T-shirts and jeans. It's like he's expecting an unlikely out-of-the-blue call from the UK University of Nottingham Campus "Heya! Where've you been the past three weeks? Come attend classes at University Park or we'll expel you!"

It was also him who left his UK O2 Sim Card in my spare phone. I tried talking him into giving the now-useless piece of plastic away, but he was adamant.

Palace of Westminster, across River Thames.

And he annoyed me in classes, disturbing me by coming up with UK counterparts of brand names mentioned by lecturers. He'd go "Ryan Air" to "AirAsia", "Hovis" to "Gardenia's", "Asda" to "Giant" and "National Express" to "Transnasional". Makes concentrating in classes that much harder.

Two of the most recognizable icons of England.

He even went as far as keeping his UK phone number AND address in his head. Mind you, UK phone numbers are 11 digits long, excluding the country code. And English postal codes make no sense to me (I could hear him objecting about this across the corner of my brain when I typed this "It's NG7 2JZ!!! It's not that tough!!!").

Marching band in front of Buckingham Palace during the changing of the guards.

When we're alone and get a good chat with each other, however, I feel more pity than anger towards him. He'd occasionally have flashbacks about his time in UK at random times of the day, staring into the distance and rather reluctant to participate in conversations. He tends to avoid certain songs in our playlist -- apparently they reminded him too much of our time in Nottingham. He goes oddly silent when we looked into pictures we took in UK, biting his thumb and unresponsive to my futile attempts at humour.

Tower bridge, late evening, summer 2010. This photo turned out rather good for my camera with questionable low-light capabilities.

Little did I expect the short few months in a foreign country to scar someone that deeply, perhaps permanently. There is little doubt that he is never going to be the same person again.

Firefox 4 and Internet Explorer 9: Part I

2010-09-16T05:05:00.014+01:00

Introduction to the Browser Wars

15 years ago, when the web was young, webpages were static and boring.

Those are the two last words we use to describe webpages today. Sites like online email clients (GMail, Yahoo!, Windows Live), Facebook and Twitter are incredibly dynamic, changing their contents with the click of a mouse without redirecting users to new pages, all the while being aesthetically pleasing, providing real time updates to requests, like the "Loading..." and "Sending mail is taking longer than usual" messages.

These dynamic sites, generally known as Web 2.0 sites, are made possible by the intense competition between browsers. The browser wars started in the 1990s, between Netscape and Windows Internet Explorer (back then Microsoft Internet Explorer). When Netscape virtually lost all of their market share to IE, the Netscape project was donated to Mozilla (kind of), and Mozilla Firefox was born, sparkling the second browser war, soon joined by Opera and Apple Safari.

Chart showing history of web browser market share. Microsoft Internet Explorer has been dominating since before 2000.

Few years later, Google demonstrated their idea of a web browser by releasing Google Chrome with revolutionary features like extremely fast JavaScript engine, good standards compliance, multi-process tabs and clean user interface. These features were widely seen as reasons for the rapid adoption of Google's browser (besides good marketing by one of the world's leading advertising company) and Apple, Opera and Mozilla tried to keep up.

While the programmers struggle, the developers and us, the end users, reap the benefits. The five main browsers today are all very capable. They're, ranked from the most popular, Windows Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Apple Safari and Opera. Today, I'll be focusing on Internet Explorer 9 and Mozilla Firefox 4. They're still both in beta but are to be officially released within the next two months, intensifying the war.

The five major browsers, sitting on Windows 7 taskbar -- Windows Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Apple Safari and Opera. Notice that they're all rather round in shape. Coincidence?

If you are a Firefox 3.6 user, you can try Firefox 4 beta by clicking here. Installing Firefox 4 beta does NOT uninstall Firefox 3.6, so you have nothing to lose but about 30MB of your hard disk space. Remember that Mozilla is still actively developing Firefox 4, so expect new features to be introduced, bugs fixed and performance streamlined from time to time.

If you are still using Internet Explorer 6, 7 or 8, please, please, please switch! You can get Internet Explorer 9 Beta here, Mozilla Firefox here, Google Chrome here, Apple Safari here and Opera here.

Part 1: User Interface

Both IE9 and Fx4 feature heavily revamped user interfaces.

The IE team have removed many components previously present in Microsoft's browser. The status bar, search bar and menu bars are totally removed. In fact, there is only one toolbar now, housing the navigation buttons, URL box, tabs and settings buttons. Of course, this means we have a much shorter URL box, but it doesn't really matter because most users don't pay much attention to the entire URLs anyway -- it's the domain and end portions that are important. As a result, more vertical space was freed up, allowing webpages to fill up more of your screen (remember IE6 and the dozen toolbars?).

Internet Explorer 9, displaying my blog.

The only downside is the limited number of tabs practically visible in one window. Of course, you can open as many tabs as you want, but I personally like to see a small portion of the tab's title (not just the Favicon). The IE team, however, has made tab-tearing and arranging possible (though they are already available on most other browsers for literally years). Just drag the tabs to the left or right to rearrange them, or pull them out of the tab bar to force them into a new window.

Looks like IE users with smaller screens will have to make themselves comfortable with multiple windows.

Wait, what about the search bar? Isn't it missing? Well, not exactly. It has been combined with the URL bar, just like Chrome's Omnibar and (to a certain extent) Firefox's AwesomeBar. Just type any search keywords into the URL bar and IE provides the option to search the web by using a choice search engine.

Searching for the phrase "internet explorer 9" by typing in the URL bar. Suggestions are provided in real time. For privacy purposes, this is not enabled by default and can still be turned off after being enabled.

IE8 bothers users whenever a new username-password combination is entered by popping a new window up, asking if it has to remember the combination. In IE9, things got friendlier. Instead of an annoying popup, a small message appears at the bottom of the screen. It doesn't steal focus from the browser window, and hence users can simply choose to ignore it without any extra clicks (from both the mouse and the tongue). This very much reminded me of the way Firefox 3.x handles notifications, except that in Firefox, messages are housed just below the tab bar. Fx4, however, has an less obstructive way of displaying messages, which will be seen later.

Internet Explorer 9, displaying my blog overlaid with a notification at the bottom.

Common to all other browsers, (except the notable Mozilla Firefox), the default new-tab page of Internet Explorer has been improved. Instead of saying the lame "you've just opened a new tab" (I know that, you idiot!), it now shows 10 most frequently visited sites and describes their activity. Just like Opera's speed dial and Safari's Top Sites, one can open any of the sites by clicking on their boxes, but preview is unavailable -- one has to recognise the Favicon and/or name.

Internet Explorer 9's Popular Sites page opens by default when you open a new tab.

Oh by the way, status bar messages now show up as tooltip-like boxes, which heavily reminds me of Google Chrome (again). The Windows IE team has also borrowed the big back button from Firefox, the forward button being significantly smaller.

Switching our focus to Mozilla Firefox 4, the menu bar has been removed as well. Instead, an orange Firefox button has been added at the top left corner as a more space-efficient substitute (anybody else thinking Opera?). Users will also notice that, this time, the tab bar is positioned on top of the navigation bar, just like Google Chrome.

Mozilla Firefox 4 displaying my blog. Note that pre-beta releases of Firefox are branded Minefield, and by default, Fx4 displays status bar and positions the tab bar on top of the navigation bar.

The latest Firefox reincarnation has also got more adapt at handling tabs. Besides the usual tab-rearranging and tearing, users can now switch tabs by using the URL bar, dubbed the AwesomeBar. Just type the title (or URL) of the tab to switch to in the URL bar, and a "Switch to tab" option will appear. Clicking on it will bring the user to the chosen tab at the corresponding window. Handy for users who open, like, 50 tabs at any time.

Mozilla Firefox 4's Switch-to-Tab feature works even for tabs opened in other Firefox windows.

Mozilla has also introduced a prototype feature for tab management, called the Tab Candy. By pressing Ctrl + Space (in Windows, at least), users get to preview, rearrange, close and switch to any tabs open in any Firefox 4 window. One can make previews of less important sites smaller, or even reduce it to a pile, while giving more space to more frequently visited pages. This answer to Opera's tab preview looks promising, but is still rather unpolished and may not make it to the first public release of Mozilla Firefox 4.

Tab Candy on Mozilla Firefox 4

One extra tab-related feature is the addition of App Tabs. In Mozilla Firefox 4, users get to convert regular tabs to App Tabs. This feature, available by right clicking on tabs, is meant to be used with web apps, such as email clients and social networking sites which use heavy AJAX. Sites like these rarely need to be closed or refreshed, so the App Tabs are made smaller, pinned to the far left of the tab bar and have their close buttons hidden. If the navigation bar can be altogether hidden when the App Tab is opened so as to free up more space for the web app, that would be great, but alas, that feature is nowhere to be seen.

The small tab on the left with the Yahoo! logo is an App Tab. Right click on any tab to convert it into or from an App Tab.

With IE9, Opera, and Chrome slashing the status bar and replacing it with temporary tooltips, the Mozilla team have been thinking of ways to hide it and move its functionality elsewhere instead. Perhaps the most useful feature of the status bar is to display the target URL of hyperlinks. In Firefox 4, target URLs will appear on the right side of the AwesomeBar when users hover their cursors over a hyperlink. A great idea, since users rarely have to glance at the AwesomeBar for more than twice at each page, leaving the bar relatively idle.

The AwesomeBar split to two, the left displaying (part of) the URL of the current page, while the right showing the target URL of a hyperlink.

But wait, the status bar also shows the loading progress of webpages. Google Chrome shifted this information to the same tooltip the hyperlink URL was displayed. Opera made do by calculating the amount of elements to be loaded and displaying the number of elements loaded over the number to be loaded at the right side of the URL bar. In Safari, the URL bar doubles as the progress bar, its background changing when the page is loaded, just like iPhone's. This information seems to be missing in IE9 (am I the only one?). The Mozilla team has come up with yet another innovative feature. In Firefox 4 mockups, a thin progress "strip" is displayed on top of each and every loading tab, allowing users to, at one glance, tell which tabs are still loading. The strips disappear once the content of the tab has been fully loaded. This feature hasn't been implemented in the current beta release, however (see https://wiki.mozilla.org/Firefox/4.0_Linux_Theme_Mockups if you're interested), and is instead substituted by a pie-chart-like Favicon. While not nearly as aesthetically pleasing, it is definitely just as practical.

The pie-chart-like icons at the left side of the tabs actually show the loading progress of the tabs. Nice.

Edit 17 Sept: The progress strip for individual tabs has landed on today's pre-beta release of Mozilla Firefox 4 Beta 7, and the pie-chart icons removed. Loading tabs now show a generic favicon, a bug (?) which will probably be fixed before Beta 7 goes live.

Progress strips showing loading progress for tabs. Loading progress for the current active tab is displayed underneath the AwesomeBar instead of on top of its tab. The strips disappear once the contents of the tabs finish loading. They blend in nicely with Windows Aero theme and are neither too distracting nor invisible.

The way Firefox 3.6 handles notifications was fine, but apparently not good enough for the Firefox team. In Firefox 4, these messages are now reduced to mere speech bubbles. As usual, they don't stop webpages from loading or steal focus from the browser window, so users can choose just to ignore it. What I like, however, is how users can choose the "Not Now" option by clicking on anywhere outside the speech bubble, thus shutting it up without even have to move the mouse a single inch.

A notification bubble in Mozilla Firefox 4. Note that the "No" button is missing -- just click anywhere but the notification bubble to shut it up.

All these, coupled with the use of Windows Aero in the browser window, make Firefox 4 a fun browser to use. Best of all, everything from tab bar position (on top or bottom of navigation toolbar) to presence of status and menu bars remain fully customiseable, typical of Firefox tradition.

There are other (minor) interface changes here and there for both Firefox and Internet Explorer, such as redesigned add-ons page (Fx), downloads window (IE), tab animation (both), reload/stop button combo (Fx), but I'll leave these to those who are interested.

Besides interface, the new IE9 and Fx4 are also better integrated with the features of Windows 7. You can pin not just Internet Explorer and Firefox applications to the taskbar, but also sites you frequently visit. Pausing your cursor over either the IE or Fx icons on the taskbar will also show a preview of the tabs (tabs, not windows) opened -- one can switch to or close any of the tabs directly at Windows taskbar. This option can be disabled (at least in Firefox) if you don't fancy it.

Preview of tabs by clicking on Internet Explorer 9 or Firefox 4's icons on Windows 7 taskbar.

Coming up: rendering engine and performance of IE9 and Fx4!

巴生雪隆颜氏公会

2010-09-11T16:31:00.003+01:00

艺术，欢乐，回忆，无所不在。

Malaysia and Malaysians

2010-08-31T04:45:00.002+01:00

Talk to random Malaysians and chances are a majority of them has something to complain about their home countries.

Rather inefficient public transport, controversial entry procedures to public educational institutions, unstable internet connection, incompetent public workers, compromised safety and extremely hot weather are just a handful of the usual public comments.

Some of the issues are so well known that they're actually famous on international levels.

For example, anybody who follows international news know how dramatic Malaysian politics are. I spent nine months in UK and I swear, I've never read papers as boring as theirs. Notable headlines talk about Wayne Rooney's new baby and the story of how a public servant used government money to get a cup of coffee. Even the aftermath of the recently concluded general elections died down quite quickly.

Luckily, I got newspapers for free while I was in England, or I would've wanted my money back.

Online gamers, on the other hand, especially those in Singapore, sympathise Malaysian gamers. One second we were all playing happily, and the next, the Malaysians got disconnected like meat on a butcher's blade. Our weather-affected DSL connection is so notorious that it is often possible to tell weather in Malaysia just by observing Malaysian players. The more often they disconnect, the heavier the rain is.

It's also common sense that most parts of Malaysia are not half as safe as Nottingham, the so called "crime capital of England". Ask around -- every one out of few Malaysians have been crime victims before, including yours truly. It's amazing why haven't anyone taken advantage of the drunkenness of young Englishmen stumbling from pubs before. After all, they're bound to forget the events of the night the next day and just thought they misplaced their purses or wallets.

That, and all the brain drain! The smartest in the country are planning to leave, are leaving, or has left Malaysia to "better places" like Australia and Singapore. Why those places? They don't have newspaper more interesting than your regular Dan Brown thrillers.

But just when you think all hope is gone...

It's 2010 and Malaysia is changing. For one, TMnet has come up with Unifi, a fibre-optic based digital connection. Although this service is still relatively new, it's bound to catch up with and replace the current copper-based weather-vulnerable connection. And it's faster too! The Public Works Department have been rather generous in giving away scholarships to the top scorers of SPM, and that will surely slow down, if not stem, the talent outflow from this country. More policemen have been spotted too, especially around this Raya season.

And the fact that there are people who complain means that there are people who want change and improvement in this country. These are the people who care about the future of Malaysia and these are the people who want to see Malaysia becoming a developed nation one day. With them, who knows, one day, the general Malaysians may have a lot of nice things to say about their country.

So no, Malaysia is not hopeless. It's the entire opposite.

Happy 53rd, Malaysia, and all the best.

Oh wait, except the weather thing. No one can change that.

Sights of Nottingham: Wollaton Hall

2010-08-19T14:48:00.004+01:00

Note: High resolution images of all of the following photos are available. Click on the photos to view their higher resolution images.

After seeing the (rather) gloomy indoors of Wollaton Hall, it's time to enjoy the sunshine outside.

3-piece panorama of Wollaton Hall.

Nothing beats a great summer day at Wollaton Park. It's been a very, very long time since I've had that much peace.

There was nothing to worry about, other than the occasional I-have-to-clear-my-bladder problem.

Left: Wollaton Park courtyard and Middle: Wollaton Hall. Probably the only places within Wollaton Park with toilets, unless you don't mind peeing into bushes...

Everything was peaceful and quiet, save for the occasional chirp of birds, rush of wind, brush of leaves and laughter of children.

Panorama of Wollaton Hall, captured from a low angle.

No skyscraper to block my view, other than the majestic Wollaton Hall. Nothing to stop me from my tracks, except the honey bees and the colourful flowers everywhere.

Details of Wollaton Hall.

Everything seemed so free, so lost in time. The only busiest things within sight were typical English clouds, drifting and twisting at unbelievable speeds. I lied down on a park bench and it felt like falling through endless space, clouds neither within reach nor strong enough to support my weight.

Before long, the sun set, it got cold and I became hungry. I started my journey back home, and within 15 minutes, I was standing right beside a busy road, cars hustling past me, driven by busy drivers. I felt like I'd just woken up from a long nap all of a sudden.

A long, long nap with an incredibly sweet dream.

One of the final and finest pictures I took at Wollaton Park. Goodbye Nottingham...

Sights of Nottingham: Museum of Natural History

2010-08-12T13:18:00.003+01:00

Note: High resolution images of all of the following photos are available. Click on the photos to view their higher resolution images.

Quite some time ago, I posted pictures of Wollaton Park, split over two posts, here and here.

Right at the heart of Wollaton Park is Wollaton Hall. It was built in the 16th century and is now currently used as Nottingham's Museum of Natural History.

Interior panorama of Wollaton Hall.

While certainly not as interesting as London's Museum of Natural History (which I visited briefly, photos will be up some time in the future), it's still worth a visit. After all, entrance is totally free, although it is customary to drop a few coins into the donation box.

Geez, I never knew bees live in multi-storey buildings.

Wollaton Hall is two-storey tall (or so I remember). Among things you can expect to see in the museum include preserved animals, live insects kept in glass enclosures, stuffed models of birds (some are artificial, some are real preserved animals) and a wide collection of gemstones.

Animal trophies, collected when hunting was still perfectly unregulated and legal.

Close-up of the trophies.

Nope. One year in UK and I haven't seen anyone smoking pipes like this. At least no one non-fictional and alive.

Remember the good ol' radios shown in classic Disney cartoons?

Or the rotate-to-dial phones?

I apologise for the lack of quality of these photos. As usual, it was a big challenge, trying to catch photos in dark interiors with such an old camera. But photos of the Hall's exterior definitely look much better, and I promise they'll be uploaded relatively soon.

Web Gadgets: And Another JavaScript Clock!

2010-08-07T10:32:00.005+01:00

One of the first programs I wrote when I learnt JavaScript was a digital clock.

Then, just last month, I wrote an analogue clock, with the hands all made up of periods.

And now, behold! Yet another JavaScript clock. This time, the hands are not made of lousy dots -- they're real hands now, drawn with two of the latest CSS features: transform and transition.

For Google Chrome and Apple Safari users, you should already be able to see hands slowly move between ticks, instead of "teleporting" from location to location. The same goes to Opera users, although some minor bugs may be observed.

Again, for Firefox users, upgrade to version 4.0 or later (4.0 beta currently, at http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/beta/) to see what you've been missing. Seriously, Version 4.0 is good. Those who prefer to stay with earlier versions will still see a functioning clock with "teleporting" hands though.

Sadly, for Internet Explorer users, this clock doesn't work. You'll have to wait for IE9 to try your luck, sorry about that.

Here goes the source code, for those who are curious. Remember, Blogger.com does NOT support JavaScript at blog bodies, so use a proper HTML/JavaScript gadget for the clock.

<style type="text/css">
.dot {position:absolute;font-weight:bold;}
#sechand {position:absolute;top:80px;left:40px;width:70px;border:1px dashed;transform: rotate(-90deg) translate(35px,0px);-moz-transform: rotate(-90deg) translate(35px,0px);-webkit-transform: rotate(-90deg) translate(35px,0px);-o-transform: rotate(-90deg) translate(35px,0px);}
#minhand,#hrhand {position:absolute;left:40px;top:80px;width:70px;transform: rotate(-90deg) translate(35px,-1px);-moz-transform: rotate(-90deg) translate(35px,0px);-webkit-transform: rotate(-90deg) translate(35px,-1px);-o-transform: rotate(-90deg) translate(35px,-1px);}
#minhand {border:2px solid;}
</style>

<div style="position:relative;margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;width:160px;height:170px;" id="labelcontainer">
<hr id="sechand" />
<hr id="minhand" />
<div id="hrhand" /><hr style="width:50px;border:2px solid;position:relative;right:10px;" /></div></div>
<span id="debug"></span>

<script type="text/javascript">
for (var i=0;i!=13;i++)
{
document.getElementById('labelcontainer').innerHTML+="<span class='dot' style='top:"+y_coor(i*5,75,74)+"px;left:"+x_coor(i*5,75,74)+"px;'>."+"</span>"
}
upd_sec();
upd_min();

function upd_sec()
{
var now=new Date();
setTimeout('upd_sec()',1000-now.valueOf()%1000);
var angle=now.getSeconds()*6-90;
if (now.getSeconds()==59)
setTimeout('sec0()',800);
document.getElementById("sechand").setAttribute("style","\
transition-duration:0.75s;\
-moz-transition-duration:0.75s;\
-webkit-transition-duration:0.75s;\
-o-transition-duration:0.75s;\
transform: rotate("+angle+"deg) translate(35px,0px);\
-moz-transform: rotate("+angle+"deg) translate(35px,0px);\
-webkit-transform: rotate("+angle+"deg) translate(35px,0px);\
-o-transform: rotate("+angle+"deg) translate(35px,0px);");
}

function upd_min()
{
var now=new Date();
setTimeout('upd_min()',60000-now.valueOf()%60000);
if (now.getMinutes()==59)
setTimeout('min0()',850);
var angle=now.getMinutes()*6-90;
document.getElementById("minhand").setAttribute("style","\
transition-duration:0.75s;\
-moz-transition-duration:0.75s;\
-webkit-transition-duration:0.75s;\
-o-transition-duration:0.75s;\
transform: rotate("+angle+"deg) translate(35px,-1px);\
-moz-transform: rotate("+angle+"deg) translate(35px,0px);\
-webkit-transform: rotate("+angle+"deg) translate(35px,-1px);\
-o-transform: rotate("+angle+"deg) translate(35px,-1px);");
angle=now.getHours()*30+now.getMinutes()/2-90;
document.getElementById("hrhand").setAttribute("style","\
transform: rotate("+angle+"deg) translate(35px,-1px);\
-moz-transform: rotate("+angle+"deg) translate(35px,0px);\
-webkit-transform: rotate("+angle+"deg) translate(35px,-1px);\
-o-transform: rotate("+angle+"deg) translate(35px,-1px);");
}

function sec0()
{
document.getElementById("sechand").setAttribute("style","\
transition-property: none;\
-moz-transition-property: none;\
-webkit-transition-property: none;\
-o-transition-property: none;\
transform: rotate(-96deg) translate(35px,0px);\
-moz-transform: rotate(-96deg) translate(35px,0px);\
-webkit-transform: rotate(-96deg) translate(35px,0px);\
-o-transform: rotate(-96deg) translate(35px,0px);");
}

function min0()
{
document.getElementById("minhand").setAttribute("style","\
transition-property: none;\
-moz-transition-property: none;\
-webkit-transition-property: none;\
-o-transition-property: none;\
transform: rotate(-96deg) translate(35px,-1px);\
-moz-transform: rotate(-96deg) translate(35px,0px);\
-webkit-transform: rotate(-96deg) translate(35px,-1px);\
-o-transform: rotate(-96deg) translate(35px,-1px);");
}

function x_coor(sec,radius,offset)
{
return (Math.sin(sec*0.10472)*radius+offset);
}

function y_coor(sec,radius,offset)
{
return (offset-Math.cos(sec*0.10472)*radius);
}
</script>

More clocks in the future?

Web Gadgets: CSS3 Transition!

2010-08-06T20:42:00.004+01:00

The internet is getting more dynamic than ever.

Twenty years ago, the web was just like an electronic paper. All you could do was to read.

Then, internet got faster -- images started to appear on the web.

10 years ago, we get the ECMAScript, or more commonly recognised as JavaScript. It allowed us to interact with webpages, making modern dynamic sites like Gmail and Meebo possible.

Today, we get CSS3 Transitions.

What does it do? Basically, it allows simple animations with shockingly few lines of codes. For Google Chrome, Apple Safari or Opera users, hover your cursor over any of my links (including the semi-transparent image links below the cbox). You should see the links slowly changing colour instead of snapping instantly, like lightning.

Well, how about Mozilla Firefox and Windows Internet Explorer users? For Firefox users, upgrade to Firefox 4.0 or later to enjoy this feature. Version 4.0 is available as a beta version at http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/beta/ as of now. It's really worth a try, especially if you're a Windows user.

As for IE users, well, maybe it's time to switch.

See http://hacks.mozilla.org/2010/07/firefox4-beta2/ for another CSS3 Transition sample.

Sights of London: Baker Street

2010-07-29T13:19:00.006+01:00

Note: High resolution images of all of the following photos are available. Click on the photos to view their higher resolution images.

I grew up loving English classics and Sherlock Holmes is definitely one of my all-time favourites. Naturally, one of the places on top of my "to-visit-in-London list" was Baker Street.

The home of Sherlock Holmes was said to be 221b Baker Street. However, according to Wikipedia, Number 221 never actually existed during the famous detective's time. Back then, Baker Street only went up to about 100. When Number-Two-Twenty-One actually came into existence, it was made into a Sherlock Holmes museum and has been attracting visitors from all over the world ever since.

Getting to Baker Street was a piece of cake (no pun intended) -- there's a Tube station (also called Baker Street) at its mouth. For your information, Baker Street is within London Underground Zone 1, so a ride from central London should cost £1.80.

Above ground, you'll be greeted with signboards.

Madam Tussauds' wax museum is also not far away.

Once on Baker Street, just look for 221.

Well, actually I still managed to lose my way that day. For 15 minutes or so.

Anyway, after a while, I immediately knew I was at the right place. Sherlock Holmes's silhouette began to appear literally everywhere. Cafés, bars, dry cleaners, restaurants, all sported the side profile with a pipe.

221 itself was unsuspecting. Other than the rather distracting Museum signboard, everything looked perfectly ordinary. It was as if Sherlock Holmes was still alive and was living among the ordinary, not yet becoming a legend.

I was a little less fortunate that day. It was a Saturday evening and the museum was closed.

Yet I was still satisfied to be able to knock on the door of the world's most famous detective.

A mock-up of a police notice, asking Sherlock Holmes for help on solving a seemingly complicated murder case.

A pose beside Baker Street Underground station's escalator. Took me multiple tries to get this right -- hundreds of people went pass me and gave me different kinds of looks.

What an honour.

Owl Order is Still Alive

2010-07-26T15:00:00.003+01:00

Sorry for being missing in action for such a long time without anything as much as a notice, but I promise, I'll be back.

Stay tuned.

Top of Google

2010-07-10T08:48:00.005+01:00

It's official. This very blog, despite its embarrassingly low visitor count, has made the top of Google search results for "owl order".

I never would have known this if not for my friend Googling "owl order" up to visit my blog. I have a strange feeling he's not the only person doing it.

In addition, I've also made it to the top of Microsoft bing's search engine results.

However, I'm still stuck at the second page of Yahoo!'s result. Strange, I remember seeing better news just few hours ago...

Web Gadgets: JavaScript Analogue Clock

2010-07-09T17:41:00.009+01:00

Last time, I shared a JavaScript clock, mainly as a suggestion to replace the widely used Flash-based clocks.

Today, I'm sharing yet another clock I wrote, but this time, it's the needle-based analogue clock, not the much-simpler-and-lamer number-based digital one.

As usual, feel free to copy the code below and use it. Remember, blogger only allows JavaScript in proper "HTML/JavaScript" gadgets, so this gadget will not work in regular blogposts.

<style type="text/css">
.dot {position:absolute;font-weight:bold;}
.sec {position:absolute;opacity:0.4;font-weight:bold;}
</style>
<div style="position:relative;margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;width:160px;height:180px;" id="labelcontainer">
<span style="position:absolute;top:80px;left:80px;font-weight:bold;">.</span></div>
<script type="text/javascript">
for (var i=1;i!=8;i++)
{
document.getElementById('labelcontainer').innerHTML+="<span id='hr"+i+"' class='dot'>.</span>";
}
for (var i=1;i!=14;i++)
{
document.getElementById('labelcontainer').innerHTML+="<span id='min"+i+"' class='dot'>.</span>";
}
for (var i=1;i!=3;i++)
{
document.getElementById('labelcontainer').innerHTML+="<span id='sec"+i+"' class='sec'>.</span>";
}
for (var i=1;i!=13;i++)
{
document.getElementById('labelcontainer').innerHTML+="<span class='dot' style='font-weight:bold;opacity:0.4;top:"+y_coor(i*5,80,80)+"px;left:"+x_coor(i*5,80,80)+"px;'>."+"</span>";
}
updatesec();
updatemin();

function updatesec()
{
var now=new Date();
setTimeout('updatesec()',1000-now.valueOf()%1000);
for (var i=1;i!=3;i++)
{
document.getElementById('sec'+i).setAttribute('style','left:'+x_coor(now.getSeconds(),80-i*5,80)+'px;top:'+y_coor(now.getSeconds(),80-i*5,80)+'px;');
}
}

function updatemin()
{
var now=new Date();
setTimeout('updatemin()',60000-now.valueOf()%60000+Math.floor(Math.random()*60));
for (var i=1;i!=14;i++)
{
document.getElementById('min'+i).setAttribute('style','left:'+x_coor(now.getMinutes(),70-i*5,80)+'px;top:'+y_coor(now.getMinutes(),70-i*5,80)+'px;');
}
for (var i=1;i!=8;i++)
{
document.getElementById('hr'+i).setAttribute('style','left:'+x_coor(now.getHours()*5+now.getMinutes()/12,40-i*5,80)+'px;top:'+y_coor(now.getHours()*5+now.getMinutes()/12,40-i*5,80)+'px;');
}
}

function x_coor(sec,radius,offset)
{
return (Math.sin(sec*0.10472)*radius+offset);
}

function y_coor(sec,radius,offset)
{
return (offset-Math.cos(sec*0.10472)*radius);
}
</script>

And a sample for you!

Note that this clock contains no image -- the only thing used is the period character (AKA full-stop). And oh, it may not work on Internet Explorer (unless you have IE9 or newer), so try using a third party browser like Mozilla Firefox instead.

Have fun with it!

Sights of Nottingham: My Home in UK

2010-06-27T09:03:00.003+01:00

Note: High resolution images of some of the following photos are available. These photos are marked with [HiRes] tags in their captions. Click on the photos to view their higher resolution images.

As I've said in my previous blog post, I'm finally back home in Malaysia.

True, Klang is the only place I can truly call home. The hot, messy room with currently four computers (two desktops, two laptops, totalling nine processors, excluding mobiles) infested with countless mosquitoes, yeah that's where I'm supposed to sleep.

Raleigh Park, however, was the closest thing to home I had when I was in UK. A home away from home, if you like.

[HiRes] The view through my kitchen window.

It provided me with shelter from rain, snow, shine, hot and cold. I made most of my meals there. Cleared my bladder and rectum in the toilets. Got all comfy during the showers and shivered afterwards. Curled up in my bed, hiding under my duvet at the corner of my room. Most importantly, I get (mostly) awesome internet speeds there.

[HiRes] Raleigh Park, seen from Ilkeston Road. Notice the Bicycle sculpture right in front of the words "Raleigh Park". This place used to be the site of a bicycle manufacturing factory.

Opened in 2002, this place is relatively new compared to on campus accommodation.

[HiRes] Panorama of the view from my room.

I'm definitely going to miss this place. Packing up was so hard. There's just too much memories I know I'm never going to experience again, at least not anytime soon.

I'll show you what I mean. This is my living room slash kitchen slash dining room.

[HiRes] My kitchen/dining/living room.

Things to note:
1. Dining table, on which so many activities other than dining was accomplished. Like watching the others play games on PS2. Or Alex and Jamie slamming the table playing, um, Slam. Or me stuttering over the word game Articulate.
2. Stack of beer bottles, by my housemates Alex and Jamie.
3. Geoff's TV, FM radio, PS2.
4. Fridge and fridge magnets I got from the uni. Visitors and hosts alike had fun with the words.
5. My containers and wok (on top of the cupboard next to the fridges) which helped me prepared so many meals.
6. The stove, grill and oven. I had quite some "fun" cleaning the microwave oven last time. And there's Geoff's toaster.
7. Couches. On which so many visitors spent the nights.

And his is a picture of my room at the peak of its messiness, about 2 weeks after my final exam and few days before I started packing for home.

[HiRes] My messy room.

Things to note:
1. (Bottom left corner) Pringles Pyramid. The amount of Pringles I ate in 9 months is simply astounding. And I threw some away already.
2. (Middle left) My calendar. I filled it up with my expenses, that way I can track how much I spend each day in UK.
3. (Top left) Row of receipts from my first days in UK. I stopped collecting receipts -- the sheer amount is shocking. Superseded by the said calendar.
4. (Top left) Other things on the notice board: souvenirs for my sisters, Malaysia flag, a CD containing Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala, UK parliamentary election polling card.
5. (Middle) My laptop right in front of my chair.
6. (Middle) Other things on the table: boxes of muesli (my favourite breakfast/snack), an 800g loaf of seeded bread from Hovis, a stack of DVDs, my phone, water bottles, pencil cases, stacks of paper, notes, coaster...
7. (Top right) My towel hanging on the window grill.
8. (Top) Lightbulb. I changed it from a lower power bulb to a higher power one. From 12W to 23W I think.
9. (Top left) Shelf. My razor, toothpaste, toothbrush, snacks, unopened cans of Pringles, scrap paper were all there.
10. (Top right) Cupboard. Filled not with clothes, but with empty muesli boxes. 24, to be exact.
11. (Bottom right) Bed.

Sigh.

Home Haiku

2010-06-24T23:07:00.003+01:00

Insect bites on me
Waking up with sticky skin
This is Malaysia

Out-of-tune piano
Bad connection internet
No doubt this is home

Long chats with fam'ly
Calls from old college buddies
Why I'm here, you see

Yes, I'm home in Malaysia. =D

Sights of Nottingham: Spring at Wollaton Park II

2010-06-14T23:04:00.006+01:00

Note: High resolution images of some of the following photos are available. These photos are marked with [HiRes] tags in their captions. Click on the photos to view their higher resolution images.

Not long ago, I published some pictures of Wollaton Park right here at my blog. All the pictures shown were actually caught some time ago, back in early April to be precise. I woke up at about noon and joined my friends for a stroll after a quick brunch. Some time later, having empty stomach, full bladder and lagging terribly behind my party, I lost the mood to catch photos. The best were already published in the said blogpost.

[HiRes] A really peaceful and dreamy view of the Park.

So one of the first things I did after my third year exams was to visit Wollaton Park again. This time around, I was more prepared. With my camera fully charged up, a bottle of drinking water (tap water, actually) in my pocket, friends busy preparing for their exams (I finished mine early), I found myself visiting Wollaton Park not just one, but two more times, 6 hours apiece.

The result? Hundreds of photos in 12 hours. Of course, only about 20 of them were actually satisfactory, half of which I'm putting up here today.

[HiRes] An English telephone booth in the Park. Red on Green. Contrasty, huh?

The two trips being nearly 2 months apart, some differences here and there were definitely noticeable. Different species of flowers blossomed. The bees were no longer that busy. The trees started showing off their fresh green leaves.

[HiRes] The same pathway during my first visit back in April (left) and in late May (right).

There are several key attractions at Wollaton Park. The central of all attraction, Wollaton Hall, Nottingham's museum of natural history, is located at the centre of the Park.

[HiRes]A panorama of Wollaton Hall.

More pictures of Wollaton Hall, both from the outside and inside to come soon.

A flower garden is situated just behind the Hall. There's a greenhouse there too, but it was closed during all my visits. Kind of makes me wonder if it's ever opened to the public at all.

The photos of the flowers shown in the previous Wollaton Park blogpost were captured here.

A caterpillar-shaped hedge at the garden.

There's also a lake at Wollaton Park. Just like the University of Nottingham University Park Campus lake, this lake is a popular jogging spot. But to be honest, anywhere in the park is a good jogging spot.

[HiRes] Vertical panorama of the lake, with Wollaton Hall shown far into the distance.

And then there are the deers. In the Park, deers and humans share the same space. The Park being located adjacent to a golf club, golfers swing their clubs literally metres away from herds of deers. Visitors must take care to keep gates closed to prevent deers from strolling out of their enclosures.

Reminder to keep the gate closed.

[HiRes] Panorama showing deers on the left and a few golfers to the right.

Overall, Wollaton Park is a real good place to escape from the rush of city life and relax your bones and brains (assuming you have both, a luxury not everybody has).

If only there's one such park within walking distance from my place in Klang.

[HiRes] A panorama of sunset at Wollaton Park. I could've waited longer for the sky to turn redder, but it was cold and I had a bladder slowly reaching the dangerous threshold.

[HiRes] But I caught this! This 3-picture panorama turned out real good. "Why sit when you can soar?" To Jo and SL.

Some Stranger Hugged Me...

2010-06-04T21:39:00.007+01:00

... just because I'm a "Chinaman" earlier just now.

No kidding.

I was walking by myself when suddenly a bloke called after me. He muttered some stuff to me which I didn't really understand. I stared at him, bewildered, and gave him a blur "huh?". The first words that came out of his mouth which I actually understood was something like "you're a Chinaman!"

I stammered. "Uh, yeah?"

"Oh, I love you!" he exclaimed and gave me a big bear hug, leaving me totally astounded.

Trust me, I stutter all the time when I talk to local Englishmen. Push me in front of a stranger who hugs me just because I'm a Chinese and my jibber-jabber makes as much sense as Chip and Dale impersonating Donald Duck.

Brought up in Malaysia as a rather conservative Asian, I have to say I was a little paranoid. I don't even remember the last time I hugged my parents. We didn't even share as much as a handshake before I flew here to UK. Add with the many suspicious characters with hidden agendas in Malaysia, giving a free hug to a random chap on the street is probably a free pass for a night in jail.

But this is UK, over 7000 miles away from Malaysia. Things could be different here.

"Oh, what an honour! You're a handsome young man!" He commented in his smooth English accent when we broke apart.

Oh one more thing. I've had fantasies of people complimenting my looks (which, as many of you know, isn't that great, hence the fantasies). However wild my imagination was, none of my fantasies looked like this.

"Um, you too, sir!" I stammered. Flattery is a strong suit of the English, and I figured the right thing to do was to return a positive comment as well.

He chuckled, eyes scanning on me while I smiled stupidly. After receiving one more platonic (I hope) "I love you", I bid farewell to the stranger and left.

A considerable distance away, I looked back, and, after making sure he was out of sight, I gasped "Holy Crap! What the hell just happened?"

I checked my pockets -- all my possessions were still with me and I found no (further) surprises.

It took a few seconds for me to accept the fact that the stranger probably meant nothing else, other than to have the honour of having a 30-second chat with a Chinese (why though?). Besides, it was far too early to be drunk. I sniggered to myself and thought, boy, I love England!

All the best to England in the up-coming FIFA game!

PS. To the person who hugged me: if you're reading this (that's probably even more unlikely than getting another free hug from yet another stranger), thanks a lot for the surprise! You just made my day ;-)

Sights of Nottingham: Spring at Wollaton Park

2010-05-31T14:38:00.003+01:00

Note: High resolution images of all of the following photos are available. Click on the photos to view their higher resolution images.

[HiRes] Caught in University Park. These yellow flowers were among the first plants to blossom after the frosty winter. Note that the tree was still bare.

We don't get a lot of public holidays in UK, unlike Malaysia, where calendars are sprinkled with colourful boxes here and there. Instead, we get two month-long holidays -- Christmas and Easter Breaks. And of course the penultimate 3-month Summer.

[HiRes] Along the way to Wollaton Park.

Unlike Christmas, Easter had nice weather and many of my friends went travelling overseas, or at least out of Nottingham. While I didn't, I took the opportunity to visit Wollaton Park.

The pictures I have here aren't great, so I'll save talking about Wollaton Park until I publish better ones.

[HiRes] Flowers, captured in one of the gardens in Wollaton Park.

[HiRes] Country road. The sight of things like this sure makes anyone feel closer to nature.

[HiRes] Gate to Wollaton Park Golf Course.

[HiRes] And another.

[HiRes] Foursome sitting on a bench in front of Wollaton Hall. My favourite pic of this batch.

More on Wollaton Park to come. I have real awesome pics, I promise.

What I've Been Eating in UK

2010-05-29T01:09:00.005+01:00

One thing about spending so many months away from Malaysia is how much I miss Malaysian cuisine.

Oh Nasi Lemak, how I crave for thy fragrant rice covered with spicy curry...

[HiRes] Nasi Lemak, sold during an event organised by Nottingham Malaysian Society (NMS). Imagine buying Malaysian food in UK price.

One would say it's a good opportunity to start trying some foreign stuff instead. I would totally agree, if not for the ridiculous price of things here. I ended up preparing practically every meal at home after failing to secure a part time job.

I have a feeling this post will answer mum's question of "what has my son been eating for the past 9 months" and save a lot of pointless worrying.

One of the dishes I serve most frequently is the classic fried rice.

One of my earlier fried rice. Doesn't look too bad, especially when you consider the fact that I've never ever cooked rice before stepping foot in UK.

Notice how the fried rice is in a food container? Well it was obviously one of my lunch packs. To save a few pounds (the currency, not the weight unit), I would wake up before 7am to prepare lunch if my lunch break wasn't long enough for me to travel back to cook. I kept this up for a whole year, which kind of amazed even myself. Perhaps that's why they say money is a good motivator.

Anyway, you can throw anything into fried rice so there's little chance of getting too fed up (pun?) eating the same thing over and over again.

A more Malay style fried rice, with Ikan Bilis (dried fish) and chilli. That wasn't a bad dish, actually, but I hated spending half my afternoon peeling Ikan Bilis one by one.

Congee (or rice porridge) is the easiest thing to do.

One of my earlier servings of rice porridge.

I used to hate porridge, but I've been eating it a few times every week for the past few months. It's the best when I'm busy. Just throw everything in and wait for 15 minutes. I don't even have to worry about burning it if I dozed off for a few minutes. And with Marmite (FYI, Marmite is English), it isn't actually that bad.

Another variant of my earlier porridges. I always use Marmite these few months.

Soup noodles ain't too hard either, but I don't like the idea of consuming artificially seasoned food regularly, and I'm just too lousy to make good soup noodles without seasoning.

And I've also made sandwiches/burgers!

Nope, not this one. These are from BK's.

My sandwich. It doesn't look good, but I assure you, its taste is far better than its looks.

Then there's sweet and sour chicken. Yum!

Learning to cook is perhaps one of the most significant accomplishments since my arrival in UK. The good thing about cooking is I get to control food portions. When my tummy was rumbling I'd probably subconsciously pour more rice into my measuring container. I'm also more confident with my food's hygiene than those prepared by grumpy strangers stuck in oven hot kitchens for hours a day. On average, a cooked-at-home meal costs about £1 to £2, at least twice as cheap as eating out. And most importantly, it's way healthier.

But no, I won't be cooking this regularly in Malaysia. What, haven't you seen a hypocrite before?

Web Gadgets: JavaScript Clock

2010-05-23T00:36:00.012+01:00

See the little clock up there? Right above the big red seal? That's a little clock I wrote. Most blogs utilise Flash to implement clocks, but Flash is slow, resource hungry and doesn't work on mobile devices, including iPhones, iPods and iPads.

The clock I wrote, however, is pure JavaScript. Most browsers today have fast JavaScript engines, including mobile browsers, so it's guaranteed to run almost everywhere. It's actually very simple, a few lines of code do the trick.

<span id="clock"></span>
<script type="text/javascript">
update();
function update()
{
var now=new Date();
document.getElementById("clock").innerHTML=
twodigit(now.getHours())
+":"+twodigit(now.getMinutes())
+"<sub>:"+twodigit(now.getSeconds())+"</sub>";
setTimeout("update()",1000-(now.valueOf()%1000));
}
function twodigit(ip)
{
if (ip<10)
return new String("0"+ip);
else
return ip;
}</script>

A little example. This example is hosted on a free webhost, so don't be surprised if it doesn't load. The one on top of this page always loads, though.

I sincerely urge users of Flash-based clock-gadgets to switch to a JavaScript-based one. Feel free to copy the code above and modify it, if you know basic HTML/JavaScript. Note that Blogspot blocks JavaScript codes unless they're in proper HTML/JavaScript gadgets.

PS: See here for an analogue JavaScript clock.

Sights of Nottingham: Spring is Here

2010-05-17T19:47:00.007+01:00

Every year before 2010, I celebrated Chinese New Year in Malaysia (or Singapore), supposedly marking the arrival of Spring.

This year, however, things were different. I didn't get to celebrate Chinese New Year. However, I did manage to witness the arrival of Spring for real.

While I personally enjoyed winter and the many photographic opportunities it has given me, many people don't like the frosty season (save for Christmas).

[HiRes] The gloomy weather of winter.

Daytime was ridiculously short. By 4pm it would be all dark. Like midnight. Even when it wasn't dark, the sky would be blanketed by gray, hazy clouds, making it hard (if possible at all) to locate the sun. The trees were bald, the shrubs had frosty white leaves and the colourful flowers no where to be seen.

[HiRes] Are these pinecones?

Come February, however, things changed. The earth thawed, leaves sprouted out of the bare branches and the grass became nature's colour palette.

[HiRes] Caught right in front of Nightingale Hall, University Park Campus.

It was simply amazing. It's like seeing life coming a full cycle. Heck, it IS life coming a full cycle.

[HiRes] Notice how the petals were scattered all over.

Herbs and flowers can now be found practically everwhere.

[HiRes] Near sunset, University Park campus. The way the light fell gently on the pale pink flowers was just plain magical.

[HiRes] Caught beside Sherwood Hall, University Park, where I spent my first two nights in Nottingham.

[HiRes] This is the only photo today not captured in any of the University of Nottingham campuses, I think. Probably the same specie as the one above, but definitely different location.

Even right beside the drain. In Malaysia, plants would rather die than absorb a single drop of liquid from the drains.

[HiRes] Even the drains see life flourish. This drain was even visited by the ducks occasionally.

[HiRes] One of Jubilee Campus's many Sails reflected on the surface.

Eventually, the bees came out. The bees here are huge. I've seen some bigger than my thumb. And my man-thumb isn't exactly small.

[HiRes] You have no idea how much effort was needed to take two mediocre pictures of the bees using my 5-year-old compact camera.

[HiRes] A bee stained with pollens.

Life. Amazing, isn't it?

Sights of London: Transport

2010-05-13T01:02:00.003+01:00

Note 1: High resolution images of some of the following photos are available. These photos are marked with [HiRes] tags in their captions. Click on the photos to view their higher resolution images.

Note 2: Various facts obtained from Wikipedia. All external text-links lead to the related Wikipedia articles.

I have previously posted photos on my trip to London before. Two and a half months after my second London post, here's the third one.

London is a huge city, with over 8 million residents in the Greater London Urban Area. This calls for a more-than-just-good transport system.

I went to London Heathrow Airport before, the third busiest airport in the world.

London Heathrow, Terminal 3.

Besides the airport, London is famous for its red post boxes and red telephone booths.

And red double-deckers.

[HiRes] A classic Routemaster in front of a more modern double-decker.

The double-decker on the left is a famous Routemaster. Built in the 1950s and 60s, they have become icons of London. Much like how yellow cabs form the heart and soul of New York.

Routemasters are unique in a way that the entrances are located at the back of the bus, including the stairs to the upper deck.

[HiRes] Rear of a Routemaster bus.

The front part is also asymmetric.

[HiRes] The Bus Driver. I know the bus' registration plate kinda looks like a Malaysian price tag.

But I'm not that much of a big fan of buses. Trains, however, I love. Especially super-long distance, ultra-high speed trains and sparkling-new metros.

[HiRes] London Victoria Station, a central railway station. Captured using Sony Ericsson Xperia X1.

London served me well for this reason -- London's metro system, the London Underground, or "the Tube", is notable for many achievements. It was the first underground railway system in the world, the first to operate electric trains, second longest metro system with about 400km of tracks, and third busiest metro system in Europe, after Paris and Moscow.

[HiRes] The London Underground's "Roundel" logo. All tube stations have their names displayed in the roundel, replacing the "Underground" word.

The London Underground started serving in 1863. Yes, that's almost 150 years ago. In comparison, the first metro system in South East Asia, Manila's LRT System, opened in 1984, less than 30 years ago; Singapore's Mass Rapid Transit in 1987; and the Malaysian KTM Komuter started crawling in 1995.

[HiRes] Captured using Sony Ericsson Xperia X1.

While Malaysian Kelana Jaya Line receives a daily ridership of about 200 000, the London Underground gets about 3 million rides per day. That's right, million, not thousand.

[HiRes] Sunday morning at Earl's Court, Tube station. Captured using Sony Ericsson Xperia X1.

Of course, the trains were changed periodically, but the tracks have to be well maintained. And I tell you, rides on the 150-year-old tracks are smoother than the 15-year-old KTM Komuter's bumpy knots of rusted iron.

[HiRes] The inside of a London Underground train. Captured using Sony Ericsson Xperia X1.

So you think Kuala Lumpur is a big city? Think again.

The Scarf Mum Made Me

2010-05-09T01:21:00.004+01:00

Note: High resolution image of the following photo is available. Click on the photo to view the higher resolution image.

Last year, when I decided to take the offer for a year-long exchange programme in UK, mum made me this.

[HiRes]

It's a scarf.

You surely wouldn't want it even if I were to give it to you. The truth is, it's not the best scarf around.

It's not nearly long enough for certain (cool) ways of tying it. Stray fibres stick out from every square millimetre of it on both sides (that's the consequences of using some kind of Japanese yarn). Having it in direct contact to your skin really itches. What made things worse was its colour -- the shade of unhealthy green poo.

We mortals are always easily dissatisfied. I have a functioning camera which produced countless great photos, yet I can't conceal my desire for an SLR. I love my phone, but seeing newer models released every month just makes me drool. My home is great, but sometimes, when I see a nice house, I just can't help but think, wow, wouldn't it be great to live in a place like this.

But then again, however unsightly our homes may be, it is still the warmest and best place in the world. Perhaps we have grown attachments to our homes, for they have provided us shelter from the rain and sun for the many years. Perhaps the locked doors gave us a sense of security. Perhaps staying with our family makes us feel safe and loved. Or maybe it is just because of all the memories we've made in our homes. Either way, I would easily prefer two nights in my own messy bed to three weeks in a grand four-poster in a five star suite.

Looking back at the green scarf, I realised how the same principle can be applied to that simple piece of fabric. I can easily adapt to its many short-comings. After wearing it for a few times, I got used to it and it itched less; I simply draped it around my neck twice instead of attempting some fancy knots; I could've easily hidden it underneath my jacket if its colour clashed with my other garments.

That, however, wasn't the real reason I put off the idea of getting a new factory-made scarf. Mum spent weeks knitting the scarf for me, all her precious time, effort and passion woven carefully into the simple piece of fabric, flick by flick, under the gentle guidance of her warm hands. Simple was her sole desire: to equip me with a cover from the snow and a shield from the cold.

I was heavily reminded of an ancient Chinese poem, one which tells the story of a loving mother, hastily sewing a shirt for her far-travelling son, all while hoping he doesn't take too long to return home.

When the winter reached its peak and the winds were strong, I would whip the scarf out of my bag and wrap it around my neck. Knowing that it was made by my mother's own fingers only made wearing it doubly warm.

And no, I don't usually hide it from view, for it makes me feel absolutely certain that no one else in this world could possibly be as lucky as I am.

6th May 2010: Polling Day

2010-05-06T18:25:00.008+01:00

... for UK.

Some time in March I received this letter from the Conservatives.

[HiRes] The letter, front and back.

It came with an extra envelope, addressed to the Conservatives' Nottingham branch office.

Back then, I had no idea what was going on. Sure I knew an election was coming up, but the parliament was not dissolved yet and the election day was not set.

The worse thing is that I knew nothing about British politics. Not that I know a lot now, mind you, but back then I didn't even know who (or what) the Conservatives were. It could be their tree logo and party name, or my slight enthusiasm for eco-friendliness, but when I first saw the letter I thought some environmental society was asking me for participation.

The Conservative Party's official logo. Seriously, it's misleading.

No kidding.

Anyway, it goes without saying I totally ignored the survey. It was probably a mistake, I thought. I'm a 20-year-old visitor to the UK, do I get a say on how things go? (Apparently I do, and I kind of regret ignoring the survey.)

Anyway, fast forward a few weeks, and I started to receive more election, er, goodies. The first to come was this.

In the middle of the Easter break, I woke up around er, noon, and picked up a small stack of identical white cards, each of them addressed to each of my (local) house mates. I flicked through them, going through the names and imagine my surprise when I saw mine.

I scratched my head. Why do I get to vote? A quick check to Wikipedia answered my question.

"Anyone who is a citizen of the UK, the Republic of Ireland, or of a Commonwealth country, who is legally resident in the UK, and who is 18 or over on the date of the election is eligible to vote..."
Elections in the United Kingdom. (2010, May 5).
In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 17:24, May 6, 2010,
from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elections_in_the_United_Kingdom#Eligibility

18? Oh wow, that's awesome. I get to vote!

The next few weeks saw leaflets and flyers delivered to my place, all aiming to, er, to put it delicately, help me make up my mind on who to vote for.

We got more from the Conservatives.

And Labour Party, the winning party for the last election which brought Gordon Brown to power.

Liberal-Democrats, or Lib-Dems.

And BNP, the British National Party.

And today, May 6th, the polling day, arrived. I cast my vote in the Lenton/Radford Library. The process took much shorter time than I expected. I swear it could've taken less than 1 minute (including waiting, how about that) if nothing goes wrong.

It was nothing much to brag about, but I just have to boast about one thing. My first participation in a general election is in UK, and that happened before I reached the age of 21 (one month shy, hint, hint!), the legal voting age for Malaysian. That, my dear friends, is epic.

And who will lead UK this time? Is my vote working its magic? We'll have to wait and see.

Sights of UK: Derby County FC

2010-04-30T22:43:00.004+01:00

Note: High resolution images of all of the following photos are available. Click on the photos to view their higher resolution images.

One quick question: what is UK most famous for?

Food? Nah.

Fashion? Nah.

I have to say the answer is football, and I think a lot of people will agree with me. Most UK visitors will take the time to visit famous football clubs and stadiums, most notably Manchester United. Apparently Man U's souvenir shop even sells golf balls and pacifiers with Man U logos on them.

I haven't got the chance to visit Man U FC (and probably never will), but I have paid a visit to a less well-known FC in UK -- Derby County FC.

[HiRes] Pride Park Stadium, Derby County FC's home field.

Derbyshire neighbours Nottinghamshire -- it took about 30 minutes of westward driving to reach Derby. Who cares if I was actually there to attend a conference (which was held in the VIP viewing area), I still took the opportunity to snap a few photos.

[HiRes] It's supposed to say "DERBY". The 'E' was covered for maintenance, I think.

Derby County FC's official mascot is the Ram. Wherever you go within Pride Park Stadium (official name for Derby County FC's stadium), you see Rams everywhere.

[HiRes] Are you Derby?

For an English stadium, I think the Pride Park Stadium scores on just average. Compared to Malaysian stadiums, however, it's obviously lightyears ahead. I remember the dusty, gloomy interior of the Bukit Jalil Stadium, and I was not impressed.

[HiRes] "The Rams".

So few hours later, when the conference came to a close, I left Pride Park Stadium, feeling more fulfilled than before.

[HiRes] Pride Park Stadium's field.

Coming Soon: Spring

2010-04-27T16:46:00.002+01:00

The blogpost, not the season. The season's here few months ago.

[HiRes] Flowers sitting on the wall.

Sights of Nottingham: Sutton Bonington Campus

2010-04-24T01:54:00.005+01:00

Note: High resolution images of all of the following photos are available. Click on the photos to view their higher resolution images.

The University of Nottingham has several campuses located across Nottingham -- the main University Park Campus, the new Jubilee Campus, the converted King's Meadow Campus, and to be covered today, the Sutton Bonington Campus.

Sutton Bonington is a (very, very) small village to the south of Nottingham city, along the edge of Nottinghamshire. A half-hour bus ride away from University Park, along which there is nothing but breathtaking countryside views to see, the Sutton Bonington Campus is so far from the centre of Robin Hood county that its official postal address actually says "Leicestershire" (pronounced 'less-stir-sheer') instead of "Nottinghamshire". I assure you that, however, Sutton Bonington safely falls within the realm of the totally-awesome Nottinghamshire.

Compared to the rest of the campuses, Sutton Bonington Campus is relatively peaceful and quiet. I dropped in to visit in the middle of the week, and it's hard to imagine how deserted the place would be during the long summer break.

It was a good thing I took the time off that autumn day, because Sutton Bonington sported some of the best autumn views, being less-developed. The leaves going 'crunch-crunch' under your feet, while more flutter past you with the gentlest breezes. Colourful berries littered everywhere, leaving the floor much more interesting than the top of the trees.

If only I had better photography skills back then.

As far as I know, the campus started out as an independent university before being taken over by the University of Nottingham about half a century ago. Most modules taught in the Sutton Bonington Campus are agriculture or at least biology-related. This is easily seen as the campus has countless greenhouses and outdoor farms all over it.

The greenhouses sheltered many plants, probably projects of students. Most commonly seen were tomatoes, some juicier than others. There were also dozens of flowers I have seen but never bothered to find their names out (typical guy), and more of herbs and fruits and veggies.

There is also a barn, with dairy cows getting milked daily with the latest technology R&D'ed by no one else but students and professors of the University. Unfortunately, the barn was closed off to visitors.

I caught sight of a few horses though.

Pardon my poor editing skills. I can't believed I sent this photo home to my family.

I can't explain it, but I swear I could just sit down in the middle of the lawn and stare at the horses for a big part of a morning. They're so strong yet silent; valiant and graceful; powerful, and still friendly. Nobody, not even a Victoria Beckham on drugs can catch my eye for that long.

A campus comes with a library, of course. That was the only place I visited which was occupied with more than few people that day.

All in all, the campus offered great sights, and I certainly visited the place at the right time. Being born in a busy town, you can bet a peace-lover like me enjoyed the trip there, however boring it may sound to most of my peers.

I mean, it's not everyday I get to see things like a big, yellowing tree growing over an old wooden fence beside a field wide enough to house the entire Vatican.

Or the last golden rays of the evening sun laying on brown leaves over a wooden countryside gate.

Except perhaps in movies.

It was a simple, but beautiful campus.

And I don't remember breathing in fresher air before this.

Well, all those sights weren't as surprising as this.

You may want to click on the picture to view a higher resolution version to read the text.

Well anyway, time passed by, and soon before long, the afternoon was over and I hopped on a bus and departed Sutton Bonington.

Sunset photo, on the way back to civilisation.

I caught over 600 photos that single day.

Plants were everywhere. Even on the walls.

Most of them turned out to be utter rubbish, and I can't believe that I'm only satisfied with less than 50 of them.

Well at least I got one step further in photography, and I get to enjoy peace and tranquillity for that one special afternoon in the middle of the semester.

Definitely one of my favourite photos among the thousands I've shot in UK.

It's spring now. Perhaps it's a good time to visit again?

Talking with the Geeky

2010-04-18T00:02:00.015+01:00

Warning: High-bandwidth blogpost here!

Many people see nerds and geeks as losers. They think nerds and geeks are those who hide in corners when they attend parties. Those who very politely turn down all invitations to games with strangers. Those who'd rather get lost in a city as vast as London rather than open their mouths to ask for directions. Those who would rather send 20 texts than to make a 60-second call.

Sadly, many of the descriptions fit me. I have to say, as a 20-year-old man with a slightly hunched back, thick glasses and that signature "blur" look, I think I'm quite a bit geekier than I would have liked.

It is not impossible, however, to strike up a conversation to people just like myself. When you hit the right topics, I can babble on for hours (literally), until you wish you hadn't started the conversation at all.

So there you go! Some things you need to know to strike up an easy never-ending conversation with people just like me. Or you don't even need to know those things at all, just allow us the chance to lecture all the geekiness onto you.

Conclusion: nerds and geeks are still people. Only those who have no clue on interacting with them will find them boring.

Not dorks though. Dorks ARE boring.

Sights of Nottingham: Autumn

2010-04-10T02:18:00.004+01:00

Note: High resolution images of all of the following photos are available. Click on the photos to view their higher resolution images.

Autumn. That's when everything turns orange. The evening of the annual cycle.

An autumn evening. On the way back from Sutton Bonington Campus. More on the campus next time.

When autumn arrives, things change. You'll want to keep your head up, for leaves have never been more golden.

Never has trees been so interesting before. By the University Park Lake.

And you'll want to keep your eyes low. for surprises await you every step you take.

Kinda reminds me of potpourri. Sutton Bonington Campus.

Some fruits just beside the University Park Chemistry Building. Coates and Pope Buildings seen behind.

Along the way to Nottingham City. Something's kinda out of place here...

Sometimes I get the temptation to lie upon the big pile of prickly yellow leaves and let off a blissful "wheeeee!!!"

Sutton Bonington Campus.

This is also when the so animé-ish leaves whoosh past your face when even the gentlest of the breezes blow.

I can't really remember where I shot this. Probably some place in University Park Campus.

And trust me, it's not as cool as it seems on animès.

Now this is what I call a Golden Leaf. Shot in Sutton Bonington Campus.

More to come: Sutton Boning Campus, autumn.

PS: The SLR I loaned came with a lens that produced super ugly bokeh... Sorry about that.

Deadline Gadget for Google Wave

2010-04-04T19:47:00.017+01:00

Q: What is Google Wave?
A:
This video should be able to answer your questions on Google Wave.

Q: What is Deadline Gadget?
A:
Deadline Gadget is a Google Wave extension I wrote. Its primary objective is simple -- calculate the amount of time until a certain set date. The calculated time will then be counted down (or up if the deadline is over) and will be automatically refreshed. You can add multiple Deadline Gadgets to construct schedules in a single wave!

Q: Any live samples of it I can check out?
A:
You can take a look at this website http://deadlinegadget.appspot.com/, it contains an embedded wave with the gadget in action!

Q: Who are you, and why are you doing this?
A:
I'm a 20-year-old engineering student with a slight (slight, yeah right) obsession in programming. My aim for writing this gadget is simple -- I do some programming as my hobby. When you like doing something, you don't really need a reason for it, right?

This gadget is written by me and me alone. However I must use this opportunity to credit several parties, including the Google Wave team for coming up with such a great product, Clarence for the Wave invite, and my friend Azzizat for the inspiration. Oh and you, if you're using it =D.

Q: Great! How do I install the Deadline Gadget?
A:
If you have Google Wave, visit this wave. If you don't, try to get one.

Q: How do I use it?
A:
Once you've installed it, a new icon should appear on your Google Wave toolbar in edit mode. Hit on it to add a Deadline Gadget. When the gadget is first added to a wave, you will be presented with a calendar and several text fields. You'll realise that it has been filled in with the gadget load time. Click on the calendar to choose the date, and use the text fields to set the deadline description and time. Note that time has a format of HHmm (military time). When you're done, hit the "Done" button at the top right corner, or click on the "Deadline Gadget" icon and text on the top left. The gadget shrinks to a small strip -- neat!

Q: My gadget is outputting lots of "NaN" gibberish!
The NaN nonsense (NaNsense?!) is caused by invalid input. Check your deadline input (especially the date) and try again. A fix for this "bug", although possible, will probably not be implemented, as it will only increase the file size of the gadget and benefit few people.
Edit: due to newer algorithms incorporated in V4 of this gadget, NaN errors should not occur too often. Please let me know if it happens, along with instructions on how to reproduce it.

Q: I've mistakenly set the deadline/description. Can I change it without having to remove and reinsert the gadget?
A:
Oh yes! Click on the your deadline (it turns blue and your cursor changes if you pause your mouse on it) and you'll be presented with the page that allows you to set the deadline -- you can then make changes to the description/deadline there. Click on the "Done" button or the Deadline Gadget text or icon to shrink the gadget.

Q: Does the gadget consume much processing power?
A:
This gadget's processor usage is rather negligible, especially if the gadget is not displaying countdown time in seconds. Your computer should be able to handle a number of Deadline Gadgets without slowing down. I've taken great care to keep processor usage to a minimum (as Google Wave itself is already very processor hungry) and future releases may see further performance tweaks.

Q: Why is the gadget so small?
A:
The gadget is designed to be as small and unobtrusive as possible. Hell, how much space should a date occupy?

Q: What browsers do you test the gadget on?
A:
For the sake of the question, Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome. The gadget should run fine on all major browsers, however.

Q: Will you release newer (and better) versions? How do I update my Deadline Gadgets?
A:
Oh yes. There are lots to be done, bugs to be smoothed out, exciting new features to introduce, edges to polish. Good news is: you don't have to update your gadgets! Gadgets used in waves will automatically get minor updates (thank you Google Wave!). Major updates will not be incorporated to existing gadgets, but such new versions will be used when you add the gadget via the icon.

Q: How do I uninstall it?
A:
However much I hope you don't, you can visit this wave and click on the "Uninstall" button to uninstall Deadline Gadget. Take note that this removes the Deadline Gadget icon from your Wave toolbar -- all of your waves with the Deadline Gadget will be unchanged. If you mean to delete the Deadline Gadget from your waves instead, just mouse-over the Gadget in edit mode, and a little arrow should appear. Click on it and you'll see a "Delete" option. The final step really couldn't be any more obvious.

Q: I have more questions!
A:
Just post a comment at the bottom of this blog post and keep checking back for reply! Alternatively, visit this page to post a feedback.

Microsoft to Purchase 300 iPads for Employees

2010-04-01T01:04:00.012+01:00

Microsoft announced the purchase of 300 Apple iPads for some of their employees in a move that shocked the world, 31st March.

The Redmond-based company had been very strict about its employees using rival products, especially those from Apple, whose iPods and iPhones became the newest must-have gadgets of the century.

Employees are instead encouraged to use a Windows Mobile-based handset. A Microsoft-branded media player called Zune also gave Microsoft employees no excuse to resort to iPods. Founder Bill Gates even went as far as banning his family from using any Apple products.

But all that is about to change. Although Microsoft have been working on a tablet of their own, christened the "Courier", which (among other innovations) features two touchscreens, it seems like their rival's newest internet tablet, due to be released this Saturday, is too irresistible even for them.

"Microsoft had had tight rules when it comes to using rival products. After two decades, it is clear that... (we) have lost many talented engineers and programmers to rival companies because of these rules. They are our biggest assets in the company -- we need them happy to keep them," Li Beipian, a spokesperson for Microsoft commented, Wednesday.

"We did strong in the 90s. We hope for the best but expect the worst."

Despite Microsoft's revolutionary Windows Operating Systems, the company have lost significant market share in recent years. Windows Vista was badly received and its browser, Windows Internet Explorer is steadily losing its position as the world's favourite to Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome, especially after European Internet Explorer users start seeing the browser ballot screen, which allows them to download alternative browsers easily. Google's announcement of their own Operating System, Chrome OS, further put Microsoft's future into question.

According to Microsoft, some of the employees receiving the iPads are working on the Microsoft Courier tablet itself. When asked whether this increases the risk of implementing patented features of the iPad to the Courier, Li said it "actually reduces it, as developers with iPads are more aware of the features of the iPad than those who don't".

One of the employees who is on the receiving list of Apple's newest gadget commented, "This has never happened in Microsoft before. It is certainly a signal of a significant turning point in the company's history. With any luck, this move may help us outdo the iPad with our Courier."

The WiFi version of the Apple iPad will be available in selected countries this Saturday, while 3G versions will be rolled out later this month.

Source

Cmc: Floppy Disks

2010-03-31T00:00:00.004+01:00

Fact 1: You would need a crate to contain Windows 7 if it came in 3.5" floppy disks. The crate would measure about 0.5m on all three dimensions.

Fact 2: Getting a version of Windows without Internet Explorer bundled would save you some 10 diskettes or so.

Fact 3: Assuming a maximum reading speed of 1Mbps (125kBps, typical maximum speed of 3.5" floppies) and 0 diskette-changing time, one would need about 9 hours to install a 3.5" Floppy copy of Windows 7 on a computer.

Sights of UoN: Icy Jubilee

2010-03-26T23:23:00.005Z

Note: Higher resolution images of all of the following photos are available. Click on the photos to view the high resolution images.

For those who despise photo-editing, stop right here, for a load of images are coming right up, half of them relatively heavily edited. I'm sorry, but snow's just too challenging for my poor old camera.

Frozen Jubilee Lake, with tracks leading to the "Lego Buildings" and the Aspire.

For those who stay, pull up a chair and pour yourself a warm cup of hot chocolate, for you're about to be treated with some 20 icy cold photos of University of Nottingham's newest campus.

Pools beside one of the "Lego Buildings", frozen solid. The ice was literally inches thick.

Jubilee Campus, one of University of Nottingham UK's three main teaching campuses (excluding King's Meadow), is just a short walk away from my place. When the cold winter coated the ground with inches of snow and slippery ice, it really required more determination than I had to go any further than Jubilee for some winter photo-shooting.

But hey, Jubilee Campus has nice sights too. Remember the little waterfall? No? Well here's a picture of it, taken in early winter.

Jubilee waterfall, early winter.

And here's a newer picture of it, taken during the peak of winter.

Jubilee waterfall, peak of winter.

Well, looks like it wasn't really cold enough to freeze the waterfall over.

Most parts of the lake were frozen, though. Take this, for example. The sight was refreshing, wasn't it?

That's before hell froze. When it does, this is what it becomes.

And then there's the Nottingham Geospatial Building. Before...

... and after.

Jubilee Campus library, before...

... and after.

Heavily edited to bring out the tracks. The grayish patch at the bottom of the photo is an editing scar, probably owing to my lack of experience.

Who would travel to school on purpose when it was THAT cold, just to study in the library? If someone who would exists, that person has to love studying in the library as much as I wanted to catch photos. Looks like the only visitors to the library that time were, er, swans, according to the tracks.

Not that it wasn't already, but the National College of School Leadership, surrounded by water (or ice), became quite attractive during winter.

From all sides.

Reflection on ice.

Nope, this is neither a panorama nor an ultra-wide-angle photo -- the building was actually curved. Believe it or not, this is actually among the less-heavily-edited images today. One of my favourites.

The bald trees during winter really make good silhouettes. Well, these are sunset photos, but, believe it or not, both were captured before 4pm. It would be pitch black by 5.

Basically, everywhere I went, there's ice, snow, and more ice.

Wanna play Tetris in the cold?

Again, editing was required to make the tracks discernible.

Will I ever see snow again? Probably not, at least for a very, very long time.

Heavily edited to improve dynamic range.

How We Changed Technology

2010-03-20T00:07:00.003Z

And how technology changed us.

I C U, Icy Me

2010-03-13T21:36:00.015Z

Note: High resolution images of some of the following photos are available. These photos are marked with [HiRes] tags in their captions. Click on the photos to view their higher resolution images.

Before coming to Nottingham. seniors told me "you'll be able to experience snow for the first time, with any luck". They made it sound as if snowfall is a once-a-year affair in UK.

The truth is, however, the past winter had been the coldest in UK since decades ago (1970s?). I guess I got quite lucky then.

[HiRes] Snow scenes are challenging to cameras, due to high contrasts, and this is simply too much for my old Nikon to handle. Also, the same ol' camera had trouble catching actual snowfall due to the lack of sunlight.

It snowed on daily basis in Nottingham during the peak of the winter. Unlike rainfall, snowfall is virtually silent, so I've always found it a little surprising to look out the window and realise it was snowing.

[HiRes] Peak of winter -- snow covered everything. I don't know why this picture deserved a HiRes.

As a friend mentioned, the fascination of snow is quite unexplainable. After all, we see those things every day in the fridge.

[HiRes] Close-up of snow.

Us people who have never seen snow before would surely be excited to find the world covered with fluffy white stuff.

Or to see big white flakes of dandruff falling from the heavens above. Someone up there needs better shampoo, I guess.

Thoughts quickly came. Snowball fights! Snowmen! Snow angels!

[HiRes] Snow angel.

It's harder to build a snowman than I had anticipated. How did they ever make them so round? Stupid Disney cartoons involving Donald Duck, Huey, Dewey and Louie misled me.

[HiRes] An example of a better-built snowman. I obviously didn't built it.

The same snowman losing some of its shape the next morning.

The fun will eventually wear away though. And once that happens, things will not be half as funny any more.

The weather has to be freaking cold for snow to occur, and you wouldn't want anything else than to lie in your warm bed until, um, never. Try going out for two minutes without your gloves and your hands will start aching like they're crushed under a 2-tonne lorry. Your nose would leak faster than the underground pipes in Malaysia.

And worst of all, the roads.

Tyre tracks in Jubilee Campus car park, University of Nottingham.

Snow itself isn't that much of a problem, other than emitting the 'crunch crunch' sounds upon stepping on it. The problem is when friction creates enough heat to melt the snow into water. The water will then re-freeze into ice, making roads slippery. Water also seeps into small holes, creating cracks and potholes if it freezes over and expands.

Imagine walking for 500m and slipping once every few steps.

Travelling may be impossible in extreme conditions, and there were talks about extending the Christmas breaks in January (which didn't come through, if you were wondering).

[HiRes] Faraday Road bus stop, right beside Raleigh Park, where I'm staying. This stretch of icy pavement was where I slipped the most back then.

For these reasons, the roads and pavements have to be gritted regularly over the course of winter. Salt lowers the freezing temperature of water, melting ice, and small sand particles (or grit) help increase friction to permit travelling. Unfortunately, the roads in Nottingham weren't very well gritted, and as I said in Twitter, I've never had that much trouble walking since I was, like, 5.

[HiRes] Railway tracks, covered with snow. Find the snowman! (It's the very same snowman shown in the two pictures above.)

Nevertheless, this may be the only winter I get to experience in my entire lifetime. I figured it's worth freezing for an hour or two and a few scratches on my knees to catch some photos before the opportunity goes away forever.

[HiRes] This photo looked good in my head, bad in my camera, yet turned out well after editing. The big red seal sort of spoiled it though.

Coming up soon -- Jubilee Campus in winter.

[HiRes] Winter Road. My favourite photo of the batch. I have no idea how one tells temperature and hardness by sight, but the road looks quite hard and cold. Notice that it is also slightly reflective.

JavaScript

2010-03-09T23:14:00.009Z

I love programming. Ever since I started my first language, Visual Basic. Then I took up assembly languages, C/C++ and Java.

But that wasn't enough.

Two days ago I started experimenting with JavaScript (JS). JavaScript is a scripting language designed for webpages. Since then, I have written a Yahoo! meme reader, which I happily embedded into this very blog, replacing the previous Twitter reader I took from someone else. Next I animated the Big Red Seal, lighting it up when a cursor hovers over it. Then I added a JS clock right above the Cbox.

The JS clock came with a message saying "Is it midnight yet?". Because at the stroke of 12, something is going to change...

Is it midnight yet?

As you may have guessed, I wrote this because JS programming took much of my time, and I haven't got my next blogpost ready yet. Nevertheless, enjoy your early (though extremely small) Easter egg!

I Love.

2010-03-06T17:31:00.004Z

Note: High resolution images of some of the following photos are available. These photos are marked with [HiRes] tags in their captions. Click on the photos to view their higher resolution images.

[HiRes] My shoe, captured using Sony Ericsson Xperia X1i.

I Love myself. I am probably wrong, but I think I'm the best person to be in this world.

I Love my family. With them around, nothing can possibly go wrong.

I Love my friends. They can turn even the most boring evening into a full-blown party.

I Love gadgets. Cameras. Phones. Computers.

I Love being healthy. Four perfect limbs, sharp hearing, eyesight. They give me freedom.

I Love Earth. Beautiful sights, fresh air, warm breeze -- I recycle and conserve electricity to make sure these don't go away too soon.

I Love my life.

Do you Love?

Sights of UoN -- The Millennium Garden

2010-03-02T23:58:00.006Z

Note: High resolution images of some of the following photos are available. These photos are marked with [HiRes] tags in their captions. Click on the photos to view their higher resolution images.

After a few posts in London, I thought we'd return to Nottingham for a while. Doesn't mean I don't have any other London photos to share though. Just a slight change of taste.

[HiRes] Ring-shaped pool of the Millennium Garden.

The Millennium Garden is a relatively new addition to the University Park Campus. Located at the very heart of the campus, it is never too far away from, well, anywhere. Click here to see a map of its exact location -- the cross in the centre is aimed directly at the Garden.

[HiRes] Some background on the Millennium Garden. Click on the image to read the text.

[HiRes] Law building, just beside the Garden.

The view there is awesome. Green grass. Big, tall trees. Colourful flowers. Butterflies. Throw in good weather with warm sun, this is possibly one of the most attractive places in University Park.

[HiRes] And a maze. Where's the hedge?

There's a small, shallow ring-shaped pool too, called the Clock Pool. I guess it's called so because the tree in the centre and the many small fountains kind of turn it into a sun dial. But it reminds me more of a Pokéball. I don't think fishing, canoeing or swimming are recommended here, though.

[HiRes] Part of the pool.

The benches there are useful for enjoying the fresh air with a lunch box.

[HiRes] Two benches, not far away from Millennium Garden. The steel would be cold in winter, though, hope you don't mind having chilly arses!

Or a camera.

[HiRes] Blue Brick Maze.

The view was so astounding even the lousiest photographer could come up with something nice.

[HiRes] There's this globe in the centre of the Garden. It is the object that attracts the most attention in there. Funnily I only got very few satisfying shots of the globe, compared to, say, the pool.

One glance around and I knew it'd be good for panorama shots.

[HiRes] Panorama shot of the Millennium Garden, stitched from 3 images.

How wrong I was. It wasn't good. It was awesome.

[HiRes] Another pano, stitched from 2 images.

[HiRes] Stitched from 3 images. Great view, but looks kinda empty. Some parents chasing after children on bikes would be nice addition.

Click here to see more University-related posts.

Sights of London: Remembrance Day at Westminster Abbey

2010-02-27T22:06:00.004Z

Note 1: High resolution images of some of the following photos are available. These photos are marked with [HiRes] tags in their captions. Click on the photos to view their higher resolution images.

Note 2: Various facts obtained from Wikipedia. All external text-links lead to the related Wikipedia articles.

The Remembrance Day is "a day to commemorate the sacrifices of members of the armed forces and of civilians in times of war, specifically since the First World War".

11th November, 2009. 11am. I was in the school library. It was quite noisy, for a library it is. The tapping of buttons on keyboards. Shuffling of busy footsteps. Thumping of shutting doors. Beeping of entrance barrier.

Until an announcement was made -- two minutes of silence was to be observed.

And all of a sudden, time came to a halt. I stopped in my tracks, along with dozen others. The poorly hushed whispers were gone. I could hear my heart thumping loudly. It was bizarre. Everybody was staring at their feet silently -- everybody was serious, not a single smile to be seen. The same solemn expression was mirrored across every face. Even the occasional ring of phones were missing -- the two-minute silence is observed in unison throughout UK.

For the first time, I could hear the computer's fans whirring away from the computer room.

Two Chinese girls came out of the bathroom, saw the situation and exchanged looks, wondering what happened. Boy, was I glad I wasn't one of them.

And then...

"Thank you."

And just like that, time resumed.

Mere seconds later, the library returned to its noisy state. The fans were inaudible again. It was as if nothing happened.

While Remembrance Day is strictly a one-day event, activities leading up to it (or around it) can last for weeks. Collections of donation, for example, and sales of paper poppies (the flower frequently associated with Remembrance Day) were seen since early October. Advertisements were even put up to raise awareness of the event.

That following weekend happened to be the weekend I went to London. I was greeted with thousands of small wooden memorials at the front yard of Westminster Abbey.

[HiRes] Façade of Westminster Abbey.

Those memorials represented donations from members of the public, I think (I may be wrong). Any one could "buy" a small cross, sign their name on it, and the cross would be put up prior to Remembrance Day. One could then look up on a list of crosses put up on notice boards and try to locate their cross.

The many wooden memorials at Westminster Abbey. Visitors who have donated will usually try to "reunite" with their memorial for a short photo-shooting session and perhaps a small prayer.

Interestingly, some of the crosses were blank. I guess they put up memorials that weren't sold out by Remembrance Day as well.

[HiRes] Close up of the crosses. The words "In Remembrance" were printed, but note the different handwriting on different memorials.

Some organisations went great lengths to decorate their memorials.

[HiRes] Poppies on a memorial cross.

While the Malaysian Army is rarely involved in deadly wars these few decades, things are different in UK. I have lost track of the number of British soldiers who have died in the Afghan War since I arrived.

[HiRes]

This is not taken lightly in the UK. The death of every single soldier is published in newspapers nationwide and announced repeatedly on radio stations. However boring they may be, I can't help but be disturbed by how we human resort to violence to solve problems.

[HiRes] Mourner.

Especially when the soldiers who died were all around my age. They bravely sacrificed their lives (literally) for their country while I screamed at the sight of a cockroach.

[HiRes]

Salute.

Ambigrams! 3

2010-02-22T19:46:00.008Z

Note: High resolution images of some of the following photos are available. These photos are marked with [HiRes] tags in their captions. Click on the photos to view their higher resolution images.

Didn't expect to see another ambigram from me after my last one? Well not me, but I surely didn't see one coming so soon.

My last ambigram described in that post is this.

[HiRes] The last ambigram, featured in Ambigrams! 2 post.

I was so pleased with this ambigram that I edited it further.

[HiRes] Version 2. Notice the redid halo.

Even after reaching V2, I was still interested in pushing GIMP a little further. This is the result.

[HiRes] Version 2.1, my current Linux wallpaper. It's called "desktop background" instead of wallpaper in GNOME, actually.

And I was finally satisfied.

But less than a week after that, I designed yet another ambigram. I volunteered to design an emblem (or banner) for my team in a game called Utopia, and one day, when I was bored in class (again), I started doodling our team name.

[HiRes] The first draft. Note how I tried to match the different letters of the two words on the top left corner, and the designs I considered for the final letter (e upright, s reflected).

I originally designed it curved, but immediately realised the challenge in mirroring a curved surface using a computer (I normally snap a photo of my designs to digitise them). I then redrew the design, this time straight. I could simply reflect the ambigram before curving it digitally, if at all.

[HiRes] The many drafts after the first.

As mentioned, I normally take a photo of the drafts and do fine editing with GIMP. But the whole process took too long that night and I got fed up. The result wasn't too satisfying too. This obviously isn't the professional way of doing it -- painting with brush and paper is simply easier than pixel-by-pixel editing. I knew I had to try something else.

So I stripped the entire design down to consist only of horizontal and vertical lines, curves (all of a single common radius), and one single diagonal, shown at the bottom right of the picture above. I then digitally drew a long horizontal line, a vertical line, and a single curve, which were easy. Then, referring to my draft, I copied the lines and curve, pasted them, and arranged them into a digital version of the ambigram. For the diagonal, I simply copied a horizontal and rotated it.

Not long after that, this came out.

[HiRes] Version 1.

I wasn't really happy with it that night. I thought the words were illegible, the design too digital and the lines too solid. But until I obtain the required skills and tools to produce more professional-looking ambigrams, this may be the best I could do. I posted it to Flickr and informed my team mates about it and went to bed.

The next day, I received feedback from my team mates -- while they weren't exactly crazy about it, they accepted it more readily than I did. After taking another look at V1, I changed my view on the design. It wasn't so bad after all -- all of the letters were quite convincingly transformed, even the harder ones (except perhaps the first L of the second word), and both words can be read quite effortlessly. The reflection was simple, but iPhone-ish classy. They were reasonably long words, and I didn't have a say on them (someone else decided on them) which made the achievement even greater.

I then gave it a makeover, coming up with several different images with slight tweaks.

[HiRes] Version 1.01. By skewing the reflection, I turned it into shadow instead.

[HiRes] Version 1.02. Gave it a white second layer because I thought the text of V1.01 was a little hard to read.

[HiRes] Version 1.03. Toggled the colours of the front and back layers for more contrast.

And finally, I can rest my pen (or mouse, more like), for V1.02 and V1.03 look real good for my standards. So good that if it were designed by someone else my age, I would have seen him as a genius.

Version 1.02 in the Utopia game.

OK, I don't see myself publishing new ambigrams again, at least for the next couple of months.

Or so I think for now.

Sights of London: Big Ben and National Gallery

2010-02-19T20:41:00.002Z

Note 1: High resolution images of some of the following photos are available. These photos are marked with [HiRes] tags in their captions. Click on the photos to view their higher resolution images.

Note 2: Various facts obtained from Wikipedia. All external text-links lead to the related Wikipedia articles.

One of the must-sees of London is the Big Ben. It is just a short walk away from the Buckingham Palace, whose photos I put up not long ago.

[HiRes] The "Big Ben". The non-Tower portion of the Houses of Parliament seen here was under maintenance.

It is actually not 100% accurate to call the Clock Tower Big Ben. Big Ben is the name of the bell which chimes every quarter of an hour at the Palace of Westminster. Similarly, the clock in Nottingham's Council House is called "Little John", an obvious reference to Nottingham's connection to the tales of Robin Hood.

[HiRes] Who's taller?

Anyway, the Clock Tower is actually part of the Palace of Westminster. The Clock Tower itself, being so famous, has been mistakenly referred to as Big Ben for so long now, the name for the bell has been extended to mean the Clock Tower.

[HiRes] The Big Ben isn't too far away from the London Eye.

The Palace of Westminster (more commonly known as the Houses of Parliament) itself is simply breathtaking. Unfortunately, I have returned from London without any satisfying images of the Palace. Maintenance works were under way when I visited, which made things worse. Check out images available at Wikipedia here.

[HiRes] Details of the face of the Clock.

[HiRes] Opposite the Big Ben.

Just across the River Thames is the London Eye. I never knew that so many high-profile London landmarks are within sight of one another.

[HiRes] Thames from the Westminster Bridge.

Also close by is the Westminster Abbey.

[HiRes] A turret of the Westminster Abbey.

It is easily one of the most famous churches in the world today and was featured in the Dan Brown novel Da Vinci Code. Da Vinci Code film makers were unable to shoot at Westminster Abbey though, and Westminster scenes were shot in Lincoln Cathedral instead. More photos of both Westminster Abbey and Lincoln Cathedral to come in the future.

Then there's Trafalgar Square, with the National Gallery overseeing it.

[HiRes] The National Gallery, seen from Trafalgar Square.

[HiRes] The National Gallery.

The National Gallery is an art gallery, housing a good number of paintings and some sculptures.

[HiRes] Façade of National Gallery.

[HiRes] Pillars.

I spent a good hour in the gallery but didn't catch any photos, as photography is generally prohibited in art museums.

The Cavalry Museum was also nearby.

[HiRes] Shot at some place not far from the Cavalry Museum, I think.

[HiRes] Panorama, the Cavalry Museum on the right.

Coincidentally, I came across a policewoman on a horse that very same day.

[HiRes] "I'm riding on a horse. All you have is your stupid SLR camera."

We've Come So Far

2010-02-14T14:37:00.002Z

The Chinese is one of the oldest surviving civilisation today.

With thousands of years of history, we naturally have stories to tell. Stories of love. Stories of treachery. Stories of an ape going to Europe.

We've also been through more than most. Decades of suffering. Centuries of war. We've endured hundreds of years of racism. Some of our ancestors were treated so badly that mass immigration was initiated. At points in history, we were even mistreated by our own leaders. Lives were lost in the millions.

But we the rice-eaters also made great achievements despite the chaos of the past. We're credited with some of the most innovative inventions, such as the compass.

And more recently, our hacking skills. Even Google was stunned.

We've evolved from writing on tortoise shells to bamboo rolls to scrolls to rice paper. Every single one of the thousands of Chinese characters has a history to tell.

Our language stands in the centre stage of the world, along with English and Spanish. So strong is the Chinese language that Chinese words are often used as tattoos for non-speakers. This is a great achievement -- I personally wouldn't risk some stranger tattooing the words "I'm an idiot" on my biceps in some strange language I don't understand.

We've come so far. Yet we're still going on strong.

I know I have nothing to do with the history of Chinese, but I'm proud of my heritage nevertheless. After all, I may have a part of the story in the future.

Happy Chinese New Year everyone.

Sights of London: Buckingham Palace

2010-02-05T23:36:00.004Z

Note 1: High resolution images of some of the following photos are available. These photos are marked with [HiRes] tags in their captions. Click on the photos to view their higher resolution images.

Note 2: Various facts obtained from Wikipedia. All external text-links lead to the related Wikipedia articles.

November, 2009. I went to London for a short trip. I had my borrowed Nikon D70s with me and was very looking forward to that day. It was a great opportunity to take the SLR for a spin before turning it back in.

[HiRes] Princess Diana Memorial Walk, not far away from Buckingham Palace.

The short visit to London was very eventful. So eventful that I was too emotionally occupied for photography. Luckily, thanks to the great sights of London and the surprisingly cooperative weather, I still managed to pull off some satisfying shots despite not being able to put my entire heart into it.

The first place my friend and I visited was the Buckingham Palace.

[HiRes] Façade of Buckingham Palace.

It was conveniently located just some 20 minutes' walk away from Victoria Coach Station, central London, where I disembarked from the tiring midnight bus.

[HiRes] Main gate of the Buckingham Palace.

And I thought Buckingham Palace was in Buckingham.

Most people recommend visitors to catch the Changing of Guard, but we were too early for it (we arrived at 6am in the morning and the Changing takes place at about 11am).

Photo caught from a site unknown to me some 10 minutes walk away from the Palace. I assumed they were the Queen's Guard in training.

[HiRes] Caught in the same site.

Nevertheless, there was still a great deal to look around the Palace. There are all sorts of pillars with ornaments and statues all within sight of one another.

[HiRes] Ornament on a pillar just outside the Palace.

[HiRes] This looks quite classical. Must be hundreds of years old.

I spent quite some time wandering around, clicking away, and to be honest I'm not entirely satisfied with my collection of photos yet.

[HiRes] Queen Victoria.

[HiRes] Ebony and Ivory.

Not that the photos turn out bad, but I think I missed a lot of good opportunities.

[HiRes] Reach for the sky...

Caught this though.

[HiRes] A carving of a wreath, saying "Malay-States".

Perhaps I should visit the place again some time. More photos of London coming up.

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