Of Motorsport and Grapes

I'm not the only one who thinks that the best driver in F1 didn't win the Driver's Championship. See here. We're one big bunch of sour grapes!

Anyway, if you think F1 sounds more like the first contestant in a beauty pageant, you might want to check out the brand new A1 Grand Prix. Backed by the rich folks in Dubai, it's touted as the World Cup of Motorsport with teams from 25 nations participating.

What does 'A1' mean? The FAQ says:

The name 'A1' encapsulates the two key aspects of the World Cup of Motorsport, unity and excellence.

The letter 'A', being the first letter of the majority of the world's continents (Africa, North America, South America, Asia, Australasia, Antarctica and Europe) represents the world and its population. The number '1' signifies the unity between them -- All as One, One World.

In most languages, 'A1' is a term used to describe the best. A1 Grand Prix is the pinnacle of driver skill and national pride. Each nation's best driver will race for the pride of their nation to win the first ever World Cup of Motorsport.

That's the biggest load of bull I've read today, haha.

It's showing on StarSports, but I've not caught it. Might do so when the F1 season ends.

Ok, I've talked too much about F1 and motorsport. I should stop now.

It's all about the money

I'll do a lot of things for money (but I won't do that!), especially if I don't really have to do much. So if you notice something different around here, it won't hurt to do some clicking.

One's for your convenience, the other's for fulfilling my greed poverty relief. So do your bit to help the poor. Anyway, you might find something you like. I might even treat you to a cup of coffee next time. Ha!

Google Toolbar for Firefox

Recently, Google officially launched the Google Toolbar for Firefox. If you're using Firefox, you might want to check it out. If you're not.. why aren't you?? There're so many fun things you can do with it. :D

Interestingly, because Google owns Blogger, there's a button on the toolbar that enables you to blog about a site directly. In fact, that's what I'm doing right now. No need to go specifically into my blog to write now!

By the way, I learned of it at the Official Google Blog. Quite interesting site. This company is taking over the world, so better learn more about it!

Tour de Ophir (part tiga)

Ophir's summit at 1276m

Sorry about writing such a looong story.. I hope you're still with me. All good stories tend to get a little long-winded, just like 真情, non?

Anyways, we had a good sleep for like two plus hours, before we got awakened by other groups trotting by and strong winds blowing. The weather was threatening to turn bad any moment, but fortunately it didn't. Else we would have been caught in a big bad fix. We were up before 4am and debating whether to go ahead with the plan to climb to the summit for sunrise. I could have told you that we used common sense and logic to reason that it's too dangerous in the dark, and we wouldn't be able to make it in time in any case. But actually we were just plain lazy, and decided to sleep until 6.

After breakfast of cup noodles, instant cereal and the remaining walnut cake, we proceeded in clean fatigue (empty-handed) up to the summit. We left our stuff at the campsite and took turns to carry just one bag containing bottles of water, a pack of kitkats, and the camera.

CP4 to CP5 was the easiest of the whole journey, basically just a jungle trail. This was quickly followed by CP5 to CP6 - the obstacle course with ladders and ropes! There was one part where we had to scale a 2-storey high boulder by pulling ourselves up with ropes. If you look over your shoulders halfway up, you could see really, really far. Definitely not recommended for those with acrophobia!

Somewhere along the way there's a KFC (I kid you not!), and it's finger-licking terok. CP6 is Botak Hill, so called because it's pretty barren. The Marathoner said he camped here on his first time, where there were nobody but the stars above (reminds me of a joke, haha). Now it's forbidden to do so. CP5's the highest you can camp.

This is getting boring, so I'll cut this long story short. Eventually we reached the summit at 9 plus, if I remember correctly. The summit was quite cool, literally, as it was already amongst the clouds. I thought it'll be lonely at the top, but a big group of Malays were already resting there!

The climb down was harder than I expected. While you basically need just strength and stamina to go up, coming down is technically more difficult. And very bad for your kneecaps. After that 3 hours or so, mine were very much hurting. At the end of the day, we were all wasted and wounded. I passed out at 9.30pm that night. I can't remember the last time I slept so early!

It's weird, you know, in that when you're doing such things or have just completed it, you get so exhausted that you tell yourself you'll never do it again. Why suffer, after all. But the next day at work, I was already checking out which other peaks to explore. Well, I guess that's human nature...

And if you're still with me on this looong story, you must be pretty good too. Maybe you can join me next time for Mount Tahan? Heheheh.

(大结局.. finally!）

Tour de Ophir (part dua)

A river runs through it

And so, as the legendary story goes, the Commando, the Marathoner and the Bodybuilder were now joined by the Ranger as they headed up Ophir under extremely treacherous conditions. But first, a little correction about what I said earlier: The ranger office is the small office at the resort, while the shack where the Ranger joined us is actually the guide office at CP1 (See Map).

The Ranger informed us that it would take about 3 hours to go from CP1 to CP4. We checked our watches: 1pm. So off we went again. This was to me the most strenous part of the whole expedition, as we were carrying our full loads. The Bodybuilder may be used to carrying heavy weights, but not when climbing up steep slopes and clinging on to tree branches for support!

There's a river running down the mountain very close to our trail up, which at certain parts breaks into scenic waterfalls. It's a pity, though, that as we laboured along, we didn't have much time nor mood to enjoy them. It was until some time later when we arrived at CP3 that we took a break and some photos as well of the small waterfall there. Oh, did I mention as we were struggling our way up, it was like a stroll to the Ranger?

We didn't rest long before proceeding. At 2.30pm we reached CP4, and that was well ahead of schedule. CP4 is a flat campsite littered with trees and a river running just nearby. There were already many tents set up and people resting. The Ranger then advised us to camp here, since we'll be using hammocks instead of tents. We had planned to camp at CP5, but he said the trees there are few and far between. So.. no choice.

So we spent the next hour or so setting up our hammocks. Next to a big and noisy group of Malays, we found four trees that formed a square and tied our hammocks on 3 sides. In the middle we laid a groundsheet for resting and placing our stuff. Three more groundsheets were hung up above our hammocks for shelter using a combination of comscot, toggle rope and buggee cords. Without a doubt, our nesting area was the most creative of the lot there (some might say silly/unnecessary/total waste of effort). Well, with the hard uneven ground, sleeping in hammocks sure beats the tents. But if it rains, we'll likely be the first to cry in misery!

We gave up the notion of venturing up the summit before sunset, and spent the time just chatting and listening to songs (brought mp3 players and speakers). At 6pm, we started cooking dinner using our gas canister. Set dinner of the day was:

• 5 packs of instant mee (cooked 3)
• 1 pack of teriyaki chicken
• 1 pack of sausages (total 10 pieces)
• 2 packs of wantons (total 24 pieces)
• 2 packs of vegetables (cooked 1)
• 1 pack of grapes (plucked and unseeded)

You could also add $2 for:

• salad (various tropical species available), or
  
• soup of the day (check with campers upstream)
  
• and a glass of soft drink (check with campers upstream)

Heheh, the last part is just kidding nia. :p

By the time we finished our dinner, it was 8 plus and already dark. Since we had to sleep early in order to get up for sunrise, it was immediately time for supper! Supper consisted of a bottle of wine, the remaining grapes and a Bangawan Solo walnut cake (yes, we brought a lot of food).

After supper, we just lay in our hammocks and tried to dig out gossip of one another and others' lives. Not very fruitful there. In the end, we still slept late - it was almost midnight.

(To be continued...)

Tour de Ophir (part satu)

Mount Ophir trail map

Over the weekend, me and my two old school mates headed towards Mount Ophir (Gunung Ledang) in Johor for some mountain trekking. We called ourselves the Commando, the Marathoner, and the Model/Bodybuilder. One is real, one is 'half'-real but training to be real, while the last is just a big fat dream. This was Marathoner's third Ophir climb (nobody knows why he's still doing it), but the first time for the two of us.

We set off early Saturday morning in the Commando's soon-to-be-scrapped Suzy Swift, reaching the 2nd link at around 8am. Up next was a quick breakfast of bread and eggs, and the Bodybuilder had some tongkat ali coffee to go along for that extra boost. :)

The drive to Tangkak town took about 2 hours. We wanted a heavy lunch, but couldn't find any decent places to eat. In the end, we settled for char siew/chicken rice in a forgettable eatery. The only memorable thing about that place was a boy who looked puzzled and asked us who we were when he saw us at the toilet. I guess they've not had customers for a while...

We reached the resort at the foot of the mountain at around noon and parked the car there. As it was the only Singaporean car there, the Commando was a little worried. But then firstly, even by Malaysian standards, it's hardly the nicest car around. Secondly, we didn't have any other choice since we were already there. And so, we packed up our things and got ready for the adventure. The Commando had a full backpack and army boots that befitted his name, while the two of us looked like we're going for a stroll at the beach with smaller backpacks and the Teva sandals we were wearing.

There was a signboard at the resort that says there're 3 types of visitors: the climbers, the campers and the quitters. The climbers are those who persist till the summit; the campers are those who climb some and find a nice place to camp; the quitters are whom the resort was built for (ha!). Even at that time, we were thinking that RM50 for a night's stay would make us really happy quitters. But that simply won't do, non? Certainly not when you're a commando, a marathoner and a bodybuilder - that would be scandalous!

Just before starting the trek, we saw another signboard. Ophir is, it says, the 64th highest mountain in Malaysia but the 6th most difficult. I'm not sure which are the top 5.. maybe Mount Tahan? We learned from the Commando that it's akin to climbing five Westin Stamfords. We also concluded that commandos don't exactly make the greatest moltivational speakers. Duh.

So off we went to find the rangers office. Initially it was steps all the way (the real trek hasn't begun) for about 20-30 minutes, and that was probably enough for the ultimate quitters. Then we got lost at a waterfall area with quite a few people frolicking and fondling in the water. Luckily a helpful Malay guy led us up the forest to the 'office'. We literally climbed up the forest through thick vegetation and dense trees. That was our first taste of the real action, and quite a rude shock as well. The Commando and the Bodybuilder had expected mostly relatively easy paths with the occasional obstacles. But it was the only way round!

At the rangers office, we joked about hiring the oldest, and therefore slowest, guide (guides are mandatory) and schemed at getting him to carry our bags for us. However, our hopes were dashed when we were assigned a young Malay guy who looks barely eighteen. And he had a backpack bigger than ours!

(This is becoming a longer than expected story, and it's getting late right now. So, I guess it's To Be Continued...)

Googlebombing

Wow, Google gives such accurate results

By the way, do a google on the words failure or miserable failure, and see what turns up at the top of the list.

That's googlebombing at work. Got to love those pranksters! :D

Debut of the Season

While the rest of the world is still puzzling over what made Real Madrid buy Jonathan Woodgate in the first place, he made his long-awaited (by no one but himself) debut for the club last night after 17 months out with injury.

How did he fare? He scored an own goal and got himself sent off. What a catastrophic debut, ha!

Along with Everton's adventures in Europe, this must rank as the Best Comic Act of the season. I guess if you can't wow with your football, you could at least bring laughter to our lives! :D

Delusions

My imaginary fans keep sending me their pics. Yes, I love you guys too. ;)

Bork Bork Bork!

Bork bork bork!

Svedeesh Cheff telk:

Unyune-a remembers zee Svedeesh Cheff frum zee mooppets? He-a veet zee incumprehenseeble-a geebberish und sungs thet ind veet "Bork bork bork!"? Bork Bork Bork!

I ves soorffeeng eruoond und fuoond un ixtenseeun fur Fureffux thet cun trunslete-a ell veb peges intu "Bork Text". Heeleriuoos! Es I luuk foorzeer, I fuoond thet he's ectooelly fery pupooler. Hurty flurty schnipp schnipp! Zeere's a vhule-a noosgruoop defuteeng tu thees lufeeble-a cheff. Luuk, zeere's ifee a guugle-a pege-a ooff hees lungooege-a! Bork Bork Bork!

Cun't get inuoogh? Cleeck here-a. Bork Bork Bork!

Iff yuoo'fe-a furguttee hoo he-a suoonds leeke-a, leestee tu thees cleep vhere-a he-a teeches us hoo tu meke-a chuculete-a muoosse-a. Bork Bork Bork!

Ooh, iff thees luuks leeke-a geebberish tu yuoo tuu, thees vhule-a text is trunsleted intu Ingleesh beloo. Bork Bork Bork!

English:

Anyone remembers the Swedish Chef from the muppets? He with the incomprehensible gibberish and songs that end with "Bork bork bork!"?

I was surfing around and found an extension for Firefox that can translate all web pages into "Bork Text". Hilarious! As I look further, I found that he's actually very popular. There's a whole newsgroup devoting to this loveable chef. Look, there's even a google page of his language!

Can't get enough? Click here.

If you've forgotten how he sounds like, listen to this clip where he teaches us how to make chocolate mousse.

Oh, if this looks like gibberish to you too, this whole text is translated into English below.

Swinging Remakes

If you love the swinging 50-60s of Frank Sinatra and big band music, but don't want to be called ancient, you might want to check this out. Contemporary songs from the likes of Michael Jackson, Madonna, Pet Shop Boys and Tears for Fears covered, and they're all free!

Even rock hits like Better Man(Pearl Jam), Creep(Radiohead) and Under The Bridge(RHCP) got the treatment. That's where alternative music really becomes alternative!

The Blame Game

You've probably heard or read the news that bus and taxi fare cheats could end up in jail.

They were already debating this new rule in this morning's Morning Express. As a listener pointed out, whenever the ez-link reader makes a mistake, they'll say it's a technical fault and just offer a refund. Case closed. But now if the commuter forgets to tap the reader, he could end up in jail for fare cheating. How fair is that?

By the way, a professor in a Human Factors Engineering course I attended some years back said that there's no such thing as a human error. What he meant was that whenever something wrong happened that can be attributed to man's fault, it is because the system did not take into consideration the fact that the human could make a mistake. To err is human, after all.

Therefore, it's not our fault if we forget to tap the reader. It's the system of having to tap cards upon exiting that's flawed. Don't lay the blame on commuters. In fact, I'll go as far as to say that even if someone chooses to cheat, it's again the system for being not smart enough to prevent it. I'm not saying it's ok to cheat, but they should do something about their system instead of just relying on the law to circumvent the problem.

As for cheating cabbies by non-payment, it is of couse right to penalize the offenders. And while we're at it, why don't we charge cabbies who deliberately don't pick up passengers but wait for booking calls with malingering?

F1 at home

F1 fans need look no further. Now you can experience the action itself right at home.

And we don't even need to build a circuit for it!

September

September is such a looong and arduous month, non?

Here are two songs about this looong month with very contrasting moods. The first is an upbeat dance track from Earth, Wind and Fire. This is actually the first song we learned in our drums class, and one of the nicest as well.

The second is by Green Day, who has come a long way since their punk days of Dookie. They're still punk, but now they sing about serious stuff like war in American Idiot. In fact, I heard that the video of this song is anti-war themed, though the song itself is not.

Sometimes I really do feel like I'm sleeping through the month. :p

Enjoy and tell me if you like them. :)

1. September - Earth, Wind and Fire
2. Wake Me Up When September Ends - Green Day

Gloat gloat gloat

Sorry.. but.. after reading this.. I can't.. help.. but.. gloat!

WAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

So much for 4th place huh? Uefa Cup already cannot make it, still want to play Champions League? Wasting everyone's time!

Oh, you're not really oh?

Was (Not Was) was one wacky lot

In yet another inspired move, I've changed my display name to Oh (Not Oh).

This follows the wacky 80s band Was (Not Was), who gave us lyrical nonsense like Open the door, get on the floor, everybody walk the dinosaur and Shake your head (let's go to bed). If I'm not wrong, the members David and Don Was named the band such to stop people from mispronouncing their name. It's supposed to be Was (rhymes with as), and not was (past tense of is). So everyone will know it's Was (not was). Brilliant, don't you think?

By the way, Was (Not Was) is was now. They disbanded in 1993.

Anyway, my name's not really read as oh, like in "oh, really?" or "OMFG!!". In Hokkien, it's pronounced something like Orr2 or Orh2. Although I don't mind people calling me Oh (like in OMFG) because it's quite funny actually, I still have to clarify this. So there you go, I'm Oh (Not Oh).

We all need a little self-amusement, non? Else we'll die of boredom and monotony! I'll change it back once I get sick of it, heheh. :p

Thinking again

They call it Steve Jobs' wet dream

Well, I did mention that I'm slow on such things, non?

I was snooping around CNET Asia when I stumble upon the Nokia N91 with 4GB memory. Besides incorporating 3G (not sure if I'll need that, but why not?), it has radio and a 2 megapixel camera to boot! Read more here.

Wait, wait.. it even has build-in WiFi. OMFG, now you don't even have to boot up your computer to go online at home!!!

Forget about the SGH-i300. Samsung phones are for gals anyway!

Fruity Day

Look, they made a statue for you!

It's fruity day today. Happy birthday mango!

Now piss off and stop bugging me.

...

Heheh.. just kidding, my friend.. just kidding. For you, I'll not eat mangos today. In fact, I promise to swear off all rotten fruits. Don't mention it! :D

Here's a song for you:

Before you started tokin'
You used to have a brain
But now you don't get even the simplest of things
I can draw a little picture
Or even use my hands
I try to explain but you just don't understand

(Hey) Man you're really losing it
(Hey) And you've really done a lot of junk now
(Hey) But you keep on abusin' it
What in the world happened to you?

-- The Offspring, What Happened To You?

Just kidding.. keke. Happy birthday again, my 最佳损友. :)

Discrimination

No form of racism will be tolerated
[thanks to mango for the pic]

Something has been firing up the local blogosphere and beyond for the past 2 days. Here's the orginal pieces of news from CNA, and the discussion on Tomorrow with its numerous trackbacks. Too bad the guilty blogs and forum postings have long been taken down.

Wow, the news even got Slashdotted! Now the whole world knows!

I'm not going to comment on what's right and what's not because I'm not Xenoboy and I'm no Political Savant. But if you're interested, check out what the wise Xenoboy has to say about it (someone translate into plain English for me?). According to him, the Sedition Act is very rarely used. Mr Wang says so too . Now everyone's running to check what the word means. By the way, I recommend their blogs [link and link] if you like insightful stuff, although I'm not sure if Mr Wang will still blog in future.

Can't get enough? Here's more from Singapore Angle, Singabloodypore, and Singasingapore. Heck, just go here where everything from all over the world is listed.

Muslims will be glad to know that they're not the most discriminated lot in Singapore. That'll be the smokers. Here's a welcomed bit of news though. A good fix for ageing folks like moi?

Do remember to check back for the latest outdated news!

Think different, not follow

Coming together in the SGH-i300

Hold your wallets everyone!

Ok, my visual spectrum has admittedly been narrow recently, choosing to focus only on Sony Ericsson phones. And I'm a little slow on such things because I am not a tech geek. But this thing caught my eye in today's Digital Life - a phone with 3GB memory!

Now with 3GB, that's only 1GB less than the expensive, good-looking but doing nothing else player everyone's getting crazy about. But that's being harsh, because the user reviews are not out yet on that expensive, good-looking but doing nothing else player. Hey, wait a minute.. if user reviews are not out yet, why is everyone clamouring for it?

Haiz.. you don't call them faddists for nothing.

The yet-to-be-released SGH-i300 not only plays MP3 and WMA, but AAC as well. So all the faddists out there won't be stuck buying expensive, good-looking but doing nothing else players. These faddists should also note that you can drag and drop files onto the SGH-i300 without going through any special software or interface. There's even a scroll-wheel so you won't miss your expensive, good-looking but doing nothing else player.

It runs on Windows Mobile (version unconfirmed), meaning that it is a smartphone as well. Ok, I'm not going to go into whether Windows Mobile is a good thing or not, partly because I think that depends on which camp you're on and mainly because I've never used it. Other features include a 1.3 megapixel camera, video recording, bluetooth and.. go find out yourself here, here and here. Heck, just google it yourself - this is not a tech site.

Bad things about the phone? It's hard-disk driven, so that's a little fragile. It's not exactly a tiny featherweight either. And too bad there's no radio, although with phones, there's always the possibilility of third-party add-ons. In addition, the price is not out yet. I won't be surprised if it exceeds one grand.

But still, the SGH-i300 is the closest we've come so far to a congregation of the phone, mp3 player, camera, video camera and PDA into an all-in-one gadget.

I've always thought Samsung phones are for gals, but I'll think different now. Of course, I'm not saying you should run out and buy it right after it is released - you're not a faddist after all. Always check the reviews first. ;)

Old man's rant

I'm not getting any younger.

I was sooo tired after 90 mins of tennis on Friday. Maybe it's because I've not played for quite a while, so the Clueless Dog/Headless Chicken, that is moi, got really excited and started running around like a madcap and whacking every ball with all my might. I could barely whimper, crawl or nibble after that. And my wrist (from gripping too hard) and bums (from picking balls) are still hurting today.

But that didn't stop me from meeting up with my old mates for supper, drinks and blogger conference. There was so much to talk about I forgot about my fatigue totally. And while we tried to concoct get-rich schemes and ways to cure cancer, we didn't realise it was already 3am!

Yeah, I'm not getting any younger. Maybe it's time to set the wheels in motion, walk unafraid, 破釜沉舟， and go for 创举, to where no man has gone before. It's now or never, non?

Anyone caught Eric Khoo's Be With Me? The critics seem to love it, but it's crap to me. Granted, it may be sad, especially since the story about Theresa Chan (playing herself) is real. But other than that, methinks it takes more than a few scenes of an old man feeding his ailing wife, and him crying later on to make a touching story. At times the movie is totally silent, without even background music, and it is during trying times like these that you start to appreciate the plush, cushy seats in the theatre.

Don't get me wrong. I do like arty-farty films because of the raw feel and extreme realness in them. In fact, I love foreign films from Europe and South America that portray in frightening detail normal people's lives. But not so for Be With Me; it's a sorry excuse of an art film IMHO. Luckily, we're saved by a mighty fine Lynn Poh and the lesbians everyone is talking about. You could hardly fault them for being lesbians - they're both hot!

I may not be getting any younger, but I can't help wondering if the film got a standing ovation at Cannes because the ang mos are fascinated with all things Asian, and amused by the dysfunctional lives of Singaporeans. One thing I did learn from the show though: Check who's below you first before jumping. You don't want to be charged for both manslaughter and committing suicide after landing on somebody.

By the way, it's 911 today. The same question will forever be asked: Where were you and what were you doing at that time? I was out on a date the whole day that fateful Tuesday. When I returned to hostel at around 9-10pm, a hall-mate and friend told us that a plane crashed into the World Trade Center. My first thoughts were why was a plane flying around downtown Singapore? Oh, by the way, is 911 the reason why the place is now known as Harbourfront instead?

It didn't take long before the whole block knew about it and crowded around the lobby to catch the news on tv. I stayed up till 4am surfing the latest reports and watching the same clips being played over and over again on tv. I think that was the only time the CNN website went bust with the amount of volume, and they had to put up a single page saying America Under Attack, or something like that. The next morning, the newspapers at the drinks stall at Canteen B sold out in record time.

The world changed after 911. The copycats killed more people by blowing up more subways and buildings. Saddam got linked to terrorists for reasons nobody could comprehend (except cowboys) and Iraq got overtaken. Airport security checks became tighter than JLo's butt. Soldiers carrying guns patrol MRT stations and even Shenton Way. What is this world coming to? This is not Israel!

Yeah, I'm not getting any younger. Four years have passed and few seem to remember 911, especially after what happened with Katrina. Even the US Open is unusually mellow this year. In case you've not heard, my favourite Kim Clijsters has just won her first major title. She's a cute but tough cookie! :D

Meanwhile in Kim's home town is the Belgium Grand Prix. The good news is Kimi (not to be confused with Kim) has won his 6th race of the season - the same number as Alonso. The bad news is that Alonso managed 2nd without having to do much because just about everybody else self-destructed. And check out Giancarlo Fisichella's crash to see how safe F1 cars are! His crash also resulted in the appearance of the safety car which threw everything into disarray and Alonso into 3rd place. But that was before something happened to the 2nd place driver with 3 laps remaining...

JUAN PABLO MONTOYA IS A STUPID IDIOT!!!

I'm not getting any younger, so it took a while to complete my homework. How did I fare, J? :p

Rossi for F1?

F1? Ok, no problem!

An article in the ST sports section talked about the possibility of Valentino Rossi joining F1. This rumour, in fact, has been around since a few months ago when Rossi showed up at one of the races with the Ferrari team. There's talk that he'll line up with Kimi Raikkonen for Ferrari in 2006 (No, Kimi! Don't!).

Now that would really be something to get excited about. If you've always thought Michael Schumacher is great, what do you make of this guy? Although I've never really followed MotoGP, I'm still amazed by his accomplishments. He was easily winning championships with Honda when he got bored and joined Yamaha. The championship immediately followed him, and this season he's already on his way to his second win with Yamaha. Anyone thinks Schumy can do that without Ferrari?

F1 may be seeing a new champion this season with the end of Schumy's 5 years of domination, but the sport still lacks an endearing personality. Rossi's a really cool dude and more charismatic than any of the drivers on four wheels, so I'll be eagerly anticipating.

But I'll still be urging Kimi on for the driver's championship though.

Counting Crap

This is not a vulgar sign!

I never knew until I stumbled on this site that The Finger is actually a binary 4, and that we can count to 31 on one hand. Now we can start practising counting to 1023 with two hands. Ha!

Also on the same site are some geek jokes. I like this one:

Why did the programmer always confuse Christmas and Halloween?
Because Oct 31 equals Dec 25.

For the uninitiated, OCT is octal (base 8) and DEC is decimal (base 10), just like binary is base 2 and hexadecimal is base 16. So Oct 31 = 3 * 8 + 1 = 25 in decimal.

Whoever thought of such crap! :D

iPod Nano

Neh, no - still no radio on Nano.

I'm not exactly into iPods (think it's too much of a fad), but when I saw the new iPod Nano, my hopes were raised for a while.

It's so slim you'll think it's going to break any moment. Looks good, but then I don't carry an mp3 player around to let people admire.

I searched high and low and found no clues to any radio on it. I'm convinced Apple is only interested in getting people to buy music from iTunes. So once again it's case closed for me.

All the self-proclaimed tech junkies should be lapping it up though. After all, all you need is money, not taste or a sense of judgement, to get all the latest gadgets.

More on Wiki

We're still on to Wikipedia today. While mango continues to vandalise the site, I did my bit to contribute to the worldwide online community, and at the same time pay tribute to my home town for the last 20 plus years.

Check out Ang Mo Kio New Town. I wrote the whole section under Residential.

No prizes again, for guessing where I live.

I don't know which joker wrote the last part about Famous Residents though. I never know of any world-renowned financial pundits named Bob!

Wiki Thyself

The ever-boliao mango (not his real name) was surfing around Wikipedia today when I suggested that he writes a page about himself. And he did just that.

We then discovered that Wikipedia is very efficient in deleting what it calls Vanity Pages (self-writeups). So the page was gone in like 11 minutes!

Well, I did warn him that he's neither important nor significant enough to warrant a page there.

Luckily he screen-captured his 11 minutes of online fame before it disappeared, as you can see in the picture above. The picture below shows the short history of the page. Click on either of them to enlarge.

By the way, I added a line in his deleted page. No prizes for guessing which.

It's getting dark, too dark to see

Just when I thought it's hay time, the gloom and doom around is threatening to cloud my vision once again.

A few days ago, we read about New Orleans police turning in their badges. This morning, when I was listening to music on my way to work, it struck me just how perfectly fitting this song below is in portraying the situation there.

And as if that's not enough bad news, we now learn of a plane crash in nearby Medan.

Just when I was about to leave work today, my boss broke the news to us that yet another colleague has tendered his resignation. Ok, that's factually incorrect, since he's only the second one to do so this year. The other four were laid off. But there goes one third of the company. The lunch clique has dwindled to that two or three people.

If I don't turn in my badge any time soon, I might just end up being the sole survivor here. Too bad there ain't no million bucks for that.

Mama, take this badge off of me
I can't use it anymore.
It's gettin' dark, too dark to see
I feel like I'm knockin' on heaven's door.

Knock, knock, knockin' on heaven's door x 4

Mama, put my guns in the ground
I can't shoot them anymore.
That long black cloud is comin' down
I feel like I'm knockin' on heaven's door.

Knock, knock, knockin' on heaven's door x 4

-- Bob Dylan, Knockin' on Heaven's Door

Kimi is King

Kimi wondering what else he must do to win

I watched in awe at the just concluded Italian Grand Prix, but with a tinge of sadness at the fact that the best driver is not going to win this year's championship.

Fernando Alonso may be on the verge of clinching the championship, but that's only due to Renault's reliability than anything else. He's never overtaken anybody, and half of the races he's won this season was because the car in front of him screwed up, allowing him to inherit the win.

Kimi Raikkonen, on the other hand, has proven beyond any doubt that he IS the best and fastest driver this season. Starting from 11th place due to yet another engine failure, he moved up to 3rd by the end of the first round of pit-stops. But alas, his tyre got damaged and he had to pit for a change, causing him to drop back to 12th.

But even with such bad luck, he still managed to finish the race at 4th. Credit, though, has to be given to McLaren for their excellent team strategy. Kimi completed the race on what was effectively a one-stop strategy (ie. he only refuelled once). Now that's really, really rare.

Haiz.. if Mercedes has been able to provide him with more reliable engines, he'll be running away with the championship!

Call me jealous for all I care. And you know what? You're right!

Being Poor

I came across this post about being poor (via Boing Boing). If you've ever felt poor, you might relate to it even though it's in an American context. Just look at the ultra long list of comments!

Looking at a previous post from his blog, it's obvious the writer wrote this because he's really pissed with what the director of FEMA said about the people of New Orleans having to bear responsibility for their own plight since they didn't heed the evacuation order.

Heart-wrenching stuff.

Katrina

Hurricane Katrina: The Aftermath

The pictures in the papers and just about everywhere aren't from war-torn Somalia or tsunami-hit Asian countries, but from the USA itself.

Yes, even the most powerful nation in the world is no match for natural disasters. See transcript of the now very famous radio interview with New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin.

Katrina, Katrina
A storm so mean
Making a wreck out of
The city of New Orleans

Like tsunamis you've destroyed
Everything in your wake
Resulting in tens of thousands
Left homeless or dead

When help was sought
The response came slow
Realisation was only after
Katrina has taken its toll

Desperation has led to
Crime in the streets
As anarchy grips this city
Reeling in defeat

Katrina, Katrina
Look what you've done
It reminds us that disaster
Could well hit anyone

DRM Demystified

What? I'm not the shadiest?

Welcome to the wonderfully shady world of digital rights management (DRM). We've been told that it's illegal to share music, so we'll have purchase it legally from the online music stores.

But do you know what you're really getting when you pay that S$1.99 or US$0.99 for a mp3? They may say you can "choose your music, choose your device, know it's going to work", but how can you be sure? Take a look at this lowdown on purchasing from widely known portals like iTunes and Napster, as well as on Microsoft's WMA DRM.

And how about our local Soundbuzz? I quote from their End User Agreement (emphasis mine):

Permitted Use:

Licenses - You are only allowed to store each Digital Download on 1 PC of your choice (1 "License"). However, as part of our customer support policy, Soundbuzz may, at its sole discretion, allow you up to two 2 times re-installation (i.e. 2 additional Licenses) within a 1 year period from the initial download of a Digital Download, in the event that you upgrade your operating system or suffer any hard drive crashes. Please contact our customer support at support@soundbuzz.com in the event that you wish to request for additional Licenses.

The number of "Burns" and "Ports" (defined below) permitted are in respect of each License granted per Digital Download.

Burns (i.e. CD burning) - You may "burn" each Digital Download up to 3 times only onto CD-R and/or CD-RW in order to create an audio compact disc in "Compact Disc - Digital Audio" Red Book format which is playable on an audio compact disc compatible player (3 "Burns").

Ports - You may export or transfer each Digital Download to such portable media player devices or portable storage devices connected via your PC's USB port a total of 3 times only; and provided that at such point in time the Digital Rights Management license utilised is able to bind to the Digital Download, to the device and to an identified account registered by you ("registered device"), each Digital Download will be exportable an unlimited number of times to each such registered device. For the avoidance of doubt, all transfers to portable devices are only enabled for a one-way transfer to each such device and are not transferable from such device to other devices, PCs or other digital media. (3 "Ports")

Sounds like a lot of trouble just to listen to the music we want, huh? Imagine that if you change your computer after a year, you'll have to repurchase everything!

You know, sometimes it's not that we don't want to pay for our music. It's just that after paying for it, we'll like to do whatever we deem fit with it, and play it wherever, whenever and however we want.

Oh, and about this whole music-sharing = piracy shite, I'll talk about it one day when I can muster the time and strength to write.

Superstar es toi

The unlikely duo

I missed out on the Singapore Idol final last December because I was gazing stars while suffering from insomnia on a ship deck guarding the seas of our country. So at least this time, I got to catch the Project Superstar final on tv.

But the 绝对旁观者, that is moi, almost fell asleep watching. The show was so darn long and loaded with commercials!

That poor Kelvin seemed so overwhelmed at times. It must be tough in front of so many people. He lost badly in quite a few of the rounds. Luckily for him, the judges' votes didn't count this time. Singing wise, it was quite hard to tell as sometimes I could barely hear amidst the Indoor Stadium noise. In any case, I'm hardly an expert.

Anyway, I rather like Kelly. She's quite cute, non?

Those other male finalists should really get together and form a boy band. Same dressing, same hairstyles, same eager-beaver expressions. My dad commented that some of them look like gui (ghosts). But that's the look these days. In fact, it's so common that when I went to get my hair trimmed last week, the hairstylist gave me a blank look when I said I wanted a Spanish style. Eventually, he styled my hair the only way he knew - the Japanese Dragonball-esque way. It's a good thing my dad didn't see me that night.

By the way, why did the singing so often not match the lyrics on screen? Did they sing wrongly or were the wrong lyrics being flashed?

OMG, I thought I saw Dawn Yip's cleavage. A sure sight for causing sore eyes!

In the end, Kelvin won. Everybody cried and the two of them live happily ever after because they've already secured their recording contracts.

Meanwhile, the controversy continues.