Ross の乱弹区

Hide Your IPod, Here Comes Bill~~

2005-05-11T21:00:00.000+08:00

Have you ever wander why is there such a hype about the Mac's IPod, and how it is making it's way into everyone's To Buy List? Well, have the same question popping in my mind all the time...

Here's a glymsp of the IPod community in Microsoft -> Hide Your IPod, Here Comes Bill.

Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Service Service Pack 2 is OUT~~

2005-04-28T11:42:00.000+08:00

Finally, after so many months of waiting, Reporting Service SP2 finally came out. Sorta excited. Praying hard that it will solve all my problems and limitation I had encounter in the previous SP1...

For those of you who are interested, you can download it here

Happiest day of the month...

2005-03-31T00:28:00.000+08:00

have slowly draw upon its dawn hours by hours, as I eagarly awaits for it's arrival, glancing endlessly toward the upper left corner of my screen (yes I have to taskbar placed upward). Endless days of misery every months, all for this one day... the last day of the month when I see the amount appear on the ATM Machine's LCD screen :D... the always so little monthly paycheque...

After months and months of the official full version of Mozilla Firefox's launch, now we are seeing microsoft's in for the salvage... Internet Explorer 7~!... it is said:" Microsoft has shared publicly that IE 7.0 will be focused primarily on improving security"... but I wander... for more information go "Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.0 Details Begin to Leak "

Will IE 7 trive over the ever popular Mozilla Firefox? will Microsoft regain the "The Most Favorable Browser" award? will IE again, be microsoft Seed to internet domination again?... hope not. For at least, I'm with firefox

Now repeat after me: Down with IE, Ablaize Firefox~! Down with IE, Ablaize Firefox~! Down with IE, Ablaize Firefox~! Down with IE, Ablaize Firefox~! Down with IE, Ablaize Firefox~!....................

An Uneventful saturday...

2005-03-20T01:15:00.000+08:00

begins today with a lazy morning, followed by meeting up with joey for a late breakfast, and a trip down to JB to meet old friends.

My gf's not around this weekend so I told myself, hei, why not just linger around with some friends, do some catch ups and begone with it?... well, meet up MoMo, Yong Shuang and Jessey in JB, had a good chat in one of the local cafe, and it was just nice to know everyone is still everyone.

Aparrently the coming monday is gonna be the hottest day around the year as the Idiocratic Earth revolve closest to the sun. I wander how I'm gonna survive the heat of 40 degree celcius. I've decided, I'll isolate myself in my "Cosy" cubicle and begone with the outside world for a couple of days. Came back home from JB, and while ironing, CNA is broadcasting some footage on how big corporations are contributing to global warming and how people are ignorantly greatful with the efforts they are putting forwards? Capitalism is leading us nowhere but destruction, Communism is nothing better, now what? Humans wake up, pack up and let's all live in the forest with no internet access *duh*...

Singapore at night

2005-03-16T10:21:00.000+08:00

桥上灯光光上桥，桥下耀耀水耻流

Bridge at Fullerton Hotel at night, B+W picture with orange cast. F/22, 25sec, 24mm

Odd mood today...

2005-03-09T20:30:00.000+08:00

Spend the whole day setting out production server for my newly developed application, at PMO Site. Sql Reporting 真的害人不浅, a huge block of hours spend today is troubleshooting how to set up a SQL Reporting Service installation on a different machine than the Database server. This really annoys me, and the peak of the frustration is, instruction documents from Microsoft websites actually have instructional errors, which, leads to hours and hours of fiddling and fuddling...

PC Fair starts tomorrow at suntec, Canon is expected to launch it's new DSLR, the EOS 350D/Rebel XT. Successor to the EOS 300D/DRebel which I have, this new DSLR had created a big attention at the world of photography due to its reduce in weight and size. Personally, I do not like it, cos first of all, the resell value of my 300D dropped drastically, 2nd of all, it is still the old flimsy plasticky design...

Well, had someone schedule a viewing for my 300D this friday. Still contemplating to sell or not, prehaps get rid of my old DSLR before the price pludge too much, and get a EOS 20D later?... heck... To all of you out there thinking of hopping on to the DSLR bandwagon, think twice of you have swallow pockets, this hobby is gonna burn a hole and a lot outta ya... :D

Just another boring weekend

2005-03-05T00:44:00.000+08:00

First weekend of march. Just another boring weekend. The system that had me burn many weekends after CNY, to work on had finally commenced User Acceptance Test (UAT). It felt like a relief. Now all that's left is to complete the rest of the unfinish system related stuff...

Just went watch "Series of Unfortunate Events", a new movie by Jim Carey, with him as the evil guy. Pretty all right, nothing amazing. Now just finished the movie and came back home, log on to computer, and am staring into this screen wandering what am I doing on this boring weekend?... Life had been lifeless, motionless and directionless.

Shan had just forward me a 988 life radio link. Damn I miss the m'sia radio. There ain't no Cantonese station in singapore~! It's so freaking boring without cantonese radio station~!... what the hell is singapore government thinking?... xien.

Dreaded March, seems so harsh...

2005-03-02T23:39:00.000+08:00

March. Nothing particulary special to us normal people who drag our days through the regular 5 days work week, no it's not spring either cos it's forever summer here in singapore. No nothing to do with us code monkeys either, but the effect somehow escalate... *Sigh*...

March, is the the deadline most company have to spend their previous year budget. Tones and buns of project are rushing to wrap up before then so they can bill the customer. Project managers are jumping all around with a wip in their hands pressing us to work harder... *sign*... it's just a terrible month for us tormented salaried level...

Nothing much had been happening around me except the regular workdays. Meet up with an old friend who I haven't seen for 10 years and had a really good chat flashing back all those memories of yester-years. Than brings back the time when we were in this BMX frenzy. Times when us whole gang of BMX Bikers invade the streets before dawn, jumping ups and down road bumps and side walk, spining our bikes with all the freestyle moves we have, and towards the rise of the sun when cars slowly reclaim back their road, we hit the coffee shop for a early breakfast... those were the days...

So what exactly is marriage?...

2005-02-18T12:35:00.000+08:00

Found this pretty humourous artical on one of the Forums around the net. No offences ladies, just some view of some extremelist I guess...

婚姻是一场长期的嫖妓
"刚才这位女同志跟我讲：想嫖，那就结婚啊，每天都可以嫖了。她这样一种逻辑衍生的结论是，性交是男人的消费，所以男人养家糊口理所当然"

Happy Chinese New Years~!!

2005-02-02T22:17:00.000+08:00

Didn't really notice, a year since had passed, and it is the time of the year again. Work particularry had been pretty hectic, cos I've to go back to Ipoh for chinese new year and I won't be around in the office for the whole week, tones of stuff to finish before I go off, these few days had been Particularry tiring and stressful. Nevertheless... things will eventually...

I'm getting excited, cos I'm going back home after a whole year being away, and that's not just it, this year would probably be particularry eventful... for the first time round, my whole family will be visiting relatives in China and we will be spending Chinese New Year in Guang Dong... An opportunity to travel is always welcoming over the hectical work days, particularry distance places where culture varies...

My bus will be leaving tomorrow night, expecting arrival in the following morning... yea... something to look forward to, going home and getting away from work... \:D/ Will probably be taking lotsa pictures thing time round, will be lugging around my tripod for the first time on travel. Just wandering how the lighweighted Carbon Fiber will help during travel?... Will upload more photos once I got back, so er, stay tune :D

My first Moon shots

2005-01-27T10:03:00.000+08:00

Did my first moon shots with Joey's EF 75-300mm f 4-5.6 at 300mm. Played around with the exposure settings for a while and got the correct after 3 shots or so. One very noticable problem is that the image captured doesn't seems as sharp as those posted by other people.

Next day, decided to check with daniel to borrow his EF 400mm f/5.6L USM with a Extender EF 1.4X. On that night, upon setting up my equipments n stuff, I tried to Manual Focus via the viewfinder and *Woosh* I was totally surprise to see the sharpness difference already... no doubt it is canon's Top of the range L Series Prime lenses... Took a few shots and add in the 1.4x TC moments later. I was actually expecting to see slight image degration with the TC, but No~!... the TC brought the moon closer, but MF is still tac sharp. Took a few more shots and am totally pursuaded that THIS L lens is really good ( or Joey's 75-300 is really bad ).

Below are some shots taken. All with Contrast and Brightness adjusted in camera for + 2 stops, and Level and curve adjusted and cropped in Photoshops.

	Canon EOS 300D + EF 75-300mm f 4-5.6 mounted on an Acratech Ultimate ballhead on a Gitzo CF Tripod 1228 Image not sharp at all
	Canon EOS 300D + EF 400mm f/5.6L USM mounted on an Acratech Ultimate ballhead on a Gitzo CF Tripod 1228 I can actually see the craters on the moon even using manual focus, no doubt one of the sharpest and cheapest Super Tele canon has.
	Canon EOS 300D + EF 400mm f/5.6L USM + Extender EF 1.4X mounted on an Acratech Ultimate ballhead on a Gitzo CF Tripod 1228 With a 1.4x teleconverter mounted, the image is as sharp, no much image degration. It brought the moon much closer and make manual focus easier.
	Canon EOS 300D + EF 400mm f/5.6L USM + Extender EF 1.4X mounted on an Acratech Ultimate ballhead on a Gitzo CF Tripod 1228 Same equipment, different exposure settings, but mostly around 1/400sec + F/8, plus minus 1/2 a stop in both shutter and appeture.

Quote of the day...

2005-01-26T09:56:00.000+08:00

Opportunities do not come with their values stamped upon them. Every one must be challenged. A day dawns, quite like other days; in it, a single hour comes, quite like other hours; but in that day and in that hour the chance of a lifetime faces us.

Maltbie D. Babcock (1858-1901) Clergyman

You have to be in the right place at the right time, but when it comes, you better have something on the ball.

Groucho Marx (1890-1977) Comedian

Hong Kong Trip

2005-01-24T23:52:00.000+08:00

		Arrival. 4 hours flight from Singapore. Excited, just can't wait to get to the city. Just ozzing around the airport looking for more information and where to go. Weather wasn't that cold, and was just hovering around a mere of 16 degrees celcus plus minus.
		Some shots taken from the bus on the way to the city. To the right is one of HK's Government Flat, with at least 30+ floors... Just sorta make me wander how would it be like staying so high ups.
		Nathan Road and Sai Yong Choi Street, both as Crowded as the Chinatown or Orchard Road in Singapore, Lotsa people doing their last minute shopping, many lingering around the city awaiting for the 31st Dec Countdown. Things around here are cheap, but hei they dun call HK shopping heaven for nothing... Was pretty on a rush locating the few Camera shops with the address I've got. Manage to locate Wing Sheng, one of the reputable cam shops around, but they dun carry Gitzos'. Did some more walking and found Mang Sheng... I was lingering inside Mang Sheng checking out their cam stuff while my Gf went shopping in Espirit diagonally opposite. Got my Gitzo 1228 in Mang Sheng finally... but didn't get the use it cos can't find the appropriate ballhead for it... xien.
		Yen, my Girlfriend. Most of my shots taken in HK have a composition of her. HK's a great place for a couple traveling free and easy. I'll say, there are things just for both of use to look around. Had a really enjoyable time together this trip :P
		These pictures were taken on Nathan Road. Did I mention that the HK gov actually close down the whole stretch of Nathan Rd for New Years Eves?... I guess they HAVE to do it cos the crowds is so humongous that normal pedestrial path won't take the load. But besides the crowd, it is not squeezey at all, pretty unlike christmas in singapore where everyone crowd around orchard road pedestrial path and u can barely get from Point A to Point B. Far Left: Me, taken by my gf, Result of Handshake. Point is, DSLR is not suitable for girls with weak hands... Left: my gf.
		Crowds on Nathan Rd. Pretty interesting don't you think? if the entire nation of HK went on riot against china for communism, nay, don't think tat's what china wannna go, that's why you see this new One-Country-Two-System facade going on now... HK is still pretty much HK after 1997, thou many places start accepting RMB, some even provide 1:1 exchange against HKD...
		Pic 1: A Shopping center with all the porshey brands. Nope didn't went it cos recon if even they offer a 50% discount on the goods, I won't be able to afford it. It's a pretty striking building along the way from Nathan Rd to Starlight Harbour Pic 2: Did you English Teacher never teach you don't translate directly?...lolx
		After dinner, we recon we could take a walk to the harbour, so we walk and walk and walk along nathan road, total distance is approx to 4 MRT Stops. My Legs were so sour. Pic 1: Tired. Resting in the Middle of the road in the blistering cold. We are at Starlight Harbour, didn't manage to get in cos of the crowd, thou did get a glimps of the magnificient Skyscrapers in HK Island from there. Pic 2: The Crowds from Nathan Rd is still amazing... and it's all flowing towards Starlight Harbour... many were expecting fireworks... but aparently fireworks was called off to mourn for the tsunami victims. No Complaints, and I silently pray for them...
		Day 2, Didn't manage to get to Starlight harbour yesterday so that's what we did the second day... had a good view of HK island. The Crowds around there are still a lot, lotsa tour bus parked beside the road. Pic 1: I had the Skyscrapers of HK Island behind me, shot taken on starlight harbour. Pic 2: My Gf, standing in front of the Science Center just next to starlight harbour.
		Same location: Starlight Harbour. Pic 1: Skyscraper from HK Island with the evening sun reflecting from the buildings. Damn I forgot to bring my CPL... else would have gotten a much better shots... Pic 2: Me and me gf, Yen, same place. pic taken by another photographer. I saw tat guy using a SLR also, therefore rekon he can handle it. The result: Good...
		The Clock Tower next to the Starlight Harbour and Starlight Pathway...

		Left and Far Left: Statue on Starlight Pathway. Seems to symbolize something related to the movie/entertainment industry. It have the same style as the statue for the grammy, thou the post is different... Top Left and Top Far Left: Silhouette. Skyscrapers from HK Island casting their shadows longer and longer as the sun sets lower and lower. Top: My gf against the silhouetted skyscrapers.
		We took the ferry to central from Staylight harbour. The fare: approx SGD$2. Pretty old type of ferry that had been running the commutting between the two lands way before bridges were built. Far Left: Buildings from HK Island fromm the Ferry. Left: My Gf on the ferry... :P
		Ok now, why are we heading to central? well, actually it is not a destination but a path... :P we have to take bus 2xx from Central Station to reach The Peak( Tai Ping Shan ). Oh yea, did I mention is was the coldest winder in HK today?... avg of 6-12 degrees, and on The Peak, it was around avg of <6 I guess. Far Left: Visitors, Sighseers and Photographers, all cramp along the side of the shopping center balcony to get a glimps of HK's Night Cityscape. Left: Well, there we are at the Peak... me? of course holding the camera lar..:P

		Top all: cityscape night scene from The Peak. Me Tripod not usable yet therefore manage to borrow a small lightweighted tripod from one of the photo shotter there... luckily my 300D + Grip + 24-70 F2.8L + 420Ex did not cripple the tripod... Far Left, Left: Nightscene portrait shots. Was super cold up there, my gf can't really stand it, have to use the hood for wind insulation... the shots without, she tot it was prettier without the hood...lol...
		Far Left, Left: Coffee after a cold encounter on the balcony on the peak at Pacific Coffee...

		On the way back to Mongkok. Took the MTR Instead of the ferry to avoid the wind... Super hungry, just can't wait to get back to Mongkok for dinner. This concludes the day. Top All: The H.U.G.E Central MTR Interchange station. Took the Tsui Wai Line up to Mongkok. Left All: Me and my gf on the MTR, I do look tired don't I?...

	More to come...

Apple have done it again~!

2005-01-12T11:03:00.000+08:00

Apple have been a pioneer in computing lifestyle with their series of Mac with their sleek and elegant design all these years, and lately with the announcement of the new Mini Mac... considering jumping on a Mac wagon now...

Sims 2 Hacks Spread Like Viruses?

2005-01-07T11:47:00.000+08:00

The famous Sims 2, the successor of the well acclaimed The Sims, have a serious bug. Those of you who have applied the Hack, would have notice odd behaviour in your items. This article from securityfocus have the details. In sort, the problem of this hack arrise when you start to use the Sims 2 Exchange to exchange and share items and download stuff... the hack/virus get downloaded to your local Sims 2 as well, ruining your existing creation...

Software Giant has acquired Giant Software

2005-01-07T10:38:00.000+08:00

A recent tech news update from William Tay NCS... "Microsoft has recently acquired Giant Software, a maker of Anti-Spyware software. They have successfully integrated both technologies and the result is available for downloads in BETA form. In other words, dont use this on a production system yet ! Check it out here." Another big step for microsoft to global domination~!... and sooner or later you'll read news about some AntiSpyware companies coming together and sue microsoft for monopoly, infringing the Anti Trust law or something. Then again when you look at it from another aspect, it does make logical sense, just like we try to make logical sense of everything, and the fact that the worlds revolves around logic, even the soft side of human, can be logically explained, that the ultimate beneficiaries are us comsumers or piracy consumers because many of us can't really be bother to lookout for AntiSpyware. Cos it ain't no huge noticable impact having your PC infected by spyware. Let's see how it goes from here cos I"m kinda tired hunting down Spyware in my PC and doing a full search of the registry and restart and installing firewall software... Speaking of firewall, the original Windows firewall from win Xp Service Pack 2 just ain't doing the job I wanted... no outbound blocking/tracking?... I still stick to ZoneAlarm...

Yippie~!

2005-01-07T00:10:00.000+08:00

Today finally got my tripod set completed, took a few long exposure shots outside and the result were great, and after so long having my DSLR, today is the first time I've use bulb mode, at 120 sec, F/22, the result, splendid. Just manage to get my tripod legs in HK last week, a set of Gitzo 1228 Carbon fiber tripod legs. It was a disappointment thou cos I can't find the Ballhead I wanted in HK. After spoken to several camera shops, found out that Singapore is the only distributor for Acratech Ultimate Ballhead... xien... the initial idea of taking cityscape night scene from THE PEAK just evaporated. Today finally manage to get hold of a Wimberly P-5 Camera Plate, and a Acratech Ultimate Ballhead from shops in singapore, and now, got a full working tripod liao.. yea...~! Still have yet to get the HK photos in yet. Busy work schedule, gonna submit FS this monday and tomorrow night have a meeting at 7:30PM... manz... xien... hopefully this project will go well.

Just back from HK...

2005-01-04T01:35:00.000+08:00

and I'm just freaking tired... just felt like sleeping for the next few days... neitherways... will post photos and experience when I've regain some energy... after all those shopping and touring around... Damn I just like HK...

GMail Account giveaway

2004-12-30T16:45:00.000+08:00

I still have 9 gmail invites as of now. Want a gmail account? contact me with your F.Name, L.Name, and your email address.

Light a candle for the tsunami victim

2004-12-30T16:43:00.000+08:00

For all those who cares... http://www.kaskus.com/peduliaceh/index.php?peduli=view

Inventor of Optical Storage?

2004-12-29T11:06:00.000+08:00

Did you ever wander how much the inventor of optical storage gets for copyrights and pattern rights? Sales of DVD and CD sky-rockets during this festive season and you must be thinking... this is a heck of a golden egg laying chicken... Well, apparently not. The inventor invented a medium that everyone use nowadays and made life so much different than we had imagine before, and totally change the preception of digital storage, never made a dime at all from his invention... poor fella... Read this: Scientist's invention was let go for a song

Tsunami and it's aftermath

2004-12-28T10:48:00.000+08:00

Was watching Channel News Asia interviewing a Singaporeans who got back from affected areas, and I totally can't believe what this singaporean secondary school girl say... "I'm just glad I got to play around the beach and pool before they were destroyed lah"... This is such a disgrace... it's equivalent to saying: "Like it matters to me..." But then again, I'm glad I'm not a singaporean so I can say this out loud without a sense of disgrace...

Sad Christmas - Tsunami and it's aftermath

2004-12-27T23:12:00.000+08:00

Total death toll of 23,000 up to now, 10,000++ are from Sri Lanka, millions homeless, billions of economical loses, fishermens with their lifelyhood distroyed, many families in which their living depend on the sea, be it production or tourism, all left with nothing overnight. Refugees constantly increasing, healthcare situation getting worst and worst in many refugees center, risk of infection and many other things... A Sad thing to happen on a supposingly happy holiday weekend... This tradegy reflect on how fragile we humans are compare to nature, and as facts could not be alter, we should live our lifes to the fullest. Follow your heart for you will have no regret. My deepest condolences to those victims of the tragic disaster.

Some Yesterday's news and gossips...

2004-12-27T14:59:00.000+08:00

"Once hyped, the traditional PDA today faces declining sales and growing competition from smartphones" - tomshardware-The PDA, an endangered species. Are PDA really dying off nowadays? with the emerging of Pocket PC adn smartphones, PDA's functionality is fully integrated within these new devices. Will PDA being an Island itself, be able to survive the rush of all these new gadgets in the market? Well, personally, I won't buy a PDA cos' I have everything I need in my handphone minus the touch screen. But then again, prehaps we shall see a whole new range of PDA soon enought?... Will Mozilla Firefox dominate the IE market? well there are quite a bit of issues with it, especially when you can't use Windowsupdate website with mozilla firefox cos microsoft is using lotsa COM+ and ActiveX stuff with their Windowsupdate. Here's some article about Firefox's weakness: Firefox的致命弱点在新一年中需要解决的问题 Some Movie Reviews: 功夫/KungFu Hustle 天下无贼/a World Without Thieves Some Gadgets Review: The Zen Micro: Creative Guns for the iPod (Again)

Christmas Giveaway

2004-12-25T14:02:00.000+08:00

It's Christmas day, not snowing here in Singapore. How I wish Singapore were situated somewhere near the north polar circle where... you'll probably see sparkling white snowflake dancing in the air with the acquaintance dazzeling wind, snow covered cars parked by the street that shape a odd dome, people pack up with layers of jacket and everyone is as plummish... well, you get the picture. Cool weather, layers of jacket, daily tempreture difference of over 20 degrees... I miss Melbourne, althou, it wasn't that long period of time that I was there, but a mere two years are enought for memories to last. And yes it doesn't snow in Melbourne this time of the year, being near the Southern polar circle, it's just freaking hot this time of the year. I just miss the cold weather during winter, and the fun of dashing down the slope on a snowboarding, especially when doing the blackrun where... thing might just spurn outta control, but that's what you would probably want when snowboarding, everything but control, the feeling to just loose it and let it flow and glide along, swirl whichever direction to your desire, make a sharp turn, glide your hand on the snow and make a wave of snow fly up ( to splash upon whichever unlucky soul to be in the way... ), and last but not least, just tip and fall and have yer head down in the snow with yer board on yer feet... tat, is what I call life. Things had been slow in work, my computer in the office is starting to give way and just hang whenever I run a Web application of my Local IIS, maybe this calls for a reinstall or reformat... however I'll just leave that to monday, and just celebrate this festive season by shopping my money away... and of course, a little bit something to share with everyone, I have 10 gmail invites to giveaway. Interested? Leave your name and your email address in my doodle-board or Gmail me at Ross.chang@gmail.com and I'll get back to you... maybe latest before 31st Dec, that is, before I fly off to HK for a 4 days vacation... If you are using Mozilla Firefox and Yahoo! Mail, here's a little present that you would probably appreciate... Merry Christmas everyone, and have a fabulous new years ahead... Disclaimer: I reserved the rights to sent GMail invites to whoever I like. and Please don't hate me if I dun sent gmail invites to you... it's Christmas day...

Ross の 乱弹区