House Party at C-17-14

The house party planned/thought/wish-to-have by most of us, but taken-action/voiced-out by Wendy...!

Some warming up, please.

Look at Funk's face, he so excited!

Aren't we supposed to have a party?? No DotA, please!

Aw man, look at this shit... 2 bottles of special edition 1-litre Black Label, finished?! Things are just getting hot...

Awh, this tastes so good.

Alright, party's almost over; and it's the girls' turn to drink

All the ladies in the house...

...are hot!

Snooker table has been cleaned, smoke cleared and dusts settled...

Testing 1, 2...

...3! Look at Funk's face... again! How cute!

If you think that's not enough...

...take a look at the rest. I wonder where he got those moves from.

It had been an enjoyable night/morning for all of us, I hope. At least I did... Salute to the participants: Wendy, Lam Mun, Alan 1.0, Alan 2.0, Hitler, Funk, God Father, Black, Snaike (m.i.a.?), Kan & Yee Teng.

Ya'll won't know how much it means to me, this kind of chances don't just come and go. It's just plain cool we managed to catch it this time, altogether. Hopefully there'll be plenty of these enjoyable moments for all of us, God bless!

Safari 3 Public Beta

Apple has come up with Safari, the so-called fastest and easiest-to-use web browser in the world. It's kind of... Apple style, but you get to run it on Windows now.

Here are the 12 reasons why you would love Safari, taken from Apple Inc.

1. Blazing performance

The fastest web browser on any platform, Safari loads pages up to 2 times faster than Internet Explorer 7 and up to 1.6 times faster than Firefox 2.

And it executes JavaScript up to 2.8 times faster than Internet Explorer 7 and up to 1.6 times faster than Firefox 2.

What does all that mean for you? Less time loading pages and more time enjoying them.

2. Elegant user interface

Safari’s clean, sleek look lets you focus on the web instead of your browser. The browser frame is a mere one pixel wide. You see a scroll bar only when you need one. You see no status bar by default — a blue progress bar fills the address field as the page loads — giving you more room to browse and view the web.

And with commonly used tools like a Google search field built right into Safari, you can get anywhere on the web faster.

3. Easy bookmarks

Safari makes it easier than ever to manage your bookmarks. Know iTunes? Then you know Safari bookmarks. One click opens the single-window interface, where you can browse, search, and organize bookmarks the same way you browse, search, and organize music in iTunes.

Importing your current bookmarks couldn’t be simpler. In fact, the first time you open Safari, it imports all your bookmarks from the browsers you’ve been using. And if you want to import bookmarks later, just choose Import Bookmarks from the File menu.

Safari even helps you find sites to bookmark. Using the innovative Bonjour technology, Safari discovers and shows devices such as printers, routers, and webcams associated with web servers on your local network — automatically.

4. Pop-up blocking

Say goodbye to annoying pop-up ads and pop-under windows that clutter up your desktop and distract you from your browsing.

By default, Safari blocks all unprompted new windows. You can open new windows when you click links, but you’ll get no surprises from unexpected, unwanted pop-ups.

5. Inline Find

Now you can locate any text on any web page using the Find command in Safari. Type a word into the new integrated Find banner

under the bookmarks bar, and Safari shows you the found count and highlights matching terms while dimming the page below them. So you can view every instance — in an instant.

6.Tabbed browsing

With tabbed browsing in Safari, you can open and switch between multiple web pages in a single window. Drag and drop your tabs to rearrange them, open one in a new browser window, or merge all your current windows into one tabbed window.

Safari resizes each tab depending on the number you have open. Set a bookmark for a set of tabs or revert to the tabs that were open when you last closed or quit Safari.

7. SnapBack

With most browsers, it’s easy to lose your way on the web. You go surfing, and before you know it, you’ve drifted far from where you started. Stop hitting the Back button and start using SnapBack in Safari. SnapBack lets you instantly snap back to your original search results or to the top level of any website, even after you’ve browsed down a few levels.

The SnapBack icon appears in the search field after you click a link in a search results page. Clicking the icon takes you back to the results page and even scrolls to the specific location you last viewed.

SnapBack also works in the address field. Type an address, click a bookmark, or click a link in email or another application, and Safari creates a SnapBack anchor point. When the SnapBack icon appears in the address field, click it to return to that anchor point instantly. So, if you type in the address of your favorite news site, click a link to read an article, then click another link, the SnapBack icon will take you back to the front page of the original news site.

8. Forms AutoFill

Now you need never fill out an online form from scratch. That’s because Safari Forms AutoFill completes online forms with information from your Address Book or from previously completed forms.

Let Safari fill in your name, street address, city, zip code, email, and other information. Safari also gives you the option to automatically enter account names and passwords — all stored in a secure, encrypted format.

9. Built-in RSS

Scan all the latest news, information, and articles from thousands of websites in one simple-to-read, searchable article list delivered right to you. The built-in RSS (Really Simple Syndication) reader in Safari tells you when new articles or blog posts have been added to your favorite sites, so you never have to guess.

Whenever you land on a page that offers an RSS feed, Safari displays an RSS icon in the address field. Click it and you view the simple RSS feed. Bookmark it and Safari tells you how many updates have been added since your last visit. The RSS view in Safari is customizable, so you can adjust article length or sort and filter articles by date, title, and source. You can also use the built-in search field to find articles relating to topics of interest. All from one place: Safari.

10. Resizable text fields

Maybe the text field you’re typing in is a bit too small to read. Or maybe you just have a lot to say. Either way, Safari lets you resize text fields on any website, just by grabbing the corner of the field. Resize a field and the web page reflows to make room.

11. Private browsing

Your browsing is your business. Which is exactly why Safari offers private browsing — to keep your online activities private. Turn on private browsing and Safari won’t store your Google searches, your cookies, the history of sites you’ve visited, your download history, or information from online forms you’ve filled out.

If you’ve been browsing without private browsing turned on, just use Privacy Reset to empty your cache and clear Safari of your browsing, forms, and search history. It’s a one-click clean slate.

12. Security

Now you can enjoy worry-free web browsing on any computer. Apple engineers designed Safari to be secure from day one.

For starters, Safari uses robust encryption to ensure that your private information stays that way. When you browse a secure site, Safari displays a lock icon in the upper-right corner of the browser. If you want to know more about the credentials of a secure site, click the lock icon and Safari displays detailed information about the site’s security certificate.

Safari supports SSL versions 2 and 3, as well as Transport Layer Security (TLS), the next generation of Internet security. Safari uses these technologies to provide a secure, encrypted channel that protects all your information from online eavesdroppers. And Safari lets you use standards-based authentication such as Kerberos single sign-on and X.509 personal certificates, or proprietary protocols like NTLMv2 to log in to secure sites.

Safari also supports a variety of proxy protocols — services that help firewalls control what flows in and out of the network — including Automatic Proxy configuration, FTP Proxy, Web Proxy (HTTP), Secure Web Proxy (HTTPS), Streaming Proxy (RTSP), SOCKS Proxy, and Gopher Proxy.

The elegant interface, sleek design and 'Blazing Performance' factor would make you want to try this out, even though it's still in Beta; at least it got my attention. Frankly speaking, tabbed browsing doesn't mean much to me, but, somehow I'm attracted to it.

If you want to give it a try, download it from Apple.

Long Journey

Wow, I'm feeling the Thursday blues... luckily they're sending me out, I would rather be dead than staying at the office. And guess what, they're sending me to Tg. Karang. What a long way to go... it took me almost 2 hours.



What does this look like to you? Sunny weather, small trunk roads & coconut trees.



Had to drive slowly all the way, cause some folks told there are plenty of speed traps. Then, I saw this Police watch tower, I think along the Sg. Buloh stretch. I don't think they built this thing to bust speeding cars, do they?

Alright, finally, I was at my destination. The workshop was just sitting by a speeding corner, and I nearly missed it. How am I supposed to park my car at such a narrow and dangerous corner? Plus, the vehicles behind me are speeding, and they won't be able to see me. WTH...

Went to the office, grabbed some documents and was ready to survey the car , only to find out that the garage where the car supposed to be at was at another spot. After taking some directions from the clerk, I made my way to the garage, by foot; it was about 20 meters away, no big deal.



Living next door to a garage... now how would that feel? The foreman next door?



A so-called garage under some self-made zinc ataps... Cool! At least it was airy. The owner/driver of this car was said to have avoided a dog wandering at the middle of the road at night, then lost control and hit a road sign post. Kind of lucky to get away with such minor damages.

The Transformers

Tonight is the premier of The Transformers! We are watching it in June, while the rest of the world catches it in July. How cool would that be?

This live-action movie is based upon the popular line of robot toys produced by Hasbro since the early 1980s that "transform" from recognizable machines into giant robots. Those were the days, man. I've been watching and admiring this since my childhood.

I think I needn't say much bout this movie. If you grew up in the eighties with Transformer toys and cartoons, you are going to relive your childhood fantasies with this one. Go on, knock yourself out!

*Some interesting facts [taken from Wikipedia] that you might want to know about the voice of Optimus Prime:

• Peter Cullen is best known for providing the voices for Optimus Prime, Ironhide and Slugslinger in the various Transformers television series.

• He has also played Coran and King Alfor in the Lion Voltron series, Commander James Hawkins in the Vehicle Voltron series, Eeyore in Winnie-the-Pooh, KARR in Knight Rider, Antor and Bomba in Dino-Riders, and Mantus in The Pirates of Dark Water.

• Through out the 80's and 90's Peter Cullen appeared on a number of television shows, including My Little Pony, Filmation's Ghostbusters, The Smurfs, Dungeons & Dragons as Venger, The Snorks, The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo, Tom and Jerry Kids Show, DuckTales, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,The Challenge of the GoBots, Rude Dog and the Dweebs as Herman, Rainbow Brite as Murky Dismal, The Biskitts as Scratch, Robotix, Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers (as the original voice for Monterey Jack), Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs, Voltron: Defender of the Universe, and The Jetsons. He also had a voice part in Gremlins as a gremlin.

Other Ways of Using Condoms

I found this in my Inbox few days ago, and still finds it quite hilarious...

Shrek the Third

Only managed to catch this yesterday evening at GSC Mid Valley. Waited quite some time, like 15 mins or so before the actual movie started. It wouldn't be that bad if it was movie trailers... it was the ads.

Finally, the movie starts... and it's the first in the series to not have a "storybook" opening!

I have been excited about this movie for weeks. As a huge fan of the first two movies, I was sure this one would not disappoint. But, it didn't turn out to be as I had expected. While not as bad as many a film out there, the third saga is yet a 'normal-laugh out' type of its series. I wouldn't be spilling much of the story plot. This film misses the sparkle of the first two installments, IMO. It is as though they're just attempting to continue the series, aiming for money.

The Canon PowerShot A640

I came across this cam on a TV ad, and decided to check it out. Let's just look at what it boasts...



Lens and Image Quality

Megapixels	10 Megapixels
Optical Zoom	4 X
Digital Zoom	4 X
Image Sensor	CCD
Max Aperture	f/2.8
Min Aperture	f/4.1
Max Focal Length	29.2 mm
Min Focal Length	7.3 mm
Maximum Shutter Speed	1/2500 sec
Minimum Shutter Speed	15 sec
Image Format	JPEG
Focus Modes	Automatic, Manual
Exposure Settings	Program, Automatic, Manual, Aperture-priority, Shutter-priority
ISO Equivalencies	100, 800, 400, 200, 80, auto
Metering Characteristics	Evaluative, Center-weighted, Spot
Macro Focusing Range	1 cm
Minimum Focusing Range	17.7 in
CCD Size	1/1.8"
Number Of CCD Pixels	10.4 Million

Features

LCD Screen Size	2.5 in
Viewfinder	Real-image zoom
Shooting Modes	Frame movie mode
Self Timer	Yes
Self Timer Delay	10 sec, 2 sec
White Balance	Custom, Automatic, Presets
Continuous Shooting Speed	1.5 fps

Memory

Flash Memory Type	32 MB flash
Recording Method	SDHC Memory Card, MultiMediaCard, Secure Digital (SD) Card

And the manufacturer's description...

The PowerShot A640 bursts with creative options. Use its 10.0 Megapixels to shoot poster size prints with fine detail. Discover new possibilities with the vari-angle LCD and optional accessories.

Print high quality poster size images with all the incredible detail of 10.0 Megapixels. Crop and trim to create new compositions while keeping your photos extra large and razor sharp.

A 4x optical zoom lens gives you the flexibility to frame shots up close or at a distance without sacrificing quality.

The large 2.5" Vari-angle LCD twists in all directions - ideal for self-portraits and creative shots at unusual angles. Night Display mode aids visibility in low light while a selectable Grid Line display helps with composition. A useful 3: 2 ratio overlay indicates the printable area for standard photo prints.

Canon's DIGIC II image processor manages all camera functions and processes images at high speed for excellent responsiveness and extended battery life. iSAPS is a built-in assistant that uses scene information to optimize camera settings before the shot is taken.

Rely on 9-point AiAF to keep even off-center subjects sharply in focus or use FlexiZone AF/AE to manually select a focus point.

21 shooting modes include a full creative zone for manual control and 10 Special Scene modes for tricky lighting conditions including Snow, Beach and Underwater. My Colors allows color effects to be applied to images and movies.

A high-speed ISO 800 setting allows you to shoot correctly exposed images in low light conditions without using a flash. ISO 800 also enables shooting at higher shutter speeds reducing the risk of image blur.

Safety Zoom offers extra zoom magnification without affecting image quality. Use the Digital Tele-Converter for extra reach on every shot - just like adding a teleconverter lens to the camera.

Focus as close as 1cm and capture all the intricate detail of tiny subjects.

Shoot extra long 30fps VGA quality movies with full audio. View them on the camera's LCD screen or connect to a TV or PC for full screen playback.

Overall speaking, this is just the right thing that I need most for my everyday job; a not-pro photographer. Easy to use, great features and good image quality.