Digital Fugue - Random Thots

2003-09-08T18:35:00.000+08:00

Digital Fugue @ TypePad

Dear friends and bloggers,

From September 9th, 2003 onwards, Digital Fugue will be officially hosted at TypePad. The new URL for Digital Fugue would be http://kaz.blogs.com/

Kindly update your links and bookmarks.

Thank you.

2003-09-08T18:34:00.000+08:00

Knowledge and wisdom i seek

This month, MIT officially launched its OpenCourseWare (OCW), a free, open publication of MIT Course materials that were used in teaching undergraduates and graduates at MIT. All course materials featured on the OCW are licensed under the Creative Commons License.

The initial OCW are limited to a few hundred courses, even then most of them just display the course's highlights and description. However, there are a few courses that include complete lecture notes, assignments and exam papers as well. MIT plans to publish all courses by 2007.

I believe this is a wonderful move by MIT. Hopefully the Harvards and the Yales of the world would follow MIT's footsteps in implementing similar platform for sharing knowledge and become more open towards the society and the world. Students would be happy to have extra notes and study materials at their fingertips for free!

Perhaps I can now indulge in other mind boggling subjects such as:
Aeronautics and Astronautics
Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences
Brain and Cognitive Sciences
Linguistics and Philosophy
Nuclear Engineering

If i fail to update this blog, you know where to find me. :)

2003-09-08T15:04:00.000+08:00

I'm a Highway Star

Here's a classic rock way-back track. There's nothing like driving at 100 mph with this song blasting on your ICE system. Swweeeeeet!

Nobody gonna take my car
I'm gonna race it to the ground
Nobody gonna beat my car
It's gonna break the speed of sound
Oooh it's a killing machine
It's got everything
Like a driving power big fat tyres and everything

I love it and I need it I bleed it
yeah it's a wild hurricane
Alright hold tight I'm a highway star
Nobody gonna take my girl
I'm gonna keep her to the end
Nobody gonna have my girl
She stays close on every bend
Oooh she's a killing machine
She's got everything
a moving mouth body control and everything

I love her I need her I seed her
Yeah She turns me on
Alright hold on tight I'm a highway star
Nobody gonna take my head
I got speed inside my brain
Nobody gonna steal my head
Now that i'm on the road again
Oooh i'm in heaven again i've got everything
Like a moving ground an open road and everything

I love it and I need it I seed it
eight cylinders all mine
Alright hold on tight I'm a highway star
Nobody gonna take my car
I'm gonna race it to the ground
Nobody gonna beat my car
It's gonna break the speed of sound
Oooh it's a killing machine
It's got everything like a driving power big fat tyres and everything

I love it and I need it I bleed it
Yeah it's a wild hurricane
Alright hold on tight I'm a highway star
I'm a highway star, I'm a highway star

Highway Star, Deep Purple

2003-09-08T00:38:00.000+08:00

Don Diego Coronas Major

I was keeping this cigar for quite sometime, finding the right occation to go with it. Alas came the 2nd Cigar Blog Meet, just the right time and environment to indulge a cigar. The cigar was a dominican, made by Consolidated Cigar Co.
The Coronas Major comes in a polished aluminum tube, exactly like the Punch Coronas Major. Out of the tube, the tobacco smell was subsided by a cedarry scent, very pleasing indeed. The color was of coffee and cream.

Lighting the cigar was easy. A charred foot and a couple of draws and the cigar was lit, not quite evenly in the beginning but it burns quite steadily after a while. The draw was pleasing and easy. The first few draw indicate a mild cigar taste, with the smooth smoke flowing almost fluidly. The ash was dark gray and almost solid.

After about 50%, the taste was still mild with a slight hint of pepper noted. At this time, it does not require any relighting, perhaps I was eagerly drawing to get the mild taste to stick to my tastebuds. The mild taste was consistent, so is the binder. A very well rolled cigar.

The problem came after 70%. The filler by that time was damp and relighting was required. At 80%, I was relighting on every other draws. At last I gave up, and left it on the ash tray. Too bad a good cigar had to die before it could burn my fingers.

Appearance: 18/20
Lighting and Burning: 9/15
Construction: 30/30
Taste: 32/35
Final Score: 89/100

Remarks: So mild, you can even smoke it after lunch.

2003-09-08T00:37:00.000+08:00

2nd Cigar Blog Meet

The second cigar blog meet was held last Friday night at Havana Club Concorde hotel. It was a smash as Aizuddin had organized a PS2 party to go with the meet as well. A funny concoction, but yes, cigars and games can somehow find a meeting point somewhere... I guess the nicotine makes the adrenaline flow more fluidly and improve the thumb and eye coordination ;)

I traded two cigars with Aiz, my Private Stock Robusto and Avo Uvezian Puritos Classico with his Private Stock Long Filler and Macanudo Miniatures. I smoked a Don Diego Coronas Major at Havana Club and then the Macanudo Miniatures at Hard Rock Cafe later that night.

Sharizal, on the other hand was happy with his romeo y julliet. According to him, it was the first time he smoked a cigar to the stub. We hope to see him again in our next meet :)

Head on to the extended entry for pictures

2003-09-04T12:49:00.000+08:00

Private Stock Robusto

I finally got the chance to smoke the Medium Filler Private Stock Robusto caigar i bought a couple of weeks back. No special occassion or anything like that, just a normal chillout session at Hard Rock Cafe.

Physically, the cigar is well built. I could not find any flaws in the construction. The wrapper was perfect, not oily and not dry. If there was a flaw in physical appearence, it would be the cheap looking thick, fat and ugly cigar band that comes with it. Not that it matters, but it is just plain ugly.
Cutting the cap, was quite tricky. Being a thick gauge cigar (ring size 50), i should have used a V-cutter or a bullet cutter instead of a straight cut guillotine cutter. Remind myself to invest in other cutters.. The cut was not too clean and it sort of disrupt the smoking, i have to spit out pieces of tobacco every now and then.

Lighting the cigar was a piece of cake. Then again, i wish i had a laser lighter with me. My small butane lighter could not cope with the thick gauge robusto. However, the cigar was quick to adapt itself, after a few wisp at the burning foot, the cigar seemed to be burning evenly.

The draw, was effortless almost feather like. Perhaps the filler were rolled loosely? I dont think so, the pinch test confirmed that the cigar was firm and perfectly rolled. The smoke was cool and almost smooth. The aroma was light and pleasant, and the ash was firm dark grey.

The taste however, was very light. Lighter than it's Davidoff counterpart I couldn't feel the cigar effect at all even after halfway through. It was so light, any drink would wash away the taste. At 2/3, the cigar was still drawing good, but the binder cap started to unravell but the damn cigar band was still stuck to the cigar! Perhaps it was the cool smoke from the robusto.

The cigar band finally gave way almost at 90% of the cigar. At that time, the cigar have already lost its firmness. However, the cigar effect was weak and bland.

Appearance and Presentation: 19/20
Lighting and Burning Properties: 13/15
Construction:26/30
Taste: 30/35
Total Score: 88/100

Remarks: A nice cigar to kick back and relax if you don't really have time to spare and focus and indulge fully on a cigar. The ugly band still bugs me but for the price I pay for it, i think it would only be worth it. For a segundo, it scores quite well. A great companion to go with a rock band!

2003-09-03T19:50:00.000+08:00

I have been too busy, i haven't been able to keep up with the news. A friend forwarded this one from MSNBC; Canada distributes medical marijuana. Looks like they will have to replace their maple leaf with a pacalolo! :)

Somewhat related:
Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana
Amherst ~~Cannibals~~ Cannabis Education Organization
NORML
Cannabis News

and on the other side of the pond:
Switzerland

2003-09-01T02:57:00.000+08:00

TypePad Reviewed

After testing and tweaking TypePad for almost almost a month, i would like to present the long overdue Typad review. I was unable to publish the review earlier due to unavoidable circumstances.

The review is divided two three segments, what i like, limitations and what i dont like. The review is based on TypePad Plus subscription thus certain functions are not available in Typepad Basic. Click here to compare all subscription plans.

What I like
TypePad is very easy to learn and use. I believe anyone without HTML knowledge should be able to make sense out of it after playing with it for a while. It has heaps of features for both novice and experts alike. It also has a brilliant interface.

One of its innovative feature (not available in TypePad Basic) is Mobile Blogging (Yeay!). You can post via email or via SMS/MMS. I have yet to test out the MMS functionality as i do not have an MMS phone.

The Photo gallery is another brilliant feature in TypePad Plus, although it have some limitations. These limitations will be discussed later in this post.

Other than that, it is w.bloggar and zempt friendly. I have tested both applications and they work fine.

Support is efficient and fast. My ticket was responded within 2 hours.

Limitations
One big limitation in TypePad Plus is No HTML customization. Full HTML customization is available only on Typepad Pro. I believe HTML customization should be included in all subscription type. Afterall blogger is giving it for free.

As i mentioned earlier, the Photo Gallery have some limitations. First of all, it limits the picture size according to the predetermined sizes when you upload the pictures (small, medium, large). The photo album templates are not customizable and there are not much standard templates available.

One important function missing is the ablility to manage files on typepad. You might have created a folder but dont know where it is located and cant change folder name once it is created. i have sent a ticket to tech support and according to their reply, file management is a priority and will be included in the latest update. kudos for the prompt reply.

Readers' comments also have its limitations. Comments open the post's permalink in current window. I would prefer the comments to open in a separate window like all other commenting system. There should be some sort of customization to allow Typepad to handle comments. Then again it is up to personal preference.

The statistics are very basic. However, a more detail statistics system are currently being brewed by the guys at TypePad. Until that happens, I will be using a third party stats counter for the time being.

What i dont like
A bit slow on 56kbps. Even on broadband some of the pages took a bit of time to open.
Some of the navigation function can be quite a chore.

On the photo album, write up on images can only be edited one by one. A big chore when you have uploaded 25 images at once. Other features that would require the user to edit the items individually are photo cloning and blogroll/people list.

Comments list at side bar not customizable. It shows the latest 10 comments. Even the typelist are not fully customizable. Imported blogroll list sorted the other way round. They should have customizable blogroll/people typelist.

Another issue i would like to highlight is the price. USD 8.95 per month (for Typepad Plus) may be affordable in the US but it is a bit steep for the rest of the world. Not only that, it would certainly deter advanced users from subscribing. For that amount of money, techie would prefer to get a domain name and upto 500Mb of disk space on a third party web server.

Wishlist
Ability to put up images on sidebar. Currently only images of the photo album can be displayed on the sidebar. How ever this functionality is being addressed. According to TypePad Resources, an image Typelist is currently in the works. Still on typelist, it would be great if one could customize typelist like perhaps limiting the typelist to display only ten items and have a sort of like extended view link at the bottom of the list.

On the photo album, it would be cool to have image copy protection feature (no right click on image sort of thing). Comments on photo album would be cool to. I believe this feature is currently in the works.

Other features that could be useful is perhaps a Tag-board like feature for general comments, and also online poll. The ability to import comments third party commenting provider would also be cool.

Last but not least, an offline tool that can be downloaded to a local machine would make life much easier. Something like bloggar or zempt but more TypePad centric with the ability to publish posts, images, manage typelists, archive post etc. I could go on and on... but that would be in another post perhaps :)

Hmmm... that's all i could think of now. I will update as I discover any other limitations. For the sake of comparison, here are a few reviews by other typepad users Gorithm is one example. Richard Eriksson of movableBLOG was kind enough to provide a review AND compile a list of TypePad reviews by other users. Other than that, there are a few resources online. Six Apart have published the official TypePad Resource site called Everything TypePad!. Be sure to checkout the features in development!
The unofficial TypePad Resources site was set up by snowman and he also maintained the TypePad Users Webring . The unofficial TypePad User Group is also gaining popularity among TypePad users.

In a nut shell, TypePad is very easy to use and maintain. I would highly recommend TypePad to anyone who would want to create a weblog. Even if you already have a web log and would want to migrate, i would recommend it. Although it is a Preview Release, it have some great features and very stable (i have yet to encounter any error) and I am eagerly waiting for the next release. I give it a 9/10.

2003-08-30T21:43:00.000+08:00

MERDEKA!

August 31st, Malaysia will be celebrating its 46th year of independence. People from all walks of life will be celebrating Hari Kebangsaan (National Day) in their own manner. Veterans, who actually fought for independence would celebrate perhaps with a prayer, to Malaysia's future and perhaps to their fallen comrades. The generation who were born before 1957, would remember the anticipation of the country achieving independence. The generation post independence will celebrate National Day as it is today,with performances being organized to usher the stroke of midnight. Party revellers would party all night long. From humble prayers and supplications to mad parties, Malaysians around the world will be proud of the nation's 46th birthday.

Last week, I was conned by a friend to attend a dinner function organized by Sekretariat Melayu Muda. The highlight of the function was a speech/mandate by the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohammad. Based from the speeches given by the event organizer and sponsor, the event was more towards remembering Mahathir rather than remembering independence. However, the Prime Minister in his speech did remind the audience to ensure the country maintain its independence and fight all form of neo-colonization.

Yesterday's friday prayer khutbah (sermon) also talked about independence. The khatib reminded the jemaah that being independent is not absolute. If we are not carefull, we will be colonized again either through economy or even culture. After prayers, the imam recited a tahlil and dua selamat. I wonder if other faiths organize prayers and offerings to celebrate our independence day.

To me, remembering independence day is not about remembering one day or to attribute the celebration to one person, be it Dr. Mahathir or even the father of independence, Tunku Abdul Rahman. Independence day is about reminding yourself, ourself of the struggle to obtain independence. Apart from Dato' Onn Jaafar, Tunku Abdul Rahman and Tun Abdul Razak, there are other figures who sacrificed their time, energy and even their lives towards independence.

In our history books and publications, unlike in other countries, it is said that we achived independence without any bloodshed. That maybe true at the point of independence being declared. However, prior to that thousands have lost the lives. We must not forget the freedom fighters who fought the British since the late 1800s such as Dato' Bahaman, Tok Janggut, Dato' Maharajalela and Mat Kilau. Also the people who wrongfully sided with the Japanese during World War Two, in order to chase the British out of the country. Without the resistance and the yearning spirit of independence from these people, i dont think we would have achived independence by 1957.

I would like to urge fellow Malaysians to learn more about our independence. At least everyone of us should visit The Proclaimation of Independece Memorial in Malacca at least once to learn and appreciate our independence. Remembering independence day and the people who faught for it is just part of the bigger package. We must also instill patriotism and loyalty in our hearts and like Dr. Mahathir said, we must make sure we remain independent and deter any attempt by any party to take it away from us.

A lot of other people have expressed their views on independence. Aizuddin talks about his earliest account as a child celebrating Hari Kebangsaan. Abedib was kind enough to send me an article he wrote exactly five years ago when Malaysia celebrates its 41st birthday, and Fooji inspired by Nina's post wrote a merdeka post. And also not forgetting a host of other Malaysian bloggers who dedicated their posts to this special day.

To Malaysia, happy 46th birthday. This post is dedicated to you.

2003-08-29T18:03:00.000+08:00

Meeting "The Reader"

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to meet The Reader or Abedib as he is fondly known by his circle of friends. Abedib wanted to include his Tag-Board on his blog at Typepad. Failing to attach the HTML code to typepad interface, he created a weblog on blogspot called Wakaf to host his Tag-Board.

I was finding ways to include my Tag-Board and some webrings on my blog. After a bit of googling I found a comment this site, with instructions to include HTML codes on TypePad's Typelist. One attempt later and voila!, I have my tagboard and my webrings on my blog.

I immediately emailed the good news to Abedib and included the instructions but he was still unable to attach the Tag-Board. I offered to help him out and he agreed. We meet up for lunch at his favourite hiding spot in KLCC. I ordered latte and chicken sandwich. Abedib came in, and within 5minutes, his Tag-Board is now on TypePad ;).

Indeed as Sarini mentioned, Abedib is full of knowledge and wisdom and he is very generous in sharing them with people. Words of wisdom and knowledge flow endlessly, as he talked with great depth on business, religion and current affairs. He also speak of his experience as an engineer in a government agency, as a director of a public listed company, as a father and as a Malaysian citizen trying to make ends meet.

Abedib is also fond of photography and i got to checkout his spanking new digicam! Funky little thing i must say. It is a bit smaller than its predecessor the C-730UZ, fits nicely in my palm. At 4megapixels and 10x optical zoom, this baby rocks!

The 1.5 hour meet passed by like a few minutes. By 3pm, i had to leave, Abedib had to meet his friend. I do hope to meet up with him again.

2003-08-27T13:24:00.000+08:00

Mo' Cigars

On sunday, i managed to pop by at Davidoff's KLCC. My intention was to replenish my Avo Puritos stash (I have only one left). However, the lady informed me that they have ran out of the Puritos, only the Avo Domaine is available. I have tried the Avo Domaine. Foa a small cigar it is a bit too stong, considering that you could finish it in less than 30 minutes. I prefer the milder Puritos.
I decided to checkout other smokes in the walk in humidor. My first choice would certainly be one of the tubos.

I had my eyes on the Griffin's No. 300 Tubos. I have tried the Griffin's Panatellas before and i am quite comfortable with the taste. Now, i just need a nice occassion to kick back and relax.

However, having in mind a box of 10 puritos earlier, I was not happy with just one cigar. Davidoff's KLCC does have quite an extensive collection of Private Stock. Private Stock is actually seconds (segundos in Spanish) , cigars that didn't pass quality control, so they don't get banded and boxed.

A lot debate have been going on about the quality of seconds. Hardcore afficionados shun them. However you could find some favourable smoke in these cigars. Basically, Private Stock is actually rejected Davidoff's. They are made in the Dominican Republic by Tabacos Dominicanos SA, the same factory that produces Davidoff's, Paul Garmirian, Avo and Griffins. Other factories also have their own seconds or bundles such as Old Fashioned from Macanudo & Partagas and Rollers Choice from Fonseca & Cubita. Good smoke at low prices, why not?

I have tried a few, and I am pleased with it. The only problem i encountered was the inconsistent draw in some of the seconds, but i was not as bad as the (so called premium) H. Upmann Corona Tubos i had a couple of months back.

I saw a nice gift set which consist of 5 cigars of different shapes and sizes. Preety interesting, but I'm saving that for another visit. This time around, I took the Robusto box of 4.

Now, in my collection I have:
one Don Diego Coronas Major, one Cohiba Red Dot Petit Corona, one Griffin's No. 300 Tubos, one Avo Puritos and four Private Stock Robustos.

2003-08-25T01:09:00.000+08:00

Requiem for a cat

Once upon a time there was a cat who yearned to fly
Everyday he would look at the birds flying from his master's window
Sometimes he would sneak upon them and attempt to catch the birds
He prayed and prayed and asked God to give him the ability to fly
One day an angel came down from the heavens and gave him a pair of wings
The cat was so happy, he flapped his wings and fly away...
He flew with the birds, through the clouds and played with the angels and the fairies
He felt tired and wanted to go home but he is lost
He asked the angel who gave him his wings the directions to his home
The angel replied, "This is now your home"
The cat said, "But i miss my master"
The angel smiled and said, "Don't worry my dear cat, when the time comes your master will come home too..."
From the heavens above, the cat looked down on patches of green and blue and earth as he wait patiently for his master

Fudgie and the Flight of the Koochieboo

2003-08-23T14:39:00.000+08:00

New Gallery uploaded

I have uploaded Digital Fugue III to the photo gallery section in Digital Fugue @ Typepad. Well actually, it is a collection of existing galleries at the digicam gallery hosted at geocities. However I have yet to include the caption for the photos. One minor problem in TypePad is you have to edit the photo captions one by one. Would it be easier to edit them all at onece. Imagine having uploaded 20 images and then you have to edit the captions one by one. A bit time consuming especially when you're on dial-up.

2003-08-23T13:19:00.000+08:00

In The Waiting Line

I can't seem to get this song out of my head. Chillout and enjoy...

Wait in line
‘Till your time
Ticking clock
Everyone stop

Everyone's saying different things to me
Different things to me
Everyone's saying different things to me
Different things to me

Pre Chorus:
Do you believe
In what you see
There doesn't seem to be anybody else who agrees with me

Chorus:
Do you believe
In what you see
Motionless wheel
Nothing is real
Wasting my time
In the waiting line
Do you believe in
What you see

Nine to five
Living lies
Everyday
Stealing time
Everyone's taking everything they can
Everything they can
Everyone's taking everything they can
Everything they can

Pre Chorus

Chorus

Bridge:
Ah and I’ll shout and I’ll scream
But I’d rather not have seen
And i'll hide away for another day

Chorus

Everyone's saying different things to me
Different things to me
Different things to me
Different things to me
Different things to me
Everyone's taking everything they can
Everything they can

In the waiting line, Zero7 feat. Sophie Barker

2003-08-21T23:52:00.000+08:00

Kedah

I have posted some photos i took while on a site survey trip in Kedah. Head over to the Kedah Gallery. Enjoy!

2003-08-21T14:41:00.000+08:00

Back in KL

Finally i'm back in action. I did try to update the blog via mobile blogging but somehow rather only one got through. Apparently Celcom was having some sort of technical difficulties in the sms email relay system. Anyway, here's a recap of the trip.

Sunday
Left KL at 3:45pm reached Sintok at 8pm. Spent the night at UUM Inn. Bad choice.
Dinner at Kuala Perlis (Best Ikan Bakar!, too bad no pics).

Monday
From Sintok we made our way down to Jitra then to Kulim. Managed to get a state map and covered 5 sites in Kulim District. Then we move up to Padang Besar and crossed border to Thailand. Spent the night at Padang Besar, Thailand.

Tuesday
From Padang Besar, we shoot off to Kuala Perlis and took a ferry to Langkawi Island. We managed to cover all 4 sites in Langkawi. After that, we took the cable car up Gunung Mat Cincang (breathtaking view!). Dinner at one of the seaside seafood restaurant and head back to the hotel.

Wednesday
Took a ferry from Langkawi back to Kuala Perlis and covered 14 sites in dictrict Kubang Pasu and Padang Terap. Left Kedah at 6:30pm, reached KL at 10:30pm.

Phew... That's almost like a Mentri Besar's schedule! ;)
Now we have to prepare the tender and submit before the end of this month.

2003-08-17T13:41:00.000+08:00

Out of Town

In a couple of hours time, I'll be driving 300 miles up north to Kedah to do a site survey. The site survey will cover all of Kedah but we are going to focus on one sector which consists of 20 sites. The survey will take 3 to 4 days to complete. Updates will most probably be via mobile blogging (which will only be available on kaz.blogs.com).

Other than that, I have updated three galleries on kaz.blogs.com). Two galleries are from the Digital Fugue Galleries, Digital Fugue I and Digital Fugue II and i have created a new gallery called Lettuce Eat!. ~~Drool!~~ Enjoy! :)

2003-08-15T11:06:00.000+08:00

TypeFugue

As you all know (thanks to Aiz for doing the unofficial soft-launch :)), Digital Fugue is on a trial run at TypePad. I only managed to sign up on Monday, August 11, 2003 and I haven't really trash it out to its fullest but im taking notes along the way. So far the archive have been imported fully and the nitty gritty "click-&-choose and drag-&-drop" design work is almost done. The archive post titles need cleaning up though. Still have to upload the galleries.
Expect a review by the end of next week.

In the mean time, the original Digital Fugue would still be the official site, until the end of the one month trial period and would move to typepad, should i decide to use its service. Im still weighing the pros and cons here.
New posts to Digital Fugue will be mirrored at http://kaz.blogs.com/. Feedbacks and comments are most welcomed, so if you have any issues just spit it out.

Finally, i'd like to thank all for giving me the support, encouragement, comments and trackbacks. A special thanks to Shattered Buddha for helping me out with the initial ground work and for handing me the discount keys :))) (I still have some discount keys to give away, so if you're interested, drop me a line!). And of course, to Aizuddin (Bud, if i ever become El-Presidente of a small island-country in the carribean, remind me to elect you as the Information Minister or Propaganda Minister whatever... ;) )

2003-08-14T12:13:00.000+08:00

Multiple plugs

After a week of fast paced action, this week seemed to be moving slowly... dreadfully slow.
I might be dropping by Davidoff KLCC to get some new smoke and replenish my stash of Avo Puritos.
The new Ikea megastore opens today. Although my house is just a stone's throw away, i don't quite fancy facing a horde of rude and kiasu ~~Vikings~~ Malaysians rushing on the opening day (as if its open for just one day!). Word has it, that the road leading to Mutiara Damansara was jammed since 7am this morning. Bad jam, horrible parking and rude shoppers... followed by another hell getting out of the place. what else could you ask for?
No thank you sir, I will go once the dust have settled... although i am sort of like craving for some swedish meatballs and poached salmon. Maybe i'll get some at Puzzini's.

Scouring the net, i bumpped into The Resource Shelf which provides resources and news for Information Professionals. Interesting site with tonnes of links for all sort of info. Somehow rather, i have the feeling these info will be very handy one of these days.

Pulp Non Fiction on the other hand is more like a toned down version of Codshit. Perhaps with a fine hint of Shattered Buddha? No?

Finally, if you like looking at your own reflection, why not take a few shots and submit them to The Mirror Project.

Now i gotta make some plans for the weekend. A hot date perhaps? Let's hope...

2003-08-13T00:11:00.000+08:00

"The plane.... the plane...."

More on aeroplanes! The Star yesterday reported Malaysia Airline System's (MAS) interest on Boeing's latest super efficient commercial airplane, the Boeing 7E7.

Dubbed as the Dreamliner, The Boeing 7E7 is still under development. Touted as the plane designed by passengers for passengers, you can even contribute and be part of the design team by joining the World Design Team.

The plane will be able to carry 200 to 300 passengers (depending on configuration), and will be able to hit the range of 13,000 to 14,800 km. It will also have high speed always-on connectivity. Production will begin in two years time and expected to be in service in 2008.
From the concept images supplied by Boeing, i must say it is one hell of a sexy passenger plane. Can't wait to get into one!

2003-08-12T11:47:00.000+08:00

Flight Simulator 2004

When I was young, I wanted to be a pilot (every kid wants to be one right?). I love planes. I love flying. After high school, I applied and got an interview. But then, God decided that He has better plans for me and put in the IT line :p. (not that Im complaining). The thought of getting a private pilot license (PPL) hit me but it's too costly for me. Maybe when I'm rich I can afford to do that. So, the closest i can get to flying a plane is with Flight Simulator.

I remember my first flight simulator. I think it was Flight sim 4.0 or something like that. It ran on an x286 IBM PC Compatible with 1Mb of RAM and 256k video RAM. The graphics were wiremeshed monochrome. :)
The Flight Simulator have been around for about 20 years or so. If someone come up to me and ask what's the best product available from microsoft, I'd say Flight Sim without thinking.
Some say Flight Sim is boring. I remember when a friend of mine watch me fly, he asked, "Can't you shoot anything...? What's the point?" Some people just dont have the passion.

Late last month, Microsoft released Flight Simulator 2004. It was labled A Century of Flight. I can't wait to get my hands on it. More planes, more airports and killer graphics. Apparently the game was optimised to be used with medium configured machines, which is good news to me. What im looking forward to is flying the DC-3, a classic transport airplane (remember Jack Dalton from McGuyver? he used to fly one of those ;)). I will write a review the moment i get to play it but for the mean time, here's an extensive review from Tom's Hardware.

p/s: One thing I noticed, when i was a kid my dreams were bizzare. As I grew up, my dreams become more down to earth. I wanted to be an astronaut, then a pilot, then an aeronautical enginner... now im a systems engineer.

"I'm looking to the sky to save me
Looking for a sign of life
Looking for something to help me burn out bright
I'm looking for a complication
Looking cause I'm tired of trying
Make my way back home when I learn to fly"
Learn to Fly, Foo Fighters

2003-08-11T11:50:00.000+08:00

The Citroën C3

The Citroën C3 has been getting quite a few rave reviews lately. Officially launched in Malaysia on June 3rd 2003, the C3 comes with a 1.6l engine and a 5 speed senso drive gear box.
Competitively priced below RM100k (still a bit steep for an average Malaysian), it goes head to head with the Alfa Romeo 147, Peugeot 307 and MB A160.

docsj of of Le Club Citroen took a test drive on one and was kind enough to share his review on the C3. Here's the verdict.

2003-08-11T11:32:00.000+08:00

The Don Unleashed - Digital Fugue does a Don Juan

This is going to be one of those silly posts. The fact that my blog buddies dubbed me Don Juan de KaZ got me thinking and took me down the memory lane and revisit the list of women i fell for.

1. First crush - I guess it was in 1985/86, i was 11 or 12. The girl was the daughter of my mom's friend. She was my age. Nothing happened, I just liked her but i didn't tell her i liked her... After a few months, i lost interest.
2. The next one was in 1986/87. This girl is from the school next door. she was a prefect and i always bumped into her. One fine day, my sister came to me and said "Hey bro, that girl said hi...". I was more like stunned and told my sister "Yeah... send my regards to her". before anything could happen, she followed her family and moved to another state. pfffttt...
3. This is one shouldn't be in the entry but im gonna include her in the list as well. It's one of those secret admirer thinggy. . Just a few love letters. Thats it. Never knew the identity of the sender.
4. 1989/1990. Guess what... my sister's best friend. But again nothing serious.
5. Cute chinese girl in my tuition class. Just a crush, nothing more.
6. Another cute chinese girl in my tuition class. This one lasted about a year or so. We graduated high school and we just quit.
7. My classmate at university. Sweet girl. Pursued for quite a while but she got someone else in mind.
8. From an acquaintance to girlfriend. Preety girl studying in a local college. Then long distance relationship. Almost got married. It lasted six wonderful (and dreadful as well) years. I guess things are not meant to be. tsk, tsk...
9. Then I had a crush on my junior in university. We went out for a couple of months but thats it. Nothing serious.
10. I was doing my intern at a local utility company when i bumped into this very preety girl working there. She was one year older and just joined the company. Unfortunately, she was about to get married to her college sweetheart. d-oh!
11. One hot babelicious lady studying french at alliance francaise... A couple of years older. Unfortunately... she's married with kids... i think...
12. This time its the other way round. I was working in my old department and bumped into this intern. We went out a few times but that's it... we still keep in touch.
13. A colleague introduced me to this one... nothing much... we went out a few times. nothing more.
14. Again... was introduced by a collegue. Am going out with her now :)
15. Hot girl at the office. Just a crush.
16. Cute petite girl who happen to share the same dinner table with me. Just dinner. Didn't go far.
17. Preety girl i met at a talk. Sparked an interest but no explosion.
18. Hot babe i met during lunch... got her numéro de téléphone... nothing..... yet! ;)

Tripped on some, slipped on some and fell straight on-the-face on some. One pathetic Don eh?.. that should revoke the "Don" title off me... haha...

2003-08-09T19:40:00.000+08:00

Mnemosyne Fugue - Digital Fugue does a Racheal

{ Begin mnenosyne
Friday nite!

Traffic Jam Bangsar Nightmare.

These are words to describe Racheal's farewell Party - WWW
Wonderful
Wild
Wicked!

A Hungarian Restaurant, full of Malaysians, bidding farewell to Racheal, who is leaving for the US of A, and Alex leaving for Switzerland... did I smell Cuban cigars? And not to mention the French kiss as well...

The sexy, kinky ladies... Racheal, Meesh, Hani, Gracie poo, Empress...

And the Gentlemen... Khalilur, Ash, Aizuddin, Dinesh, Vladimir, Alex, Haris... who else did i miss?

The conversations... the screams... the curses... the profanities

The laughing... the drinking... the smoking...

The sweet talk... the naughty talk... the cuddling... bordering foreplay

Dim lights, cameras... and we are all in the glitterring almost celebrity-like action in the glamour soaked party.

Cameras flashed, lomo clicked and video rolled...

Non stop pouring... multiple shots... enough alchy to light a bulb for seven days...

The peck on the cheek... the kiss... the smooch... almost orgasmic...

Ash said, "It's like Christmas in August..."

Hani said, "you are turning me on..."

Meesh asked, "Would you date me?"

Haris screamed, "Show your tits!"

The authorities... the enforcers... under 18, get out... under 21, hide... 2am is just too early to leave...

The mamak... the parking ticket... the ride back home...

The night... the party... the magic

Bangsar was red... heads rolled... we now attend to our battle wounds...

Goodnight...

Wake up! wake up! It was not a dream....

Delete the pictures!! Delete the videos! If the media got hold of them, there goes my chance of running for govenor of California in 30 years time!

Stop the press...!! For a limited time only, we got the pictures here, here and here!
Unfortunately, none of the juicy pics reached the media....

End mnemosyne}

Rachael.... we gonna miss you. Make sure you come back next year. We'll have another bash for you!
This post is dedicated to you.
*Hugs and kisses*

"Into the night we shine
Lighting the way we glide by
Catch me if i get to high
When I come down
I'll be coming home next year"
Next Year, Foo Fighters

2003-08-07T01:47:00.000+08:00

Too many things happening

My favourite quote is, "twenty-four hours in a day is not enough". Take just one working day, in no particular order, we sleep for eight hours. Total time in the shower, in the toilet and grooming for the whole day, another two hours. Three meals a day takes about three hours. Daily commuting from home to the office vice versa another 2 hours. Work = 8 hours.
And we are left with one hour to do the groceries, do the laundry, mow the lawn, wash the car, read the newspaper, watch the news, smoke a cigar, bake a cake, read a book, catch a movie, feed the cats, walk the dog, blog, do the dishes, cook, drink coffee, paint the town red.
Forget about it. Im babbling.

The first East Asia Congress was a success, with numerous issues being discussed at the round table. I was lucky enough to be a delegate throughout the session. At the end of which, I managed to congratulate the CEO of ISIS Malaysia, the organization that is responsible for the congress. He thanked us for coming and reminded us of next year's event. From the glow of his eyes and his anticipation, next year's event will be bigger.

The congress talked among other things about building the east asian community, the need for Asia Monetary Fund, free trade etc. Some of the presentation can be downloaded from the East Asia Congress site.
However, in my opinion, they missed out a few important areas in their discussion, which include science and technology, the environment and defense. Then again, there's always next year.

2003-08-05T01:20:00.000+08:00

Cigar Blogmeet Pictures

I have uploaded the CigarBlogmeet pics at the CigarBlogMeet Gallery. Aizuddin, in his cigar blog have annouced that the CigarBlogmeet will be a monthly event, the first friday of the month will be cigar day (followed by partying all night long.. teeheeheee...). Yes, I am definitely looking forward to that.
Next month's smoke will be Don Diego Coronas Major. For the sake of review, I have prepared a simple Cigar Rating Sheet, based on a sheet i found in one of the cigar guide books i have. A cool review sheet you can bring along to your favourite divan and rate your smoke there and then. Of course you can then go back, review the rating sheet, elaborate and write a two pager report for Cigar Aficionado while reminiscing the aftertaste of your smoke.
The sample can be seen at the CigarBlogMeet Gallery. Feel free to use it to rate your own smoke.

Okay, before someone sue me, here's a reminder:

Plug: Talk about being medieval!

2003-08-02T22:54:00.000+08:00

CigarBlogMeet @ Hemingway's

The inaugural CigarBlogMeet last night was simple and modest yet it has potential to be a prestigious gathering. It was a small gathering, just Aizuddin with his girlfriend, Fahroe and me.
Hemingway's was packed being a friday night. The place itself is almost exotic, a bar downstairs with a few tables. Right at the end a flight of stairs took us up and greeted by a tub full of wines. The walls are decorated with pictures of cigar afficionados and those in the cigar industry. The walk-in humidor was medium sized with a selection of popular brands.
We managed to get a nice little corner on the upper level with a nice cosy sofa.

The Cigar

The smoke of the day was Punch Coronation Tubo by Fernandez Palicio & Co., Havana, which i bought a couple of weeks beck at Davidoff KLCC. The construction was perfect, firm but not hard with its brown binder that is very smooth and not too oily.
Lighting was marred by perhaps the high speed fan spinning above us. Otherwise it would have been good. Initially, it didnt burn quite evenly, perhaps again, because of the fan. But throughout the smoke, right to the end, the cigar burned evenly. However towards 3/4 of it, i had to constantly draw to keep it burning. This caused the smoke to be hot.
The draw was smooth and generous throughout. The wrapper stayes intact until 90% of its lifetime.
A lot of people rated this cigar as strong but i guess its more to medium. It took almost 2/3 to feel the cigar effect. The taste is smooth and peppery towards the end. The aroma is light and smooth.

Appearance and Presentation: 19/20
Lighting and Burning Properties: 14/15
Construction:27/30
Taste: 35/35
Total Score: 95/100

Remarks: Totally satisfiying. Highly recommended.
The expresso i ordered went well with the cigar. Not too strong. A good 1 hour later I was practically tipsy and almost stoned. the cosy sofa would have sent me to la-la land in no time. Thank fully Fahroe was there to keep me company. I was of course enjoying the scene of preety ladies chatting away. I had to order a lime juice just to kick me up back in action.

I managed to take a few photos. As I was about to leave, some people were dancing to the tunes of latin music at the makeshift dance floor. I took the opportunity to take two shots. However upon exiting the bar, I was approached by two gentlemen from the management. They politely asked about the photos i took. I replied it was for my personal collection. Apparently they explained that the boss was not too keen on shutterbugs taking photos of their clients frolicking and making a fool out of themselves. They politely asked if i dont mind deleting the photos with the dancing people. I obliged. The photos didn't turn up well anyway.

All and all it was a fun and relaxing night. Good cigars, good company, cosy place and lots of chicks. Finer things in life? You bet! tres brilliant!

2003-07-31T16:28:00.000+08:00

Nine Years Ago

Nine Years Ago, It was 1994
Nine Years Ago, We were nineteen
Nine Years Ago, We were innocent
Nine Years Ago, I drove a yellow car
Nine Years Ago, You wore that blue top and blue jeans
Nine Years Ago, We shared fries and sundaes together
Nine Years Ago, We watched a movie together
Nine Years Ago, I put my arms around you
Nine Years Ago, We had dinner together
Nine Years Ago, You ignored me
Nine Years Ago, I sent you home
Nine Years Ago, We talked in the car
Nine Years Ago, It was too good to be true
Nine Years Ago, We had our first kiss
Nine Years Ago, I fell in love
Nine Years Ago, We fell in love
Nine Years Ago, We were together
Nine Years Ago, We were happy

I will always remember you as you were, on this day,
Nine Years Ago...

"Would you catch me if i was falling?,
Would you kiss me if i was leaving?,
Would you hold me if im lonely?,
without you...", Counting Crows

2003-07-30T18:09:00.000+08:00

Aicha

Outlandish - Three guys, of Moroccan, Hunduran and Pakistani descent. Based in Denmark. Now, how multicultural can you get? :o)
Anyway, their new single is a remake of Cheb Khaled's almost trance like brilliant song, Aicha. I used to listen to this song on and on and on when it hit the charts a couple of years back. Checkout Outlandish's MTV of Aicha (Real Player required).

Anyway, here's the lyrics to the original Aicha, in french;

Comme si je n'existais pas
Elle est passee a cote de moi,
Sans un regard, reine de Saba
J'ai dit: Aicha, prends tout est pour toi

Voici, les perles , les bijoux
Aussi l'or autour de ton cou
Les fruits bien murs au gout de miel
Ma vie, Aicha, si tu m'aimes

J'irai ou ton souffle nous mene,
dans les pays d'ivoire et d'ebene
J'effacerai tes larmes, tes peines,
rien n'est trop beau pour une si belle

Aicha, aicha, ecoute moi
Aicha, aicha, t'en vas pas
Aicha, aicha, regarde moi
Aicha, aicha, reponds moi

Je dirai les mots, les poemes
je jouerai les musiques du ciel
Je prendrai les rayons du soleil
pour eclairer tes yeux de reve

Aicha, aicha, ecoute moi
Aicha, aicha, t'en vas pas

Elle a dit garde tous tes tresors
Moi, je vaus mieux que tout ca
Des barreaux sont des barreaux memes en or,
Je veux les memes droits que toi
Du respect pour chaque jour
Moi, je ne veux que de l'amour

Comme si je n'existais pas
Elle est passee a cote de moi,
Sans un regard, reine de Saba
J'ai dit: Aicha, prends tout est pour toi

Aicha, aicha, ecoute moi
Aicha, aicha, ecoute moi
Aicha, aicha, t'en vas pas
Aicha, aicha, regarde moi
Aicha, aicha, reponds moi

2003-07-29T17:00:00.000+08:00

Conflicting Reports

Two conflicting reports on Dell's firmware fix to its Axim X5 Pocket PCs. Apparently the X5 had some problems running the new Windows Mobile 2003.

According to The Register, Dell will be NOT be releasing the firmware update until September (source: The Gadget Blog). CNet on the other hand, says that Dell will be releasing the fix by Wednesday (July 30 2003). Both article were published on July 28th, while the timestamps were 08:53 GMT for the register and 12:01 PT for Cnet.

Further discussion on on this issue are being discussed at Pocket PC Thoughts.

Until the issue is resolve, the Axim X5 will be on my Dear Santa's list...

2003-07-27T21:21:00.000+08:00

Lazy Sunday

Yet another lazy sunday is gone. A few more galleries have been uploaded to the gallery. That's the last batch. The next update would probably in a month or two.

Project Petaling Street or ProPetS (as fondly coined by xy@d), which was officially launched a few weeks ago is brilliant. Kudos to the core team members and to the beta testers. It has been, since its inception, a source of fresh content produced by Malaysians for the world. All it needs now is a little more participation from the Malaysian blog community and perhaps a little publicity.
And during the lazy sunday afternoon, I created a promo button and a banner for PPS. :) If you like 'em, download 'em. If you hate 'em, ignore 'em.

"against my will I stand beside my own reflection
it's haunting how I can't seem... to find myself again"
Crawling, Linkin Park

2003-07-25T15:30:00.000+08:00

Tech update

In the 1960s and 1970s technology tend to grow at an almost biological rate. Growth rate follows a gradual S curve over time. These technologies later became the infrastructure of today's society. In those day, people dont really care if the technology is going to bring any changes to them.

Back then inventors and adopters let the technology grow by itself. The result can be seen in microprocessors and netwoks. Nobody predicted the PC is going to be as big as it is today. Nobody pour tonnes of cash in to network technology to see its share prices go up overnight. Dont get me wrong here. People do spend a lot of money on infrastructure. But the money spent goes to the implementation of such infrastructure, not investment per say
.
Unlike today, people tend to expect technology to grow exponentially. Thanks to the capitalist mindset that has been planted in the minds of adopters and also the modern day soothsayers predicting what the future is going to be like with the adoption of a particular technology. On the other side of the storyboard, modern day heretics will always be there to condem the technology and so forth.

Over the past few weeks, a few reports from notable research firm predicted that WLAN is going to suffer the same fate as the dot coms. Ironically, in the late 90s, these firms were the one lauding the drums for inverstors to pour money into dot com. Perhaps if the trend were to be allowed to grow steadily in an almost linear fashion, the outlook on the dot com scenario would indeed be different. But the past is the past, no point fretting over it.

Let's look into the future. Again, the soothsayers are beating their drums again. Not that I'm saying they are wrong. But what Im saying is, they look into their crystal balls with the intention of making money, not for the sake of the technology.

Pyramid Research, in their research Worldwide Wi-Fi predicts 700million Wifi users by 2008. While the statement might give a sigh of relief to investors, it is a double edged sword. Statements like this brought the dot coms to its knees. Looking at their projection, again, the rate of adoption seemed to be exponential.

Source: Pyramid Research

But then again, Wi-Fi adoption is becoming more and more evident. While the current deal between Linksys and Intel may cause an alarm or two to be triggered in the industry. But i believe, in the long run it will make Wi-fi more ubiquitous, hence add value to the technology. Afterall a little competition is always good. Other than that, a lot of future equipment are being bundled together with wi-fi or at least have the ability to add wi-fi. Most PDAs are now Wi-Fi enabled. Even Fujifilm have come out with a prototype of a Wi-Fi Enabled digital camera. Now, wouldn't that be fun?

On future technology, more and more people are talking about Ultra Wide Band (UWB). Here's the latest from electricnews.

Last but not the least, Malaysian made tablet PC got a mention in The Gadget Blog.

"Little angels hang above my heads and read me like an open book...", Angels Of the Silences, Counting Crows

2003-07-24T12:13:00.000+08:00

Rising crime rate

Last night, I had a drink with an old friend of mine. One of the issues we talked about was on sociology and the conversation side tracked to crime. He told me his friend's car was stolen the night before right infront of his house. According to the neigbours, they heard the alarm went off for a while. Thinking that it was just a case of a mispressed remote control, they shruged off any suspicions. About 15 minutes, a gear lock and a steering lock later, the Satria GTi was gone.

My friend believe this occurred because of "cause-and-effect". He thinks these crimes were executed by former VCD peddlers. The current stem on pirated vcd have caused much grief to the peddlers.
Doesn't make sense? Consider this, a vcd peddler operates from, let's say 6pm to 12 midnight. During that course, he sells an average of 60 vcds (10 vcd per hour). His margin is about RM2 per vcd. That's RM120 a day. Times that by 26 days; they conservatively earn about RM 3,120 a month, that's almost double what fresh graduates earn. Im sure in a good month (summer movies) they could easily double or even triple that amount.
For a peddler, that is a lot of money. Even for an average Malaysian, that is a substantial amount of money.

In socialogy, we can relate this to "systems theory" where everything have its own function in the system. Take a component away, and the system cease to work, or it could still work but at the expense of other components in the system. That, according to my friend, is exactly what's happening.

This morning, we found out that my sister's car was broken into last night. The car was parked across the street, in front of my house. Fortunately, nothing was missing. It was almost similar to the ordeal i had a couple of months back.
No it does not stop there. Sharizal's car was also broken into last night.
Perhaps the theory is right, afterall?

Reading: Human Development Report 2003 (Available in PDF)

2003-07-22T23:03:00.000+08:00

Pat a cat, hug a dog

SPCA Malaysia will be organizing a Treasure Hunt to raise funds for the animal shelter. The event will be held on 10 August 2003. So if you are free and feeling charitable, why not participate and help our furry friends. If you feeling ultra generous but can't make it, you can still be a sponsor for the event. Oh, did I mention donations are tax exempted ? :)

Not interested? Okay, the least you could do is click on the link below and let someone else feed the dogs.

In case you don't know, cats and dogs blog too.
Got a pet? Have them featured on Blogs & Pets Project!!

"Sit Ubu, sit!... Good dog!"

2003-07-21T16:59:00.000+08:00

More Galleries...

As promised in my earlier posting, more shots are on the way. This time around, another six (6) galleries have been uploaded. Head on to the Digital Fugue Gallery to checkout.

BTW I still can't get that image of Jue in that swordfighting scene. :)
While day dreaming about Jue, I managed to cook up a little short story for the matrix. Similar to Osiris but with a lilttle bit of spice here and there.
Enjoy...

Matrixology Part 1

On board Nexus One
Dreamus: TrenchCoat have some valuable information for us. Someone gotta go in to the Matrix and retrieve it...
Charisma: I'll go...
Dreamus: Okay... TrenchCoat will meet you at the parking lot, in Sector B-12 at 2230hrs.
Charisma: How will i know- ?
Dreamus: He will recite this password.
Charisma: (whispers) ...He who drinks my blood shall live forever.
Charisma: Let's do it!
Dreamus: Have your handphone with you... all the time. Once you have obtained the file we will take you out of there... I don't trust this TrenchCoat guy.
Charisma: Yessir!
Dreamus: Codex, plug her in... we're ready to go.
Codex: Roger that, chief!

In the Matrix
Charima: Damn, I really miss the shopping malls... If only i could shop here... Damn it 5 minutes to go. I have to be in the parking lot.
Charisma makes her way to the parking lot.

At the parking lot
TrenchCoat: You are on time...
Charisma: It's a quiet night... Full moon outside. They say werewolves haunt this parking lot.
TrenchCoat: Nope... but vampires are aplenty...
Charisma: Is that so...?
TrenchCoat: You know, they believe drinking blood can make them immortal.
Charisma: Really...? The blood bank is just a couple of blocks away.
TrenchCoat: You should read the Bible, Miss Jones. John 6:56-58, "He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood shall live forever".
Charisma: Miss Jones... It has been quite some time since someone call me by that name...
TrenchCoat: Now, if you were to follow me, I will lead you to the information you required.
Charisma: Where are we going?
TrenchCoat: The source of information... in sector K-27.

To be continued...

2003-07-21T10:10:00.000+08:00

Animatrix

Finally, I managed to watch the Animatrix on DVD. Ultra cool. Last Flight of the Osiris made Final Fantasy looked like a puppet show. Okay, I'm exagerrating. But truly.. a gem!
I like Detective Story. It's sort of like Japanese animation meet 1950s Detective Story.
And the Japanese animation is awesome. Switch the language to Japanese to get the feel.

If you watch this while you were trippin' on Acid or LSD, it'll blow you away...

Reading: A Military Leadership Analysis of Adolf Hitler (PDF)

2003-07-18T18:39:00.000+08:00

An email from Bill Koslosky, MD

I received an email from Bill Koslosky, MD of Wireless-Doc. He mentioned about a blog by Howard Dean, one of the possible presidential candidate. This certainly shows how blogs have been used as a powerful campaigning tool. What's interesting is a host of other supporting sites mushromed along side Dean's official blog which includes Howard Dean 2004 and Howard Dean in 2004 among others.

Perhaps from this que, the Election Commission decided to monitor material posted on the Internet during campaigning period for polling offences as reported in The Star a few days ago.

Like me, Bill also pressed concerns about reports on the alleged Wi-Fi boom coming to an end. Chip maker, Intersil exit from the Wi-Fi game and angry investors running out of patience waiting for their cheques from hotspot providers seemed to add fuel to the debate. But things are not really that gloomy. Intel's strong 2nd quater earnings was said to be contributed partly by their Centrino chips. Agere's introduction of a new VoIP/WLAN chipset will hopefully add boost the Wi-Fi market.

Bill also mentioned about the adoption of wireless PDAs in hospitals giving example of accessing patient's data through wireless PDA as an example. Hopefully that will be a trend in the near future. I managed to discuss this issue with a few of my friends who are working in the medical sector. According to them, hospitals or doctors in particular are still sceptical about the use of wireless technology (at least in this part of the world). Most of the are concerned about the interference due to the overlaping usage of the ISM band (2.4Ghz) between medical equipment and WLAN products.

What we need is high tech doctors pioneering the Wi-Fi adoption in hospitals. Perhaps these individuals in the industry would care to comment:

Ain
Fooji
Dr. Liew
Palmdoc

Resources: Interference in the 2.4 GHz ISM Band: Challenges and Solutions (PDF)

Plug: My So Called Life

2003-07-17T15:14:00.000+08:00

Miscellaneous Updates

The Digital Fugue Gallery is updated, featuring eight (8) new galleries. And yes, more coming your way.

And they were mermaids...
The National Geographic ran a collectors' special edition on swimsuits. Anybody up for a sunburn?

Now wouldn't that be wonderful?
Thanks to the guys at Geek News Central for pointing to this article. Imagine, something the size of a pack of ciggy, holding 30Gb of music, broadcasting to everybody within 50 to 100 meter radius. Imagine 100 people walking around with wifi enabled ipods, with ipods talking to each other asking "Hey, wanna trade MP3s with me?",
"I have Jimi Hendrix Voodoo Chile, would you like to trade?"
Music mega store beaming the latest hits to your ipods. You choose what you want to hear! Amazing!
And we thought internet radio was God-sent.
But I guess the main issue will be power management and the over crowded unlicenced spectrum. Then again, with fuel cells emerging etc.... you'll never know....

2003-07-16T17:52:00.000+08:00

Wifi today, UWB tomorrow

802.11 Planet ran out an article on the future of wireless technology. According to them, a research firm predicted that Wifi will eventually be replaced by UltraWideBand (UWB) while Bluetooth will be replaced by ZigBee.

You Zig me?
ZigBee was created to address the market need for a cost-effective, standards-based wireless networking solution that supports low data rates, low power consumption, security and reliability. ZigBee operate in the unlicensed bands worldwide. Raw data throughput rates of 250Kbs can be achieved at 2.4GHz (10 channels), 40Kbs at 915Mhz (6 channels) and 20Kbs at 868Mhz (1 channel). Transmission distance is expected to range from 10 to 75 meters, depending on power output and environmental characteristics. ZigBee will comply to the IEEE 802.15.4 Standard.
More info on ZigBee can be found at ZigBee alliance website. The technology's early adopters include Philips and Motorola.

U dubya B?
According to webopedia, UWB is a wireless communications technology that can currently transmit data at speeds between 40 to 60 megabits per second and eventually up to 1 gigabit per second. It transmits ultra-low power radio signals with very short electrical pulses, often in the picoseconds, across all frequencies at once. UWB receivers must translate these short bursts of noise into data by listening for a familiar pulse sequence sent by the transmitter. Because of its low power requirements, UWB is very difficult to detect and therefore difficult to regulate. It spans the entire frequency spectrum (licensed and unlicensed), and can be used indoors and underground.
For more info on, UWB, checkout 802.11 Planet's Tutorial on UWB and if you are interested in the dry technical details, checkout the history of UWB and SSS-Mag.
To top it off, Bob Cringely gave his two cents on UWB.

Back to WLAN, First Partner have developed a market map for WLAN and it is available free!

"It's times like these you learn to live again...", Foo Fighters

2003-07-15T18:26:00.000+08:00

A brilliant weekend, busy week

Friday night, i had the chance to meet up with the fellow webloggers again. There i was clubbing with Ash, Khalil, Hani and Meesh and Rachael in Bangsar. Empress was also there but she left with her friends. The club was OK, although i prefer a place where there are live bands playing in between.
Saturday was fruitful. Me and three others decided to go on a random photo outing and paint the town red! We started off at Petaling Street. Make our way through Central Market, then towards Masjid Jamek and then Masjid India. Moved on to Jalan Tun Abdul Rahman, find our way through to Jalan Ampang right towards Jalan Sultan Ismail then we had late lunch at The Weld before going up KL Tower. Down from KL Tower to Jalan Raja Chulan, crossed Jalan Tun Perak and back to Petaling Street. After almost six hours of shooting, i used up 128Mb + 32 Mb in my camera.
At night, I went clubbing again :) This time it was RP in Hyatt Saujana Subang and then Planet Hollywood.
Sunday was slow, however i manage to get some shots near Lake Gardens.
I was out of the office Monday and today. Attended a seminar on Open Technology by Sun Microsystems on Monday and I just came back from IBM to attend their product training.

Now the good news :)
I have revamped my photo gallery. Each gallery now contains five images and I have added three more galleries. More to come from the photo session. Keep tuned in for updates. Meanwhile, head over to the gallery and check it out.

2003-07-10T21:54:00.000+08:00

Digital Fugue is 1 year old!

I started Digital Fugue a year ago after a few failed attempts in creating a weblog. The first time I heard about Weblog was probably in late 1999. At that point I already had a personal site located at xoom.com and i cant be bothered having a blog and a personal site. Then NBCi bought over xoom and the closed the site for good. I still have my puny low tech site archived at geocities. (yeah, its freaking ugly... at that time the only thing we had was notepad for coding HTML and Netscape Composer. No such thing as dreamweaver, and CSS, and flash...) Then weblog pop up in the papers in late 2000. I procrastinate until the middle of 2002. The rest is history.

Many people asked me why I choose Digital Fugue as the title for my blog.
The blunt answer to that is, Im a big fan of Johann Sebastian Bach and I enjoyed Baroque and Classical music.
Well, i was looking for an identity. Forget about kaz.com or even kaz@blogspot.com, they were all taken. The next best thing would of course be my nickname, Requiem. Nada, the good ones are all taken. Out of a sudden, i thought of Fugue. Yeah why not? Signed up on blogspot at random and i got the id. But why fugue?

Definition of Fugue
According to The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fugue (pron. fyoog) derives from Italian fuga(influenced by French fugue, from Italian fuga), from Latin, flight.
Fugue is an imitative polyphonic composition in which a theme or themes are stated successively in all of the voices of the contrapuntal structure.
However, in psychiatric terms fugue can be defined as a pathological amnesiac condition during which one is apparently conscious of one's actions but has no recollection of them after returning to a normal state. This condition, usually resulting from severe mental stress, may persist for as long as several months.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary define it as polyphonic composition, developed from a given theme or themes, according to strict contrapuntal rules. The theme is first given out by one voice or part, and then, while that pursues its way, it is repeated by another at the interval of a fifth or fourth, and so on, until all the parts have answered one by one, continuing their several melodies and interweaving them in one complex progressive whole, in which the theme is often lost and reappears.

If you listen to a fugue, the melody starts of with one voice, then another mimics the first voice followed by another as though answering the preceeding voices, running around the tunes and the first voice set on a counterpoint. Just like in real life blogs. You start of with a post, and then a comment appears lauding or agreeing to your post. Some comment disagree and sets its own counterpoint. And other comments follow suit.

At the same time, the psychiatric definition brings about the relativity of things when you are online. Sometimes you just lost track of time when you are on line. You take multiple personalities online. Multiple email accounts for different roles you play, at work, at home, personal. You become a multitasker of your own personalities without realising it. Based on these definition, I decided to name my blog Digital Fugue!
This blog talks mainly about technology, Music, PC Games (PS2, when i get my hands on those), clubbing and random thoughts.

Blogs that inspired me to blog
When I first started blogging i was alone. I need a role model. These blogs have somehow shape Digital Fugue.
Here they are in no particular order:
Al Muhajabah
Future KL
Zero
Jogin
~~Voice~~ Volume of Interactions
All out of angst

Blogs that inspired me to continue blogging
At times, I sort of like have nothing to write. Sometime Im just busy, and Digital Fugue will be on hiatus for quite sometime. The thought of just ending Digital Fugue hit me more than once. However, these great bloggers inspired me to keep up the good blog. :)
Again in, no particular order, here they are:
Shattered Buddha
Malaysiana Digest
Wireless-Doc
Perpetual Permutating Perceptions
The Gadget Blog

I hope Digital Fugue will be around for years to come. More effort will be put in to further develop Digital Fugue. It will eventually have its own domain and I envisioned it will run on Moveable Type. No specific date have been determined, but my target would be by the end of Q4 2003. Keep on tuning in.

I would like to thank all the readers of Digital Fugue, and would like to welcome new readers. Comments and suggestions are welcomed! Love it or hate it, tell me. You can leave your comments on this post or you can email me at digitalfugue@yahoo.com
If its not too much too ask, give your ratings on Digital Fugue at GMBL or Bloghop, located below the tagboard.

Finally I would like to thank Blogger, blogspot, TagBoard, Haloscan and enetation, Yahoo and village photos for realising Digital Fugue.

To all fellow bloggers out there, Keep up the good blog!
Thank you!

2003-07-10T16:15:00.000+08:00

Wifi with Cheese

Following KFC's blunder, McDonalds have jumped in the bandwagon by providing wireless access in their restaurants in San Francisco.
It wont be long till we find wireless service in Devi's Corner or NZ Curry House. The quote that would break the camel's back would probably be, "Mamak! Teh tarik dgn Wifi Card satuuu!"

2003-07-09T17:32:00.000+08:00

"Mr. President, can you shut the...."

At times don't you just wish you could just shut everything out and enjoy solitude all by yourself. Now with just USD 299 you can have that! (sain in the manner of an annoying TV commercial). Technology review wrote an article on the lastest offering by Bose, the QuietComfort 2 noise cancelling headset. But would you spend USD299 for a peace of mind? I know it would be a jem during migrain attacks! Wonder if they have the ear plug version. That will be a jem in the weekly departmental meeting and the ceremonial screwing in the monthly and quarterly reviews (as we are all aware, the screwing gets louder and louder as the financial year progress). It will be a jem, oh yes.

In other areas, check out Michael Moore's latest letter to George W. Bush. And guess what, a week later another one of his lies of mass destruction braced the headlines. For more of his antiques, go to bush lies.

2003-07-09T12:32:00.000+08:00

One Finger Salute

Malaysian roads are perhaps the most notorious in the world. Courtesy is a joke.
Almost everyday shit happens. In the radio a couple of days ago, someone called and said he never used the horn when driving in Australia, but when he came back to Malaysia, he felt like the horn was over used.

The one finger salute, is an act of showing gratitude towards other drivers who seemed to be incapable of handling their vehicle. But when do you use it? Of course not all the time and not to everybody. Consider this scenario, you were driving on the highway, happily cruising at 100km/h. Out of nowhere, an old datsun worthy of a junkyard suddenly drifts from the left most lane to the right most lane, without giving any signal.
"Holy shhhhhh....ttt!!" With your eyes almost poping out of their sockets, you jam the brakes and swerve to the middle lane. At the same time, you somehow managed to automatically roll down your windows. As you are about to give the infamous salute, you caught a glimpse of the driver. The driver was old enough to be your grandmother's sister. Heck she would have enough driving mileage to take her to the moon twice and come back.
Do you still give her that well deserve salute?
Most probably you would roll your window up and bang your head on the steering wheel... "D-ohhh!"

You should also be cautious when giving the salute especially if the car is white in color and driving extra slow. For all you know it might as well be an unmarked police car. You dont want a cop to teach you how to give a proper salute do you?

Then again there are wankers who most of the time give the salute when they were actually the one who commited the traffic offence. For example a nut was in the wrong lane and gave me the finger for being in the right lane. How stupid can you be... d-oh! i forgot, im talking about malaysian drivers here.

Well, to all the wankers who have given me the salute, my friend joe here would like to return the favour.

"Here's one fer ya, asshole!"

2003-07-07T18:01:00.000+08:00

Updates

Amir Yussof have released his digitally remastered first album, "Some of this is real". The album includes three bonus tracks from the ImagineX Jam Sessions.

Bush lies have moved, still being hosted under blogspot but the new URL is now http://bush-lies.blogspot.com/

Finally, you just gotta check this out. This is ultra hillarious. Go to www.pornolize.com. Dont worry you wont be greeted by obscene pop ups or visually stimulating images. Next type in a URL in the field provided. Could be anything. Say, www.cnn.com or www.thestar.com.my or www.whitehouse.gov or your favourite blog or even your company's website. Click the Submit button.

Happy Reading! :D

2003-07-07T12:41:00.000+08:00

An Evening with Mozart

Last saturday evening I had the chance to catch a performance by the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra at the Dewan Philharmonic Petronas.
The program was all works by Wolgang Amadeus Mozart:

Concertone in C, K. 190 (186e)
Masonic Funeral Music, K. 477 (479a)
Serenade No. 7 in D, K. 250 (248b) "Haffner"

I missed the Concertante in C, having arrived just seconds after the they closed the hall. Intead of being frustrated, I was rather amused that the stint some how reminds me of Mozart being late for his performance to the Archbishop of Salzburg as seen in Amadeus. Of course in that scene, Mozart was happily rolling on the floor "serenading" Constanze Webber. I, on the other hand was stuck in Saturday's evening KL jam.

Anyway the performance was super. The Masonic Funeral was dark and at the same time elevated. It made the dimmed hall seemed darker.
After the intermission, music director and conductor Kees Bakels took the baton with a miraculous performance of the Haffner Serenade. Almost 60 minutes of pure non stop soothing sound!
Kjell-Arne Jorgensen was supposed to be the concertmaster, however that night the concertmaster was Marcus Gundermann. Nevertheless, Marcus played exceptionally well, the cadenzas flow beautifully and flawlessly from his violin. That was one of the best moments i had in the concert hall, since the late Yehudi Menuhin took the stage in 1999.
Bravo!

Earlier in the afternoon, I was window shopping at Low Yat Plaza. Yes, there are so many things to buy but so little money to spend. There are a few DVD stores operating secretly. I just got myself printer ink, a lousy game and two DVDs. As I was strolling down the shops, i noticed this old caucasian man. His wrinkles tells that he is in his mid to late 60s, but he is still fit and healthy. I looked at him as he walked pass through the shops checking out 3com's wireless APs and adapters. I could have sworn he was Intel's Andy Grove!

After that, I strolled down to Sg Wang Plaza to the friendly neigborhood CD store and got myself Cafe IbiZa and a two CD-lounge album. Excellent!

In the morning, i had breakfast with a few prominent Malaysian bloggers from the kotaraya group. It was fun meeting the bunch. Will certainly meet up with them again... errr did i hear clubbing next weekend...? Or was it paintball? Anyway, checkout the pictures from the Blog meet here and here. Summarized accounts of the meet can be found here.

2003-07-04T16:23:00.000+08:00

Wi-Fight

Two conflicting reports from research firms on the development of WiFi. Gartner in a recently published report projects the number of hotspot users this year to grow to 9.3 million users while the number of public WLAN hotspot worldwide to grow to more than 71,000 in 2003 from about 1,200 in 2001. However, according to them, this will NOT be able to cater user needs. They also project the number to swell above 151,768 in 2005.

The Economist on the other hand analyses the gartner report and cook up their own analysis, comparing the popularity of Wifi to the internet boom in the late 90s. The article can be found here.

For me it all boils down to the dollars and cents. The providers should keep the subscription rate low to attract end users and have various plans or programs for the end users to choose. Besides WLAN cards being offered for rent at cafes, providers should also look into providing the PCs or network stations as well for users who dont have the luxury to own a notebook or a PDA. Not to turn coffee-shops into cyber cafes, but just to give end users the freedom to choose.
Then again, the pricing have to be right.

Jumping into the hotspon bandwagon is Scandinavian Airlines (SAS), which plans to install WLAN onboard long haul flights. Together with Japan Airlines and British Airways they follow the footsteps of German's Lufhansa in providing in-flight internet access using Boeing's Connexion.
But WLAN providers should also think about the feasibility of putting hotspots and not blindly jump into the bandwagon. Not all places are suitable. For example Cesky Telekom in Czech Republic plans to install hotspots at KFC restaurants around Prague.
While on the surface this looked like a brilliant opportunity, i dont think my laptop or PDA would be all too happy after a round of finger lickin' good.

By the way, anybody participating in the Worldwide WarDrive here in KL?

2003-07-02T16:39:00.000+08:00

Games Review

I have taken break too long from the gaming scene,. All this while i've been re playing some old games; Need For Speed Hot Pursuit 2 and reinstalled Myth II for old time's sake.
So, i decided to checkout the friendly neigborhood game store. Boy, I am still way behind time. Anyway, I got myself three games; Ubisoft's Downtown Run, Postal 2 by RWS and Grand Theft Auto Vice City.

However, something was wrong on the 2nd disc of GTA:VC. Halfway thru the installation the thing got stuck. So i didnt have the chance to play it. Guess i have to return it to the store. That leaves me with Postal 2. Cool game. Ultra massacre.
The graphics aren't really eye poping. I still prefer Unreal and Mafia as per 1st person and 3rd person shooter.
Really its a no brainer kill 'em game. After a bad day at work, there is nothing like dousing gasoline on the marching band and set them on fire. Just got a ticket for using a hand phone while driving. No worries, just pop in Postal 2 in your PC and you can blow up patrol cars.
I give it a 5/10.

Downtown Run is an interesting game from France's Ubisoft. Not the serious racing game like F1 or anything. And nothing like flashy car racing game either. Instead it goes to the basic. You race in normal production cars like, the Peugeot 307, Peugeot 206CC, Audi A3, Renault Clio and work your way up to Mitsubishi Evo 7, MG and the ultimate Ford Mustang Cobra. Graphics are brilliant and smooth. Loading time is fast. Takes about 1.5Gb on the hard drive. Reminds me of an old game called Ignition. Simple and easy. I like it!
I give it an 8/10.

Thats all for now, until i replace the Vice city Disc, I'll be playing these two games.
Which reminds me, I had Splinter Cell lying around somewhere, my cousin passed it to me. I just didn't have time to install and play it.

Oh yeah, the Postal Babes are hot!

Quote of the day: "To kill or not to kill... what a stupid question", The Postal Man

2003-06-26T17:26:00.000+08:00

Movie Boovie

Looking at how humans ~~treat~~ mistreat their machines , no wonder the machines rose against the humans in The Matrix and Terminator.
(thx Fahroe for the link)

BTW, I managed to watch HULK. Here's the summarized review:

The Good:
Hulk CGI is cool
Jennifer Connely is hot
Cinematography and Direction is brilliant (liked the simultaneous multiple camera shots)
Action scene is good
Special effects are awesome
Mrs. Banner is hot

The Bad:
The storyline
The plot
Dr. David Banner (the shapeshifting mad scientist)??
Mutant poodle??
Purple ultra strechable spandex shorts
There is a thing called gravity.
There is a thing called "The law of physics".
Whatever happened to the famed metamorphic contact lenses?

Verdict:
They should have made the whole thing using CGI ala Final Fantasy.
3/10

Lets hope T3 is better.

Tune: Blieb Geschmeidig, 2Raumwohnung
Plug: Malaysia Plain

2003-06-24T15:06:00.000+08:00

Gizmo week

The week started off with Microsoft unveiling their update to Pocket PC 2002, the Windows Mobile software for Pocket PC or just Windows Mobile 2003. Here's a scoop of what's in store for consumers.

A slew of PPC manufacturers showcased their latest gadgets with HP leading the pack with iPaQ 2210, 1940 5150 and 5550. Toshiba have also released the e350 and e355 in conjuction with the launch. Upgrades are also being offered, Toshiba is offering free upgrades for the e750/755. Although the same can't be said for the older e330 and e740.

JVC have also joined in the fun with their MP-PV131 and MP-PV331. Together with Gateway, they hope to capture a small piece of the PPC pie.

In a parallel development, Apple have unleashed their latest flagship, the Power Mac G5! And yes, it is sexy!

2003-06-22T14:40:00.000+08:00

Soothing sounds

I managed to buy two brilliant CDs. Hard to find but they're well worth it! If you think Buddha Bar is cool, wait till you check this one out!
One is Comfort Zone Volume 2, Compiled by Living Resources, Produced by r02, featuring tracks and mixes by Tosca, Zero7 and Chris Coco & Lenny from Ibiza. The other was a double CD Ambient Lounge Volume 5, by the guys who cameout with Cafe-Ibiza.

Plug:
Aisehman
Ramblings of an Insane Ox

2003-06-21T11:44:00.000+08:00

Fête de la Musique

Today is Fête de la Musique!
Here's the schedule

2003-06-18T01:05:00.000+08:00

Airzed Review

As part of my mission to checkout the hot spots in Malaysia, I came across this unbeatable offer from Airzed. It offers a one year unlimited access on airzed network PLUS a free D-Link Wifi card. Dirt cheap unbeatable offer? You bet.

Airzed's unbeatable offer.

Without further hesitation, i decide to subscribe to the plan. It took me quite sometime before actually testing the plan out. The D-link card works perfectly in the office and i am pleased with it although i was quite dissapointed as it couldn't work with Netstumbler.

So, on a grey, cloudy and hazy Saturday afternoon, i decided to test out airzed. My target, Austin Chase Coffee in Bangsar Shopping Centre. A nice spot, not so many people, but i couldn't find a power socket anywhere in the cafe. Bummer. Anyway, my laptop was almost fully charged, that should give me about 1.5 hours.
Ordered a grande latte and a terriyaki chicken sandwich and im off to a cosy spot.
I used my loaned Orinoco card as i wanted to checkout the signal quality using Netstumbler.
The pc detected the network, and any url entered being directed to Airzed's login page. However, the page had problems the moment i entered my user id and password. I changed the setting at the client manager manually and still
it returned the "The page cannot be displayed" page after a while. I rebooted the machine and reentered my id and password and Voila!.
Everything after that is smooth surfing. Signal strength is OK. The actual throughput fluctuates between 9kbps to 20kbps. Preety OK as Im the only user. A check on the ip states that its using TMnet's backhaul.

On the average, i was quite happy with the performance. I'd give it a 6/10.

Anyway, here's a list of available hotspots in Malaysia. For global listing, checkout hotspot-locations.com.

Surfing while sipping latte. Signal's preety good around this corner.

2003-06-17T10:21:00.000+08:00

Psychoanalysis

Online test are usually full of yada-yada... they make you smile, they make you think you are something else (like what type of dog are you, doberman or st.bernard?). So I tend to stay away from them unless they're certified or Phd approved or something like that. The Malaysiana Digest points me to an interesting psycho test from The Enneagram Institute.

The Verdict

Basically my highest score puts me as Type 9, The Peacemaker. However, following closely, i shared the same score for Type 1,The Reformer and Type 2, the Helper. According to the test, I am definitely not Type 8, The Challenger.

free enneagram test

Type Nine
The Peacemaker
The easy-going, self-effacing type. Nines are accepting, trusting, and stable. They are usually creative, optimistic, and supportive, but can also be too willing to go along with others to keep the peace. They want everything to go smoothly and be without conflict, but they can also tend to be complacent, simplifying problems and minimizing anything upsetting. They typically have problems with inertia and stubbornness. At their Best: indomitable and all-embracing, they are able to bring people together and heal conflicts.
More

This sparks the rediscovery and reflection of Digital Fugue. What is Digital Fugue? How did it happen?
All this will be revealed in a special post in conjuction with Digital Fugue's first Anniversary. Stay tuned. :)

2003-06-17T01:14:00.000+08:00

My Wifi

"Pick a card, any card..."

Top left; my favourite wifi card, the Orinoco Silver. Top right; my old faithful, 3Com AirConnect. Bottom left; Airzed freebie, D-Link AirLink. Bottom right; new toy; 3Com PC card with retractable antenna. Not in picture, my first wifi, Cisco Aironet PC Card.

2003-06-14T17:41:00.000+08:00

Malaysian WLAN Hotspot Scenario

Sparked by a question posed by Bill Koslosky of Wireless-Doc, I decided to do a little survey on the actual WLAN deployment in Malaysia, specifically in Kuala Lumpur.

On the surface, most of the wireless hotspot deployment is situated at Bintang Walk, Jalan Bukit Bintang area. Almost all hotspot provider have setup access points in the area.

Currently, there are five main WLAN providers operating in Malaysia. They are:
Airzed
Utopia from Maxis
TMhotspot from TMNet
Zapzone
Timezone from Time.net

There are a few smaller players but i have yet to see them in action.
Over the next few weeks i will try out one or two of the main providers and will write a review on them. Keep tuned.

2003-06-11T12:18:00.000+08:00

Fête de la Musique

Thanks to the French, the Fête de la Musique or Festival of Music will be held all over the world this coming June 21st and it will be the anticipated summer event of the year. In Malaysia, the Fête de la Musique will be held at Bintang Walk in KL and Gurney Plaza Shopping Complex in Penang from 2pm to midnight.
Ample time have been given, don't say I didn't warn you. See you there! :)

2003-06-11T02:03:00.000+08:00

Big pixels, small camera

This is gonna blow you away. A canadian company, Creo (tell you frankly, this is the first time I heard of this company) will be releasing a digital camera back featuring a whooping 22 megapixel CCD. The Leaf Valeo 22 will start shipping in September 2003.

Sony on the other hand have released the worlds smallest digital camera. The QUALIA 016 retails at 380,000 YEN and available currently only in Japan.

2003-06-09T10:01:00.000+08:00

This, I want!

In a bid to counter Nikon's Coolpix 5400, Canon has, without much fanfare, released the successor to the highly acclaimed G3. The Canon Powershot G5 have the same features as its predecessor but comes with a 5 megapixel sensor. It is also able to accept a plethora of accessories.
However, i'd like to see more improvement perhaps 5x optical zoom and 5x digital zoom?
At the retail price of USD 899, it is a bit steep. The Coolpix 5400 retails at USD 799. Yes, it is going to be a tough competition.

The next big thing emerging from gadgetdom is portable video players (PVP). Checkout Cnet executive editor's witty letterto Steve Jobs. Video iPod? I want that!

Next, we sidetrack a bit on politics. A lot of sites have critisized the Bush administration for attacking Iraq. After all they still couldn't find the alleged weapons of mass destruction harboured by Saddam Hussein. Even UN's weapons inspector Hans Blix questioned the reliability of US intelligence in dealing with Iraq. Im sure that'll put a lot of pressure on the CIA, FBI, Secret Service and the Pentagon.
An anonymous system analyst in Columbus, Ohio have put up a blog on Bush's Lies of Mass Destruction. Checkit out at bush lies.

2003-06-04T16:43:00.000+08:00

Google tips

During the early years of my internet adventures circa 1995, my favourite search engine was Altavista. Then a couple of years ago, Google came by and it has been my primary search tool. Im not the only person hooked to Google. Millions have been spooked by the googlebug.

Even Technology Review cameout with some tips on using google. Check it out here.

Research Buzz on the other hand, have a host of hacks especially for google.
Enjoy.

2003-06-02T14:31:00.000+08:00

MIDI with a vengence

In the late 80s and early 90s, computers comes with limited beeps. At different frequencies, these beeps evolved into "music", similar to mobile phone ringtones. Then Adlib and Creative came out with 8 bit sound cards that can play digitized sounds. .WAV files were created, then .AU and MP3s.
Among the amatures, wav samples were converted to smaller samples and arranged together thus came MOD files followed by other standards, .IT, .XM etc, depending on the sample editors. These are pure digital music not digitized music.

MAZ-Sound offers a plethora of trackers, encoders and samples for you to play with. Armed with your winamp, you can also checkout some cool tunes crreated by MOD freaks. The Mod Archive is packed withover 10Gig worth of Mod files. Another good source of mod can be found at Modplug.

On a different plane, MIDI seemed to be playing its own game, serenading its own elite, MIDI evangelist. Music professional flirted with it... and still do. I used to have a field time fooling around with cakewalk. Somehow rather the popularity of MIDI seemed to be going down during the mid 90s. Some argues that MIDI sounds too synthesized. MIDI enthusiast came out with wave table devices to support a more natural sound to instrument samples. But that didnt really please the public.

The real push for MIDI came with the introduction of polyphonic ringtones. Now MIDI files are a gem on its own. Obviously people are offering it left right and centre. A couple of years back, MIDI files were available in abundance for free. Now, a professionally created MIDI song is going out at about USD 5.00 per download.

2003-05-30T09:59:00.000+08:00

More WLAN security

As a complement to Network Computing's 10 Wireless Security Commandments, here is SearchNetworking's list of wireless security top ten.

10)Identify malicious users
9) Analyzers and troubleshooting guide
8) Why distributed wireless IDS is needed
7) Wireless handhelds need defense-in-depth
6) Protecting wireless LANs
5) Wi-Fi Security, chapter 4: Issues in wireless security
4) Securing wireless, part 2: WLAN best practices
3) Securing wireless, part 1
2)Ten steps to low-cost wireless LAN security
1) WLAN security checklist

2003-05-26T15:32:00.000+08:00

WiFi Sniffer

This guy is one hell of a wifi sniffer. I wish i could wire up my car and driving all around town sniffing for unwary wireless networks.

By the way, here's a taste of what rocket science is all about... checkout his thesis on Ground Calibration of an Orbiting Spacecraft Radar Transmitter. Whatever that means.....

2003-05-25T17:56:00.000+08:00

BMW 5 Series

Take a sneak peek of the new BMW 5 Series :)

2003-05-23T15:20:00.000+08:00

Wireless Plug

Three great sites on wireless technology.

Wireless-Doc (the Weblog)
Reiter's Wireless Data Weblog
the 3G portal

By the way, my write up on 3G vs. Wifi Part 2 will be coming up soon. Don't touch that dial (or click that mouse)! :)

2003-05-18T14:39:00.000+08:00

New Pictures Uploaded

I have added new pictures to the digicam photoshots gallery. Head over to the Gallery to checkout.

****Ammendments****
Monday, May 19th 2003 12:27
On Sunday afternoon i uploaded Gallery 5 and 6. Late afternoon i was feeling trigger happy and the result is, Gallery 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11!!
Go checkout the Gallery. You wont be dissapointed!

This brilliant stitched KL skyline photoshoot included:

Listening to My Tourniquet, Evanescence

2003-05-16T01:12:00.000+08:00

iLoo, uLoo, weLoo

Obviously Microsoft forgot hygene in the equation.
I have a grave feeling the portable toilet, if it ever materialize, will become more of a wanking station.

2003-05-15T23:40:00.000+08:00

Happy Birthday

Wishing a very Happy Birthday to a dear friend.
Happy Birthday Dura! :)

Listening to: Hip-hop Mexican Song, Deliquent Habits

2003-05-14T15:16:00.000+08:00

Ancient Egypt

The only memory I had about ancient Egypt was me being a priest, witch-doctor and counselor to the royal family. Only those who are in the higest order are allowed to have direct link to the pharoah. I was far from that.
Ever wondered how your name would look like in hieroglyphs?

2003-05-07T11:18:00.000+08:00

Space ships

Sci-fi freaks, ever wonder if the Correlian mothership is bigger than a vulcan destroyer? Wonder how all the space ships in the ~~world~~ galaxy stack up against each other? Head on to http://mirror.wolffelaar.nl/zardalu.sytes.net/ to find out!

Thanks to Fahroe for the link.

[Listening to: Somewhere I Belong - Linkin Park - Meteora (3:36)]

2003-05-06T15:20:00.000+08:00

Wirelessness

1) A good reference to keep in your pocket: 10 wireless security commandments
2) Wireless Ventures
3) London city council is already covering Soho with WiFi, perhaps DBKL would introduce a similar service in the golden triangle?

Listening to: Session, Linkin Park

2003-05-04T20:39:00.000+08:00

Signs that you are a Citroen owner

Hillarious listing from the good guys in Autoworld's Le Club Citroen forum:

1. you know our mechanic better than your mother in-law
2. you can spell and pronounce names like pur-flux, valeo, hydraurincage, paris-rhone correctly
3. you ever turn off the radio and wind down windows to listen to usual noise from your car
4. you become handy with super glue
5. you complained about pain sitting in other type of car
6. you always check if the oil stain at your porch floor changed shape or size
7. you always renew your AAM membership on time
8. the spare part shop give you frequent shopper discount
9. you know all the potong shop that stock french car parts
10. your wife threatened seperation if you spend your weekend thinkering with your car
11. you can joke and boast about your break down
12. you never worry about car thef
13. you have a bottle of LHM in your boot
14. We race only on winding roads, to take advantage of good road handling... straight line, we got tapaued.. and claim that what the Japs specialty..
15. We belanja our machanic to make sure they take care of your car..and say it thats you and your mechanics are more than friends..
16. Very few of us buy brand new CITROEN.. we wait to be second hand owners as the second hand value drops too quickly...
17. We put up a budget every month for repairs.. sometimes 1/2 of monthly payments..
18. Even though how expensive the charges are, you still claim it is cheaper than Alfa and Fiats.. and comparable to Proton..
19. Always claim proton buyers do not know what is 'Value for Money'..
20. We pray for at least 1/2 before long journey for the car not to break down..
21. You hang around forums like this and post mesgs like "Re: signs that you are a citroen owner"
22. Your phone bills look as though you are having an affair with the mechanic (just as well we dun have female mechs here)
23. Your gf/wife threatens separation if you MENTION the word "CITROEN" again...
24. You defend the Citroen tooth and nail the moment somebody says that "it's expensive to maintain" or "parts are difficult to find" or "no good wan lar"
25. You also carry a spare bottle of battery water, engine oil, brake fluid, ATF, and several bottles of water
26. You have a full complement of tools to open each and every nut, bolt, hex screw, and torx screw and you have a multimeter in hand to test each and every circuit.
27. The moment you open your mouth about Citroen the word comfort, handling and power comes out...despite the repairs involved.
28. u consider to buy Haynes Manual book (rm90.00)
29. and study all 300pages
30. buku 555 dalam pocket. to keep track how much you've spent this month.
31. U greet other Citroen owner/driver like ur long lost brother.
32. Home is where the Citroen is most of the time and therefore you go home to the workshop and visit the house that you bought or rent for a bath and change of clothes then go to work.
33. Your bank account reflects your distributorship with Citroen France and as a dealer with most spare parts shops.
34. Your total mileage (odometer) in the Citroen is made up of generally a major part the distance it takes to get to the workshop... the rest is half way to work/home or half way to an urgent meeting/appointment.
35. You have a room specifically set aside in your house/apt for Citroen spareparts and a large cabinet of files/references etc which is Citroen related.
36 When you go to a bookshop, the first thing you do when you see a magazine on the shelf is to look for a Citroen article, if none you'd move onto the next magazine....
37. Wife wakes up alone in bed on a Saturday morning only to find husband in the garage under another babe's 'hood'.
38. You use the phrase 'Nothing moves you like a Citroen' as the welcome note on your Nokia.
39. you give your car a French woman name.
40. you car maintenance record is more complete and in order than your income tax from ( receipts and all ). come to think of it if the government give tax break to citroen owners for repair bill, we would have no problem claiming every last cents with the receipts we keep!
41. you are strongly against street racing, but you considered a duty to prove to the ah beng at the traffic light that your car can holds its own.
42. you have a set of torx screw driver.
43. you talk to other citroen owners as if you have known them for years even though they may be from totally different racial, religious and
social background. we take communion in break down and stalling experience!!
44. long long jam with many angry drivers cursing at you when yours car breakdown.

2003-05-03T23:51:00.000+08:00

Late Lounge

Its a long weekend, with the May Day holiday, I took friday off. send the car for service, and hang out at Whitewall Media splashing out cool tunes from the synthetizer/vocalizer.
Big J passed me some ultra cool CDs. I got Saint-Germain des Pres Cafe III, Miguel Miggs, Hotel Costes Suite, Hotel Costes III and the best, Zero 7.

Now, Im going to dim the lights down, light some candles, roll a joint or have a nice cigar and chill out while listening to endless lounge/acid jazz. This is going to be a blissful weekend!

2003-04-27T12:53:00.000+08:00

Web Launch Party

Amir Yussof will be having a web launch party this coming 9th May. Check it out.

2003-04-26T19:54:00.000+08:00

Quality Cigar

" Surgeon General's Warning: Smoking causes lung cancer, heart disease, ephysema and may complicate pregnancy."

Im a social smoker. For some reason I only smoke only while partying and clubbing perhaps due to the fact that i don't drink. No, Im not the average Marlboro guy or Dunhill suave. A mild Sampoerna would suite me fine, once in a while of course.

While tucked nicely in a secluded corner, I prefer cigars. No, not the big fat robusto Cohibas. They're to exhaustive, take too long to finish and burn a hole too deep in my pocket! Save those only for very important occassions, perhaps when i become a quasi retro dictator in a tropical island somewhere, where tobacco and hashish products contribute to 90% of its GDP or something like that.
The Coronas are just about the right size... not too big, not too small. I like them. Special occassion favourite - Birthdays, reunions... even death, to some extent.
One of my favourite robust cigars is the Montecristo. But they too burn my pockets, not as deep as the Cohibas but deep enough. The Davidoffs are nice and mild, but still couldn't fit the bill. Until i found Avo Uvezian. The Avo Puritos is nice and small. smaller than the petit coronas, almost like a panatella. You can finish it in less than half and hour. The taste and the after taste is... heavenly. For stronger taste, the Domaine Avo Puritos is recommended.

If you like cigars, check them out.

Other than that, I like collecting Tubos. Individual cigars packed in tubes. My current collection includes H. Upmann, Punch, Macanudo, Zino and Partagas.

Listening to: Mesmerized, Ja Rule feat. Ashanti

2003-04-26T19:36:00.000+08:00

Blogger vs Moveable Type?

Noticed how this blog have become an avenue for comparing stuff...? A or B, Y vs Z, Smeagol or Gollum?
Anyway, Moveble Type owner Six Apart in an apparent move to counter the intense success and publicity of Pyra Labs' Blogger (especially after the latter was taken over by Google), is coming out with an online blog hosting service called TypePad.

The question is... should Digital Fugue stay on with Blogger/Blogspot or should we upgrade to Moveable Type/TypePad?

2003-04-22T10:40:00.000+08:00

Wifi vs 3G? Part 1

Seriously, I think 3G will be a stillborn child. Even before deployment and implementation, it has came under fire from all around. The natural progression from the current GSM system (2G) is taking too much time, other technologies have started to replace them as the de facto standard in wireless communication.

First we have the wireless LAN standard, the 802.11x family. The success of 802.11b have created a cult culture among the IP based evangelist. Now we have different flavours within the 802.11 family, The 11b gives you upto 11Mbps, 11a and 11g gives you upto 54Mbps depending on distance.
Both the 11b and 11g operate within the unlicensed 2Ghz band which is currently being congested by multiple applications (eg, bluetooth, medical and scientific instruments, WiFi and microwave ovens). The 11a have more breathing space in the 5Ghz band.
A new standard based on the 802.11 is being formulated by the IEEE, the 802.11n. The 11n is poised to provide more than 100Mbps wirelessly.

Having said that, vendors are pushing more innovative products/gadgets in the market. SMC came out with a powerful Wifi card that'll cook pasta in 7 minutes (just kidding! :)) So powerful that some countries like Singapore have banned it from circulation. in Malaysia, the regulators are still testing the equipment for certification (ie. safe for public use). I hope i could get my my hands on the SMC cards, then, i'll be roaming around town sniffing for radio signals! :)

Cisco on the otherhand plans to ship a WiFi phone, modeled after ther IP phone. Other traditional phone manufacturers are having their R&D guys crack their heads. In a few months time, the Motorolas and Nokias of the world will come out with their own version of Wifi and GSM combo phone that will let you roam seamlessly between GSM networks and Wifi networks.

Broadband wireless which is based on the 802.16 standard is a different story where we have LMDS and MMDS operating within 2Ghz upto 60Ghz. However these are licensed bands where special application have to be submitted and approved by various regulating bodies such as the FCC in the US or MCMC in Malaysia. While this is more of industrial standards, it is making its way into mainstream wireless networking circle. The WiMAX forum tends to close that gap.

Here's Tech Web's view on WiFi vs 3G.
So, who do you think will win the wireless race, WiFi and the 802.1xx gang or 3G?
I'd put my money on WiFi... definitely!

Headbanging to: Somewhere I Belong, Linkin Park

2003-04-21T22:19:00.000+08:00

Condolences

To the Schumacher brothers, on the passing of their beloved mother.

Im imagining the tremendous pressure both of them have endured during the race. The race itself is stressful enough, plus the external emotional stress on the breaking of the news hours before the race. Any average individual would have suffered an emotional breakdown.

Just a thought, the San Marino track would be an emotional, almost haunting track to Michael. It was that track that took rival, Aryton Senna's life in 1994, in which Michael was trailing closely behind. In 2003, Schumacher got the news of his mother's death while preparing for the race at the same track. coincidence? perhaps.

2003-04-16T17:28:00.000+08:00

PDA Galore

Im thinking of getting a PDA for my upcoming birthday.... or should I get a new handphone..? an iPod would be cool too....

Anyway, here are a few good PDA sites:
Bargain PDA
PDA Buyer's Guide
PPC Zone
PDA Street
PocketPC City
PPC Mag

That should be able to confuse me for a while...

Oh yeah, lemme just plug this brilliant Gadgets Blog: Gizmondo

2003-04-15T21:04:00.000+08:00

Nightmares

Two nightmares in a row... sheesh... Yesterday's was a plane accident and someone being impaled by metal scafolling. (Don't ask me how it happens!)
Today's nightmare was trigger happy occupation army with nail guns terrorizing the streets of Malaysia.
Perhaps this article from The Age could have caused it: War view drew US threats: Malaysia

Blah... i've been watching too much news and reading too much news. A vacation in Fantasy Island would help....
Tatoo: "The plane...! the plane...!"

Oh, before i go, i'd like to plug Digital KL. A blog that was modeled after Digital Fugue. Feels like looking in a mirror! Mr. Data, I'm truly flattered! I didnt know my ramblings could influence people. :)

Listening to: Honestly, Zwan

2003-04-12T22:39:00.000+08:00

Test shots

Alright kids, here are some test shots from my Canon Powershot S45. Most of them are night shots. I'll post some daylight shots once i got the chance to go on my photo outing.
The photos were shot on Superfine setting at 1600x1200 pixels on ISO 200. For web publishing purpose, i have resized the pictures to 640x480 pixels. No other modifications were made except for the pixelization on the sexy german chick on the third page.
Well what are you waiting for? Head over to test gallery! :)

Listening to: Clocks, Coldplay

2003-04-11T17:03:00.000+08:00

Wireless LAN

Wanna know more about wireless LAN? Checkout these two resourceful sites:

searchNetworking 802.11 Learning Guide

Planet 802.11

Still on the topic of WLAN, they are working out a standard to let gadgets roam from Wifi to cellular. When this standard is finalized, i have the feeling that its going to be a major competitor to 3G. And this definitely will hampens 3G deployment worldwide.
Other than that, Cnet featured Four IT trends to look out

2003-04-11T16:04:00.000+08:00

Don't you just hate it

Surfing to numerous white paper sources online, I have come across many sites that asks for my personal details. While this might be spam magnets, i dont really mind (cleaning up big dicks, breast transplants, mortgage/loans, viagra, breakthrough hair growth serum and more recently support our troop t-shirts have been part of my daily chores)
But what pisses me when filling up online forms is when they ask for State, and they list down the fifty something states across the US. Fine, im from another planet, and choose to ignore the required field. When i clicked on Submit, an error page occured saying "please fill in all the required fields" and i have to click on one of the states, usually Alabama, being the top of the selection.

When they finally decide to snail mail something, the address on the mail would look something like:

No. 75 Jalan Tasik,
Seri Kembangan,
Selangor. 43310
Alabama
Malaysia

No we do not have a state called Alabama in Malaysia.

2003-04-10T20:46:00.000+08:00

Tech update

Technology Review revisits the popularity of two-way messaging. Another interesting article is on measuring the risk of nanotechnology and again the topic slew down to the topic of the year:
fuel cells.

plug: Mental Masturbation

2003-04-09T09:11:00.000+08:00

Market Research

Metrinets is a cool tech market research site. I've signed up with them for quite sometime now and have done a few of their surveys such as bluetooh adoption and broadband internet access market. The latest is on in-car navigation system and the future of telematics based technologies. Cool eh?
What are you waiting for? sign up and be a panel member.

2003-04-05T19:24:00.000+08:00

War in Iraq

~~Two~~ Three articles on the path of the current war in Iraq.

Israel, Activists Train Sights on Syria
Lobby To Focus On Preventing Missile Transfer
By MARC PERELMAN

U.S.: After Iraq, we'll deal with other radical Mideast regimes
By Aluf Benn
Haaretz

Bush Administration Readying for 2004 Invasion of Iran
by John Stanton

We are definitely seeing the biblical prophecies unfolding infront of our very eyes.

Another concerned matter among fellow bloggers is what happened to Salam Pax, the Iraqi blogger blogging from Baghdad. His last post was dated 24th March 2003. I hope he's OK.

2003-04-05T00:53:00.000+08:00

Till death do us apart

The guys at Mercedes-Benz never fail to make me cry. Behold! Here comes the world's sexiest hearse! The all new E-Class Estate.

Aint she a beaut? Make sure you dont miss out the web special. Lovely.

How glorious can your final journey be?

2003-04-04T02:27:00.000+08:00

Sleep

Can't get enough of sleep... Can't sleep.
OK, i dont make sense.

Well it all started with Wednesday's dinner cum forum of the Leading Minds series by Promuda. The forum was interesting. I would expect more sparks flying but the discussion was moderate by my standards. Everybody was tired anyway, half the hall left right after the forum passing a presentation by Mercy Malaysia.

I was tired and i had a pounding headache to deal with, until my colleague dragged me to 12SI. The ambiance was good and the we decided to move over to Hard Rock Cafe. The crowd was better :)
Before i know, it was already 2:30 am. My headache was gone... went home and hit the sack straight away. Of course i was a walking zombie the next morning... well, the whole day actually. Came home from work and i zonked out. Now im wide awake. Silly me.

In my previous post i mentioned about the russian site that reports unbiased report on the war on Iraq. Here's the source, with more detailed report: www.iraqwar.ru.

Listening to: Together we will conquer, Paul van Dyk

2003-04-04T02:17:00.000+08:00

Immortal Beloved

Here's a brilliant song by Evanescence. I'd like to dedicate this song to the one who took a piece of my heart and went away. wherever you are.

My Immortal - Evanescence
i'm so tired of being here
suppressed by all of my childish fears
and if you have to leave
i wish that you would just leave
because your presence still lingers here
and it won't leave me alone

these wounds won't seem to heal
this pain is just too real
there's just too much that time cannot erase

when you cried i'd wipe away all of your tears
when you'd scream i'd fight away all of your fears
and i've held your hand through all of these years
but you still have all of me

you used to captivate me
by your resonating light
but now i'm bound by the life you left behind
your face it haunts my once pleasant dreams
your voice it chased away all the sanity in me

i've tried so hard to tell myself that you're gone
but though you're still with me
i've been alone all along

2003-03-31T23:40:00.000+08:00

Rocket, yeah!

Remember that old Def Leppard song, Rocket?
"Rocket, yeah...
Sattelite of love.."
cool song...

Well, a little while ago i posted something on UFO technology stuff called Spinwave. Well, it doesn't just stop there... while some people think that Spinwave is a hoax, a lot of rocket scientist are looking at weird rocket science stuff. Here's a serious site on anti-gravity. If you have enough bandwidth and time, spend a couple of minutes downloading the whole documentation (41Mb!). Make sure you dont blow your mind.

And by the way, that site also gives out breaking news about the war in Iraq, minus the star spanggled propaganda puked by the likes of CNN and MSNBC, of course. Apparently, the source comes from some Russian military intel eavesdropping around the gulf region. Like other alternative source of info, the site have been hacked and under DoS attck. (Somehow rather i have the feeling this blog is going to be hit by a DoS attack, for blogging this... ) :-o

Back to Def Leppard, they really rock with the Hysteria album with tracks like Hysteria, Love Bites, Gods of War and Armageddon it,. Sure brings back old memories.

A bit on the techie side, Toshiba have released the successor to the highly acclaimed e740 PocketPC! Ladies and gentlemen, make way for the e750!

Plug: *sinner

Listening to: Somewhere I Belong, Linkin Park

2003-03-26T17:31:00.000+08:00

Recap....

I should've blog this last week but didnt have the time.
Anyway... i finally sold my soul to the digicam devil... heheheh...
Checked out this shop in Sg Wang Plaza and the lady was kind enough to let me play with the all new 5 megapixel Minolta F300! Brilliant cam! However, the battery issue still bogs me down.
So, I bought the Canon S45 instead! Great cam! I got a steal deal at RM 2040 with a 128Mb CF card thrown in. I would love to get the G3, as suggested by an anonymous commentator in my earlier blog. But like i said, I already have an SLR camera and i love it. the G3 wont really replace it totaly. I need something to complement my SLR. if i wanna get a replacement, i would have gone for the Canon EOS-1Ds!!! drool! drool!
And yes... of course I am planning to get a LOMO soon!

The S45 have lots of nice features for the average user. indeed it's a high end 4 megapixel cam. The dial mimics the function on an SLR, it got the Auto mode, Program, Shutter, Appeture and Manual. The also include presets like potrait, action, slow shot and stitch mode where you can take multile pictures and stitch them back to produce a nice panoramic shot. I have yet to test the camera all out. Maybe i'll go on an outing this weekend.
I also managed to update the firmware to version 1.02.0!

Two great sites on digital cameras review:
DPreview
The Imaging Resource

Other than that, last weekend's F1 race was marvellous! The whole race was exciting unlike the 2002 season. Brilliant performance by Raikonen and and impressive above expectation performance by the Reanult team. Congratulations to Alonso! Well done.
Montoya as usual have been plagued by bad luck... same performance out of Barichello and Ralf Schumacher. Michael Schumacher...? Let's not get there ok? ;)

2003-03-25T14:58:00.000+08:00

Another bleak year ahead?

Two reports suggest that it's not going all nice and sunny for the IT industry. With the jittery economy and the current war in Iraq, it is going to be a tough time riding the waves.

Information Week: Confidence wanes as fiscal worries grow, spending slows to a trickle--and now war
CNet: Study: IT morale hitting bottom

Ever wonder how is it like being a technical consultant? Take a peek.

Listening to: Bring me to life, Evanescence

2003-03-22T11:26:00.000+08:00

Boo-hoo!

No free F1 tickets for me this year...
Last year, i was lucky enough to be given a Grand Stand ticket!
Anyway, Im counting on my lucky stars for next year's F1 race... perhaps a Paddock ticket? :)

2003-03-18T11:00:00.000+08:00

Digital Fugue officially supports the BMW-Williams F1 Team!

For more F1 News:

The Official Formula 1 Website
Formula 1 Live
Daily F1

Oh yeah, while you're at it, dont forget the F1 Pit Babes! :)

Listening to: Satellite, P.O.D

2003-03-16T16:47:00.000+08:00

Dilemma

"No matter what i do, all i think about is you...", No it's not about kelly or nelly or melly or belly... it's about digital cameras.
With the prices of digital cameras goin down, im spoilt with choices. Yesterday, I paid a visit to a camera store and asked about a few cameras. I had my mind fixed on the Canon S30 but they didnt have it. So i had a look at the S45 instead, tested it. and i liked it. It was on sale at RM 2,188 with a 128Mb CF card thrown in. It was a good deal but it sort of breached my budget a little. Then I was introduced a Nikon. I didnt like it as it was too bulky. I need a compact digicam to carry around. I already have my good old EOS 630 SLR camera and i dont need another bulky camera to weight me down.

Finally, comes the other camera, The Minolta F100. The F100 got Editors rating on CNET and it was the first choice for the compact digicams and 4 megapixel cams. Preety impressive and the offer price was RM 1,799. The bummer is, it comes with a mere 16Mb SD card and i was told that a 128Mb SD card would cost a damage of about RM 300... all and all, the cost would still breached my budget. Further more, most users bitched about the battery life on the F100. this little devil sure sucks up energy.

Other option includes the Canon G2 and Fujifilm F601Z. The G2 is quite affordable but like the Nikon, it's bulky and Canon have discontinued the model, having it replaced by the G3. I have yet to test out the F601Z. I might head to another camera store to get a second opinion. Any suggestions/comments would be very helpfull before i sell my soul to the digicam devil.

Another dilemma im having now is regarding handphones. I have planned a roadmap for my handphone migration. A new phone for my birthday would fit nicely into the roadmap. Currently im using the Nokia 6210. Im a 6 series user, my old phone was the 6110 so obviously my next phone is going to be a 6 series as well. The 6310 wasn't really released in Malaysia and the 6510 is too small for my liking. The possible migration path was either the 6610 or the 6100. I prefer the 6610 despite being released prior to the 6100, it is slightly bigger and heavier than the 6100. It fits nicely in my pocket and my big palm.
Then Nokia announced the 6220, which is love at first sight for me. The bummer is, it is only going to be released in Q3 2003. By the time it reaches the shores, it'll be Christmas. Looks like i will only get my birthday present on Christmas Day! Shall i wait... or shall i just get the 6100.... or the 6610...? Again, any suggestions/comments would be very helpfull before i sell my soul to the handphone devil.

One thing for sure, the Smeagol/Gollum in me is having a field time confusing the hell out of me!

2003-03-11T00:35:00.000+08:00

Fuel cells

That seemed to be the current buzzword. I have the feeling its going to be the in thing this coming year or two. Here are a few in sights from various sources:

Fuel cells offer staff a lighter load
Fuel Cells Power Portable Electronics
Batteries not included
Toshiba to showcase fuel cell prototype

Its been a while since i last featured articles from Technology Review. Here's a scoop of what's interesting.
Countdown for Rocket Planes
Space Shuttle Science
Untapped Networks
Cheap Solar Power on Deck
Iris Identification
Quantum Chips Advance

And finally; new digital cameras are coming our way!
This means, prices of digicams currently in the market will drop! Yippee...!!

Plug: Evanescence

Listening to: Kusha Las Payas, Las Ketchup

2003-03-08T12:42:00.000+08:00

Sometimes, that's just about as fucked up as you can be

Last night, just like any other day, i parked my car accross the street in front in my house. I reached home at about 8:15pm, had dinner and the i was online checking my mails etc. I suppose to go out again around 11 to run some errands.
Some ass hole tried to pry open my car and broke my rear passenger windscreen in the process. Idiots. It all happened within the span of two and a half hours... during prime time.

Fortunately, Im greatful that they didn't take anything. There are coins in the glove compartment, untouched. Some documents, my jacket, my CD collection, video LCD, CD changer and a PC in the car. All untouched. And thank God they didn't steal the car!

Called the workshop and they said they could source out for a used windscreen late this afternoon. Even that, i'll be a few hundred dollars poorer. Damn it... all have to happen when i was just eyeing on that glittering "Disco daddy-o suite" on sale ;)

2003-03-05T19:23:00.000+08:00

Ol' skool records

I went to Lini's birthday party at Planet Hollywood monday night. It was great. Good food, good company, good music, good cigar, what else could you ask for? :)
But the house band, Thunderstorm couldn't really summon a storm as they were just meddling on the average scale. Indonesian band Asia at Hard Rock Cafe have more punch and could beat the hell out of them. The crowd base at Planet was also dissapointing but who cares, we got good company and we had fun.

Anyway, before the party, i dropped by at Tower Records. Checked out a few Dance and Trance albums, the Ibizas and Cafe del mar but they're dead expensive. Instead, i got myself two old school records; Foo Figters' first album (yeah the one one with the disintegrator ray gun cover) and Stone Temple Pilots' first album - Core. I got the cassettes a long time ago... lost it and i feel like listening to old favourites. There's nothing like having a rock concert in my car :)
Actually i was looking for Alice in Chains' Dirt, but they didnt have it. Maybe i'll just grab the Live album and the MTV Unplugged... maybe...

Speaking about music, a funny thing happened to me... not once not twice but a couple of times; the latest was this morning. I just reached the office turned on my laptop and the drum and bass beat of Tatu's "Not Gonna get us" was playing in my head. I jammed up winamp and played my random playlist and that song was the first one played. I was like... Hey cool daddy-o! Then i realised last week, i was humming "The game of love" as i was on my way to the car. Cranked up the engine, turned on the radio and the song was on air on Red104. A couple of weekes ago the same thing happened but the song was Fugee's "killing me softly" on Hitz.fm. funny eh?? I think im a music psychic.

Listening to: What's your flava, Craig David

2003-02-28T10:34:00.000+08:00

Cars

Malaysians have a funny attitude when it comes to buying cars. Unlike the europeans who treat cars as a necessity, most malaysian think that buying a car is an investment.
Well... you invest in something in to get substancial gains over time. When you buy a car, it depreciates the minute you drive out of the showroom. That is not investment.
Putting this in mind, secondhand value becomes such an issue when buying a new car. Hence, cars like citroen and renault were the least favourite as they tend to depreciate on a steep slope. Its a shame some good cars became unpopular just because they're "bad investment" and have no second hand value.

To me that is not important. The car is an object of desire. Driving is a pleasure whether its zooming up and down the north south highway in a ferrari or cruising in Bangsar top down in a CLK or just driving your buddies to nowhere in an X5. Even getting stuck in a traffic jam could be turned into something less torturing, provided you have a nice sound system, a couple of good CDs and perhaps a screen and an onboard DVD player, and of course a handphone and mobile broadband. And now we have audio blog! I know i would make use of it. A lot of ramblings come out during traffic jams.
Heck, someone even put a massaging seat in a car! I dont know of any other way to pamper oneself.

Now i want my 325i.

2003-02-28T10:13:00.000+08:00

On being a genius

Just an observation, I noticed that a lot of people in this world think they know everything. Well, at least they think they have the knowledge that surpasses their counterparts.
Sometimes, they just want to impress others so much that their limited knowledge in the subject tend to show.
To me, it is better to be humble about things rather than to brag and then suddenly hit a brickwall, exposing your stupidity.

Not that i am saying that i am perfect, no. In fact, sometimes i unconsciously tend to try to expose my knowledge in certain areas in order to impress others. I learned the hard way when i was in an interview and i talked about my past projects and experiences. Suddenly, out of no where the interviewer asked to elaborate on a certain subject that i've mentioned. It so happened that the subject he asked me to elaborate was the least subject that i am versed. Boy, do i look stupid.

So, the lesson of the day is; In this world, there are always someone how knows more than you in every field. Even the janitor might know something you dont.
While threading on this, i came acoross a mad quote: "I was born a genius, education ruined me", Anonymous