x-tReMe Ramblings.....

Sunset at the Railway

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 03 Jul 2013 14:15:00 +0000

I wished that I had my LX-3 with me at that moment. But the quality turned out to be not bad anyway :)

(taken with Samsung S3, edited with PicsArt on Android)

After the Rain....

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 02 Jul 2013 11:45:00 +0000

Took the phone out to catch some water droplets after a light rain.

(Taken with Samsung S3, edited on phone with PicsArt)

Despicable Me Stickers in Facebook Messenger

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 30 Jun 2013 15:33:00 +0000

Found this set of new stickers in the Facebook Messenger shop. Did you know you could get Despicable Me Minions stickers from FB Messenger? :)

Step 1

At the chat screen, select the shopping basket (circled)

Step 2

Select the stickers you want, in this case, Despicable Me 2

Step 3

Once download is complete, you will see the screen above.

Step 4

Go back to your chat screen and you will see that you have a new icon for the stickers you have downloaded. In this case its the one highlighted in blue.

Select the sticker you want to use and enjoy the "cute-ness"!!!!!!

Color Contrast

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 27 Jun 2013 19:09:00 +0000

I just love the color contrast of these leaves.

(photo taken with Samsung Galaxy S3, color saturation adjusted with PicsArt)

Many Many Years Ago

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 26 Jun 2013 19:10:00 +0000

Found an old pic of mine. Mom said I should be about 2 to 3 years old in that photo. Hahahaa

Yep... since young I did not like to be in photographs. :P

More from the garden

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 26 Jun 2013 14:29:00 +0000

More pics taken from the same day as the previous post.

All photos were taken with my Samsung Galaxy S3

From the garden

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 26 Jun 2013 13:29:00 +0000

A good day to take some pics of thw blooming flowers in the garden

All photos were taken with my Samsung Galaxy S3

The railway tracks...

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 24 Jun 2013 18:21:00 +0000

I have been literally living next to these tracks for the past 30 years. Can't believe today is the first time I bothered to take and edit some pics of the tracks.

All photos were taken with my Samsung Galaxy S3, edited with PicsArt

My Windows 7 Experience - Part 1

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 08:16:00 +0000

Guess I'll be posting quite a bit on Microsoft's latest OS for the PC market. Decided to switch to the new Windows 7 Ultimate from my Vista Ultimate over the weekend. Not that I have any complains on my Vista setup. Really.... On my system, Vista was smooth, almost crash proof and I had everything running just the way I wanted. I actually preferred it over XP. You can blame it on my curiosity but I just wanted to experience 1st hand what the buzz was all about, the improvements over Vista and XP, etc. So do bear in mind all the points here are based on my personal experience with the OS and I cannot guarantee the same result for other people. :)

My setup:

CPU: Intel C2D 8400 3ghz
MB: nVidia 630 / 7100
GPU: nVidia 9800GT 512mb
RAM: 3gb Kingston 667
HDD for OS : 100 / 320GB WD 7200
Other HDD : another 320GB WD 7200, Seagate 160GB 7200.10, Seagate 1TB 7200.11
Display: Primary - Acer AL1916W 1440 x 900 (DVI) , Secondary - Sony KLV-40V400A 1960 x 1080 (HDMI)
OS: Vista Ultimate x86

My 1st advise: Do a clean install. 2+ hrs into the upgrading process and I decided to abandon it for a clean install. Took me less than an hour for the Windows 7 to install and another later, I had most of my software like Office, PS, AI, DW, itunes, Firefox and Chrome all working.

Before I complain about the problems I had to go through during and after installation, I would like to answer the question of how fast is it, at least compared to Vista.

Not much difference in the start up times for me. (Don't ask what scientific proof I have, this is purely by "feeling" - to me, a difference of a few seconds does not make or break an OS). Shut down is relatively faster in Windows 7. Opening and running of programs like Office, PS, etc is also about the same as in Vista. This should be in line with the reviews I read on the web that Windows 7 makes more of a difference in speeds in lower end systems like ATOM or Celeron based CPUs. I do not have a ATOM to test the installation, suffice to say there's not much speed difference between Win 7 and Vista in my setup.

Now comes the 1st annoyance I found in Windows 7. When something crashes/hangs/not responding, the whole system becomes unresponsive!!! In Vista I could always (well... 95% of the time) bring up the Task Manager and kill off the offending application and/or process(es). Now in Win 7, a single non-responsive program means I have to hard reboot the PC. So far I have not encountered any applications that could hang and not force me do a hard reboot. The applications that hung on me in Win 7 included Windows Media Player 12, Region / Language Settings in Control Panel, Bitcomet, Explorer (in Music Library).

I guess I'll stop here for the moment. Will continue with another post soon!!! In the meantime I'll "mess" around more to see if I ultimately like this new Windows 7 better than its predecessor.

My New Jabra

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 10:38:00 +0000

Got this as my birthday present from my dearest. I have been looking around for a Bluetooth handsfree to go with my V9 for quite some time now. Actually we came across this Jabra BT3030 sometime ago in a newspaper ad I think. I did have a look at it during one of my trips to KL but did not commit to buy. I really liked the way it looked but it did not have the radio function like one of the Moto bluetooth set. For those using Moto phones, you would know that MOST, if not all Moto phones do not have the radio function built into the phone. :(

Now for the pics!

Its the “dog tag” style set. Has the dog tag look with V3 like buttons on it. I really like it. And since it has that V3 keypad look, it glows like it as well!! :)

The lights dim off when the buttons are not pressed and only the Jabra words blink to indicate it is connected to the phone. BTW the word Jabra blinks in different color according to the battery level. Blue when its above 70% full, orange in between and red when its less than 20%. And while charging the word blinks green and stays green once fully charged.

It comes with a chain as well as a clip (which I did not attach to yet) – so that you can clip it on your clothes instead of wearing it as a necklace. The thing is you can’t put the tag too far away from your face as the mic is on the tag and not on the earphones – unless you don’t mind taking out the tag and speaking into it every time a call comes in.

I did test the sound and mic quality while wearing the tag as a pendant. Apparently the mic quality is really good. No difference from speaking directly to the phone – according to the person on the other end of the line. And you can trust this person as she is the one whom I speak to most often over the phone – my dearest BB! :)

Listening to music from the phone is now so convenient as I just need to press play on the tag and my Moto starts playing from the last song I’ve listened to. Basic functions like FF, FW and volume works as it should.

If only Moto has its voice dial function better, this would have been a superb handsfree for me – calling from phonebook without the need to access the phone.

Firefly in da House

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 26 May 2009 09:33:00 +0000

My friends would know that I live in a kampung area. As a kid I had tons of fun catching dragonflies, setting traps to catch birds, digging earthworms to fish at the nearby river, etc etc.

As I grew up I realised that these creatures were just disappearing….. Maybe its the urbanization, the climate change, whatever. So it was quite a surprise when a lone firefly flew into my house on one fine night.

I caught it and took some photos of it :)

Tried to take one with the lights off, but the “glow” didn’t come out too well. You can see the 2 strips of green light near the bottom of the insect and the ARE bright if you switch off the surrounding lights.

Then I thought: “Is this really a firefly?” Did some googling and found this image:

The scientific name is Pyractomena angulata for this variety. Not exactly the same but I did learn that there are many variety of fireflies… So maybe the one I caught was the Asian variety :)

Some facts about these cute insects:

The light they emit is almost 100% efficient. i.e. almost all the energy is converted to light and not to heat and so it is not even warm. Fireflies are also used in the research of cancer, multiple sclerosis and cystic fibrosis. Useful little bugger eh?

I did check my garden and on SOME nights you can actually see about 20 of these fellas glowing and gathering around a tree. Couldn’t take a picture of it as a normal compact camera just could not capture the blinking dots of lights…. pity….

New Furniture

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 21 May 2009 03:36:00 +0000

Had a bit of time on my hands…. so I decided to make some minor changes to my room. Just minor minor ones… specifically my PC and TV area :)

I have been know to like to change the orientation of my room every few years. It makes the room feel “nicer” with a new breath of “freshness”. Have something in my mind now but we’ll just see how it goes later on.

The room originally looked like this.

Bought a rack, some drawers and a notice board from Tesco. Did a little modification and now it looks like this

You can never have enough place to store everything, especially if you keep almost everything like me!!! Gonna make a light feature / shelf for the bed in a day or two. Just can’t seem to figure out how I like the design best. Will post once its up.

Final Fantasy VII Advent Children Complete

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 16 May 2009 07:47:00 +0000

Just finished watching this. For those uninitiated, this is the COMPLETE version that comes with the Blu Ray release. This has additional scenes which are not found on the DVD release.

VERY VERY GOOD!!!!!!!

The additional scenes not only lengthens the movie but it also provides more details and depth to the storyline – like how Cloud found Denzel and many more. I would say that this version would allow people who are not familiar with the FF7 story to have a better grasp of the movie.

One tip – watch all of it including the end credit part. Like the FF games there is a short – very short continuation of the story right at the end. I don’t know if this was on the DVD release. I’ll go through the DVD release again.

If you are a die hard FF7 fan, DO NOT miss this!!! Thumbs up to Square Enix!!!!

About Rechargeable Batteries

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 03 May 2009 06:45:00 +0000

Most people have many battery operated gadgets nowadays. Remote controls, alarm clocks, wireless controllers, keyboards and mouse. I came across this article about rechargeable batteries - the normal batteries, AA, AAA, D etc and not those propriety batteries that came with like PSPs or laptops.

Very useful read if you are like me.... with wireless stuff all around.

Adventures in Rechargeable Batteries

PC Upgrades!!

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 10:39:00 +0000

It has been some time since I've done anything to my PC..... Needed to do some upgrades in the graphics department so that I can at least play SOME of the graphics intensive PC games :)

Bought a new graphics card.... not the latest model by a far shot, but will serve my purpose. Its a Palit nvidia 9800GT 512MB card.

Very basic "stuffs" included....

The driver CD, manual, spdif cable, molex to pcie power and of course the card itself.

So all set??? No. Coz then I remembered I had to upgrade my PSU as well. The original 300W PSU wasn't going to cut it and so I bought a Acbel E2 510.

The real watage of this is around 450W and this will be enough to power the new card together with my 3 HDDs, DVD Rom and some fans.

With the basic stuff ready I began to dismantle my PC to install the new stuffs. Some pics so show the process....

PSU installed.... had to tidy up the "snaking" cables.....

TADA!!!! all neat and tidy..... but I HAVE NOT INSTALLED THE GRAPHICS CARD!!!! %^&%^^&%^$%$^$^$^$^^@##@@

So I took out the older nvidia 8600GS.... and tried to put the new card in.... OPS! Problem....
Apparently the manufacturer of my mobo either did not expect graphics card to be able to grow to the length they are now or the did not expect users of a mATX mobo to slot in a full length PCIe card. The SATA ports were in the way of the card!!

What to do???? In the end I had to bend the end of the new card a little so that it slots in between the 2 rows of SATA ports. Here's how it looks like:
A closer look......
Was advised its not good the bend the card so I'll have to shop for a PCIe 1x SATA controller. Found out where to buy it but have not done so :P At least the rig works.

But I am satisfied for the time being. :) 3Dmark06 gave a score of about 12k so I'm happy.

Assurance or Lies?

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 08:39:00 +0000

Hmmmmm.... when does assurance become a lie?

When you assure someone about something that even you are not 50% sure?

When you assure just to be able to get away from the persistent asking and questioning?

Who is to be blamed? The one who lies or the one who keeps on "forcing" for the assurance?

The general reasoning is, "Don't bug me consistently and at the wrong time and I will not need to give you false assurance"

Quite often the one who seeks assurance do not even know what they are asking for. They want this, they need that. All without even going through their minds HOW is it going to be possible at the first place. When other people feel that you are plainly asking for the impossible and apparently they have no way or no mood to argue with you, they give false assurance.

But that is not to say the liar is not in the wrong. If your version of the truth is so important or the issue involved is quite serious, then there is no reason to give false assurance as the whole matter will fall apart soon enough.

But in general, I feel that people in either of these two categories match well with each other. One often needs to be lied to while the other lies so that everyone can get on with their lives.

Wake up people. Both "assurance seeker" and "fake assurance giver" is not going to get anything out of this.

:P

Home-made Lamp

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 13:32:00 +0000

BB and me decided to get a little hands-on to make our own lamp. Actually its more like a modification of my existing (also self-made) lamp.

To put it simply, I had two bamboo candle holder as the stand, drilled some holes so that I can put in the bulb holder, reused the metal frame from 2 old lamp shades and a few pieces of bamboo sheets. Put them all together with strings and glue.... WALA... 2 nice bedside lamps!!!!

The shades were almost done when we realised we did not take any photos of the process..... :)

We took turns to sew the bamboo sheets together as each shade took slightly more than a piece of the the sheet. The finished product looked like this:

A closer look at the finished shade.....

And this is what is looks like when its lighted! Not bad huh??? :)

Picture Post

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 18:16:00 +0000

Picture Post

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 08:21:00 +0000

Lychee Dragonfruit and Oreo Banana. Ha ha

Picture Post

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 08:18:00 +0000

Stopped at this shop in Melaka 2 try some drinks.

During the wedding dinner.

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 14:28:00 +0000

My bb still eating the desert

Picture Post

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 10:30:00 +0000

My bb still making up even though we are going to be late for dinner!

Messy Hotel Room

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 10:28:00 +0000

Just look at how messy the room is after one night!!!! Hahahaha.....

We were preparing to go for the wedding dinner. BB is putting her make up on.

Download Madness!!!!!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 15:27:00 +0000

For those who have been using torrents to download this might not be anything impressive.... But from where I am.... having this kind of download speed and sustaining at about 150kB for the whole late afternoon till now (about 11:45pm) is practically heaven!!!!

Hahahahha..... its still going at about 160+kB now..... :) Let's see how long this speed will last!!!!

Picture Post

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 16:44:00 +0000

Trying to blog from my phone. Wonder how it will turn out. Cute pic eh?