Pandora's Box

Cool perks of some Silicon Valley companies

noreply@blogger.com (Nickelby) — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 03:46:00 +0000

Makes you wonder if you'll ever get these kind of perks eh? ;-). This demographic is probably uptodate as of today but may very well change in the future. Tagged seems the nicest among the lot ... (I am very pro in telecommuting :-))

How to Build a Successful iDevice App :-)

noreply@blogger.com (Nickelby) — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 03:04:00 +0000

iPhone Evolution

noreply@blogger.com (Nickelby) — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 03:36:00 +0000

Unbelievable ... 4 million units of iPhone 4S in the first week of sales compared to 700k units of the original iPhone when it was first released to the world. Probably 5 million iPhone 5s next year :-)

Steve Jobs Biography by Walter Isaacson

noreply@blogger.com (Nickelby) — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 10:44:00 +0000

This is what I am currently reading. Have went through a good quarter of the book and I will sum it up in one word so far : MAGICAL.

On Saturdays ...

noreply@blogger.com (Nickelby) — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 08:30:00 +0000

This is how I feel at times when I am being plain lazy :-)

Blogging from the iPhone :-)

noreply@blogger.com (Nickelby) — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 14:18:00 +0000

Just a test. More to come. In the meantime enjoy this pic of a unagi don set. Taken at a Japanese restaurant in KLCC ^^

Do I Make You Proud?

noreply@blogger.com (Nickelby) — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 03:45:00 +0000

I am thinking hard what I am today. What have I accomplished in life. What is my spiritual life. What is my relation to God. What have I done for my parents who have worked tirelessly and sacrificed so much to raise me up. I have done mistakes, some of them hurting my parents and the people around me who I care a lot and some of them even hurting myself. I have no answers today and I am still seeking to find what is my future path. But the question for now, to especially God, my parents, my brother and the people that I love and care about, "do I make you proud?"

Do I Make You Proud by Taylor Hicks (the crazy cool dude who won American Idol).

[Verse One:]
I've never been
The one to raise my hand
That was not me
And now that's who I am
Because of you
I am standing tall
My heart is full
Of endless gratitude
You were the one
The one to guide me through
Now I can see
And I believe
It's only just beginning

[Chorus:]
This is what we dream about
But the only question with me now
Is do I make you proud
Stronger than I've ever been now
Never been afraid of standing out
Do I make you proud

[Verse Two:]
I guess I’ve learned
To question is to grow,
That you still have faith,
Is all I need to know,
I’ve learned to love,
Myself in spite of me,
And I’ve learned to
Walk on the road I believe.

Everybody needs to rise up
Everybody needs to be loved
To be loved
Everybody need to rise on
Everybody needs to be loved, to be loved

This is what we dream about
But the only question with me now
Is do I make you, do I make you proud
This is what we dream about
Never been afraid of standing out
Do I make you proud
Stronger than I've ever been
Never been afraid of standing out

Do I make you proud
Do I make you proud

Update : 30 March 2011 Christian Federation of Malaysia Media Statement on the Bible Impounding

noreply@blogger.com (Nickelby) — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 00:39:00 +0000

So there you have it folks. It is a very sad and immature act by certain people to politicize this matter. How will Malaysia progress if such people are to continue leading the country? I love my country but when you know that your love alone will not change anything, the only thing we can do is to pray for God's intervention to have such matters resolved.

iPhone 5 Rumor RoundUp Mini

noreply@blogger.com (Nickelby) — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 09:21:00 +0000

The picture says it all ... and by the way Happy Birthday to my best friend Grace FLL, the Nando's fanatic! ;-)

Japan Earthquake Cartoon Done Right

noreply@blogger.com (Nickelby) — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 03:37:00 +0000

It has been more than a week since the triple disaster in Japan (earthquake, tsunami and nuclear plant). As of today, people are still recovering from the earthquake and tsunami and at the same time having control of the nuclear situation in Fukushima Daiichi plant.

As I was on Twitter today, I stumbled across a picture of Ultraman and the tsunami. Where as a local Malaysian newspaper called Berita Harian decipits a controversial and insensitive cartoon of Ultraman running away from the tsunami, this picture that I came across was done right. You can compare them below.

This is the controversial and insensitive cartoon by Berita Harian. Please take note that a majority of the Malaysian people have reacted very strongly to this cartoon. The cartoon is in no way represent the feelings of Malaysians.

This cartoon is done right. It shows Ultraman saving people from the tsunami. Such cartoons aims to improve and promote hope to the Japanese people to never give up hope in the face of danger. Credits to Peter of J-List for sharing this.

Holy Scriptures Desecrated 17 March 2011 - Christian Bibles Impounded in Malaysia

noreply@blogger.com (Nickelby) — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 02:16:00 +0000

Yesterday I received an email from a friend concerning the withheld of Christian bibles in Malay language at Port Klang which was meant for the Malay speaking community in East Malaysia. It's sad that Malaysia that portrays itself as a multi-cultural country but yet act otherwise when it comes to any other religion/culture that they deem 'threatening'.

Some will argue and said that I feel offended because I am a Christian but let me be a little clear here. Regardless of whether I am a Christian or not, I feel offended not because of the bibles are being impounded but because of the 1Malaysia talk that we have been hearing from all quarters but so far little action has been taken to promote this so-called "for the people" concept.

I do not want to start a racial war because from where I come from, at least in the 80s and 90s, Labuan and nearly all of East Malaysia NEVER had this type of nonsense and segregation of races, religions and beliefs. To be honest, ever since we had some idiotic racist people from the West Malaysia notably Kuala Lumpur flocking into Labuan, this has all change, we as 1Malaysia from years ago where Malays, Chinese, Indians, etc eat together and laugh together on one single table in Labuan but not anymore. Saddening and very hurtful to me ... but that's another story.

Back on the main topic, so why withhold bibles which is the official book of the Christians all over the world? It is not that the Christian bibles teach us anarchy nor does it teach us how to murder people or even nuke the planet. The bible is simply a book that records the teachings and journey of figures that are relevant in the Christian world most notably God in the Old testament and Jesus Christ in the New testament. Believe it or not, to those who are not Islamist or Christians, the Old testament in the Christian bible and in the Al-Quran are the same!

I for one have family relatives from all the major races and religions in Malaysia. Christians, Islamists, Buddhists, Hindus, non-believers, you name it, one of my relatives have it. But do we go around telling each other that their religion is wrong? No. Do we steal and destroy their religious sculptures? No. Do we tell people around that their religion is wrong and our religion is right? No. So what gives?

I am not a priest nor do I claim to be someone religious but common sense and gut feeling tell me that is the ministers who are responsible for banning the Christians bibles fear that more non-believers will convert into Christians? But Christianity never teach or promote us to go to war or to kill people or hurt animals so are we not looking for a more peaceful and livable world? If religion can play its part into shaping a more peaceful and understanding world, what person would not want this?

The worse part of this entire saga is we had to serialized the bibles. In other words, the government of Malaysia will be able to take note of how many bibles are distributed in Malaysia. But why? Why go through all the trouble for this? You, the reader of this blog entry (I am assuming that people will actually read my posts but I highly doubt it ;-)) decide.

I attach four JPGs here (split into four as the original PDFs are in two pages). My apologies for two of them is in Malay so for the benefit of those who don't understand it, the English version basically summarizes the entire Malay letter.

Page 1 of 2

Page 2 of 2

The letter in Malay

Page 1 of 2

Page 2 of 2

You know ... probably I will get impounded by the ISA and have all my rights revoked after publishing this and probably will lost my job in the long run or maybe soon because of this. But I sincerely want to change the mindset of the people in Malaysia that we should practice equality, fairness and most of all, understanding between the many cultures and religions here. The Japanese can do it regardless of their religion and beliefs when it matters the most (the current earthquake/tsunami/nuclear disaster which I will blog soon) so why can't we? Time to grow up Malaysia. Walk the talk.

iTunes 10.1.2 Does Not Recognize Your iDevice (iPhone, iPad, iWhatever)

noreply@blogger.com (Nickelby) — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 11:09:00 +0000

So after trying to fix f**king iTunes 10.1.2 on the MAC since it does not want to recognize my iPhone 4 (it does recognize the other iPhones though) and also my iPad after a greenp0is0n jailbreak, I found the solution and it was the most basic of basics. The answer was to delete the iTunes.app from the Applications folder and reinstalled it. Works like a charm. Should have done this in the first place. A lesson well learned ... come on Apple. Let us jailbreak our devices! We f**kin paid for it for goodness sake!

Flash 10.1 on the Nokia N900 (non-hardware accelerated!)

noreply@blogger.com (Nickelby) — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 07:41:00 +0000

Note: Do this with root access. If you don't know what root is, you shouldn't be messing with your N900

Replace the file in /usr/lib/browser/plugins with the file found here. Make sure that you already do a backup of the Flash 9 plugin and maybe move it to /opt to save some valuable space (note that the /usr resides in a paltry 256MB partition as opposed to your /home partition on the Nokia N900).

Also please take note that this plugin is BETA and is not hardware accelerated hence it will drain your battery rapidly.

Credits go to knownokia for this hack.

Lunar New Year 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Nickelby) — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 09:09:00 +0000

In another 2 days, the Rabbit year will begin. What will I do when I am bored or want to release some pressure from some recent personal problems?

Well there's Golden Sun Dark Dawn for the Nintendo DS. A beautifully crafted and designed RPG. I have played the previous Golden Sun episodes (two in fact and both are on the Nintendo DS). A tad better than Final Fantasy save perhaps VI and VII for now. Let's see how fast I can finish this game. Hopefully not as fast the game below ...

Infinity Blade is the FASTEST game I have ever finished on ANY platform. It took me about an hour plus to finish this game on the iPhone 4. Well considering that it costs USD 5.99 I would have expected a little bit more story into it ;-) but to be honest, the graphics from this game will blow you away. Easily the BEST graphics on the iPhone platform and yes you need an iPhone 4 to really see the magic.

And speaking of the iPhone, this is how iPhone users are viewed by the Android and the Blackberry users and of course the other way around. Personally I like how I am looked at by Android users. It's a little weird though since I am a full time Linux advocate but prefer an iPhone to an Android device...

And of course, being an iPhone user means you are also being classified and in my case, I think I am the hacker or the fanboy at least :P What about you?

iPhone or iPad Safari Cannot Open Links from Google Results?

noreply@blogger.com (Nickelby) — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 05:59:00 +0000

Ensure that UAFaker or another program that deals with user agent customization are disabled to see if that fixes the problem.

SSH Not Working on iPhone?

noreply@blogger.com (Nickelby) — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 05:46:00 +0000

Take note this is for jailbroken iPhones only.

Sometimes even though you have OpenSSH configured properly and have Automatic SSH installed on your iPhone, you may tend to lose SSH connectivity to your phone. As such is the world of IT ;-) especially when you get hit with a virus or some other program tend to screw your phone up.

You can always reinstall OpenSSH and Automatic SSH but the fix is lost after a reboot.

You can try the following to see if that restores your SSH before actually doing a hard reset or restore (if you never restored your phone before ... you are in for a long journey ... for me I did it way too many times in January 2011).

rm /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.ikey.bbot.plist
rm /bin/poc-bbot
rm /bin/sshpass

You can also try doing the following. Make sure you are root before doing this and that you already have MobileTerminal installed. As a practice and as an iPhone power user, ALWAYS install MobileTerminal as the first non-Cydia stock apps. And personally for me, I payed for an application called iFile (yes ... I know there are cracked versions but if you don't support good developers, you are just going to waste their efforts!) which made navigation and editing 10x easier!

Edit /etc/ssh/sshd_config and change the line

from

#ClientAliveInterval 0

to

ClientAliveInterval 60

According to man sshd_config, this line,

Sets a timeout interval in seconds after which if no data has been received from the client, sshd(8) will send a message through the encrypted channel to request a response from the client. The default is 0, indicating that these messages will not be sent to the client. This option applies to protocol version 2 only.

Restart the sshd daemon or better yet, reboot your iPhone for it to take effect.

Good luck!

Wilhelmsen Annual Dinner 2010 at Avillon Port Dickson

noreply@blogger.com (Nickelby) — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 15:53:00 +0000

So it's December 2010. Another 3 months passed without a blog post. I wonder how many 3 months that we have gone through if you have been following my blog ;-). Last month, on November 19th to be exact, Wilhelmsen had its annual dinner and dance. This time it was at Avillon, Port Dickson. I attached two pictures here for the time being until I have ample time to actually sort the explicit ones :P and add more here.

This picture is a little special as the girl at the top right (blue shirt with yellow logos) is a cute 18 years old Korean girl who happens to be the daughter of my colleague, Captain Kang, the dude standing on her left. Why special? Because family weren't invited this time and Captain Kang was nice enough to pay for his entire family to spend some time at Port Dickson.

Ok ... the three stooges. Well beauty and the two beasts anyway. Calvin is the much bigger, tougher and more masculine size and of course the girl is the pretty Ashley Tan Mui Chin who happens to be one of the most stylish colleague I have at Wilhelmsen.

On the 26th November 2010, some of my colleagues and I decided to go to Neway and cool some steam off after a hectic and fun-filled annual dinner. It took us a week to plan for it though.

More to come after this post ...

Jailbreaking the iPhone 3G/3GS with iOS v4.0.1 and new bootrom

noreply@blogger.com (Nickelby) — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 14:30:00 +0000

First, open up Safari on your iPhone and go to http://www.jailbreakme.com OR http://jailbreakme.modmyi.com. Slide the unlock bar to begin the jailbreaking process. If you are stuck at the 'purple screen of nothingness' ;-), please ensure that you:

1. From Settings -> Safari -> Set Accept Cookies to NEVER
2. Turn OFF pop-up blocker (this is very important!

Enjoy!

Permanently Overclocking the Nokia N900 and Modifying the Swappiness

noreply@blogger.com (Nickelby) — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 15:25:00 +0000

With a LV kernel, do the following:

sudo kernel-config load lv
sudo kernel-config limits 250 805 (if you want your min speed to 250mhz and max to 805mhz. I did mine with 250 and 1150 with no ill-effects atm)
sudo kernel-config save lv8
sudo kernel-config load lv8
sudo kernel-config default lv8

To modify the swappiness of the Nokia N900 which at default is 100 (60 or 30 seems to be the sweet spot for some), do the following:

1. EDIT /etc/init.d/rcS
2. Look for the value 100 for swappiness (it has /proc in it) and change the value 100 to value 60 or 30.
3, SAVE the file.

Again kudos to the forum at Maemo for this ^_^

Nokia N900 Does Work in Japan!

noreply@blogger.com (Nickelby) — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 13:54:00 +0000

If your Nokia N900 doesn't work in Japan especially if you're using NTT DoCoMo's 3G data-only SIM, try the following as root

dbus-send --system --type=method_call --print-reply --dest=com.nokia.phone.net "/com/nokia/csd/gprs" org.freedesktop.DBus.Properties.Set string:com.nokia.csd.GPRS string:AttachMode variant:string:WhenAvailable

Hopefully that will sort this out for you ^_^. Credits goes to the fine folks at the Maemo forums.

Kobukuru - Tsubomi (theme song from the 'True Story of Mari' Youtube clip)

noreply@blogger.com (Nickelby) — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 12:43:00 +0000

The song on the 'True Story of Mari' on Youtube is sung by Kobukuro titled Tsubomi. Here are the lyrics in Japanese and the translation. Original post from ShouraiNoYume ^_^. Tsubomi means flower bud in case you are wondering ...

Lyrics in Japanese

Namida koboshitemo ase ni mamireta egao no naka ja
Dare mo kidzuite wa kurenai
Dakara anata no namida wo boku wa shiranai
Tayasu kotonaku boku no kokoro ni tomosareteita
Yasashii akari wa anata ga kureta riyuu naki ai no akashi
Yawarakana hidamari ga tsutsumu senaka ni botsuri hanashi kakenagara
Itsuka konna hi ga kuru koto mo
Kitto, kitto, kitto, wakatteta hazu na no ni
Kiesou ni sakisou na tsubomi ga kotoshi mo boku wo matteru
Tenohira ja tsukamenai kaze ni odoru hanabira
Tachidomaru kata ni hirari
Jouzu ni nosete waratte miseta anata wo omoidasu hitori
Biru no tanima ni umoreta yume wo itsuka mebuite
Hana wo sagasu darou shinjita yume wa saku basho wo erabanai
Bokura kono machi ni otosareta kageboushi minna hikari wo sagashite
Kasanari au toki no nagare mo
Kitto, kitto, kitto, oikoseru hi ga kuru sa
Kaze no nai senro michi go gatsu no misora wa aoku sabishiku
Ugokanai chigiregumo itsu made mo ukabeteta
Doko ni mo mou modorenai
Boku no you da to sasayaku kaze ni kirari mai ochiteku namida
Chirigiwa ni mou ichido hiraku hanabira wa anata no you ni
kikoenai ganbare wo nigitta ryoute ni nando mo kureta
Kiesou ni sakisou na tsubomi ga kotoshi mo boku wo matteru
Ima mo mada tsukamenai anata to egaita yume
Tachidomaru boku no soba de
Yasashiku hiraku egao no you na tsubomi wo sagashiteru sora ni

Translation in English

just like crying, in the middle of a smile smeared with perspiration
no one can be recognised
thats why i don't know about your tears

its still burning, lighting up my heart
i recieved from you the tender light, proof of unconditional love

while being enveloped by the gentle spot under the sun, i whisper into your back
even if a day like this comes again
surely, surely, surely, you would be able to understand

vanishing and blooming, this year too the flower bud is waiting for me
the petal dancing in the wind that my palm can't grasp
stops on the shoulder lightly
skillfully riding it and showing a smile, i remember you by myself

in the valley of buildings, sometimes buried dreams bud too
isn't that what makes flowers bloom? you can't choose where your dreams will blossom

the silhouettes we dropped on this town, they're all looking for the light
even as time overlaps and flows over itself
surely, surely, surely the day we grow out of this will come

on the breezeless track, the beautiful sky of may feels blue and lonely
the motionless scattered clouds will always be floating
there is no place i can return to anymore
this is the way i am, in the whispering wind it dances to the ground with a flash, my tears

almost scattering, the re-opening petals are like you
giving time and again to these hands that grasp at the silent encouragements

vanishing and blooming, this year too the flower bud is waiting for me
even now i still can't catch the dreams you painted
stopping right beside me
opening gracefully just like a smile, i keep looking for the flower bud, in the sky

The Inspiring Story of Mari and Her Puppies

noreply@blogger.com (Nickelby) — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 02:34:00 +0000

By the Japan News Group (Originally in Japanese)

Three puppies born on the day of an earthquake

On the fateful morning of October 23, 2004, a dog named Mari gave birth to three puppies in Yamakoshi Village, Niigata Prefecture, Japan. That evening, a severe earthquake struck Niigata and devastated the Village, causing almost all of its homes to collapse, including the one where Mari lived. During the quake the newborn puppies were jolted away from their mother, and since their eyes were still closed, they could not find their way back to her side. Also, because she was bound by a leash, Mari could not reach her babies. She tried repeatedly to pull free from the leash, but to no avail. Then, several tremors occurred and Mari tried even harder to break free until her neck began to bleed. Suddenly, another strong aftershock struck, Mari struggled with all her might, and the collar suddenly came loose. Next she quickly picked up her puppies, moved them to a safe place, and without taking a rest ran toward the ruins that were once her house.

Courageous rescue of grandfather

The grandfather of Mari’s family was home alone that day. He lived on the second floor, but suffered from a neurological disorder that made it impossible for him to stand on his feet or climb the stairs unassisted. After the earthquake, the old man was immobilized as he had been trapped beneath a wardrobe. Aftershocks and the total darkness resulting from a power outage pushed him into desperately thinking that death might be around the corner. Just then, Mari appeared in his room on the second floor and looked at him with encouraging eyes. The grandfather had been slipping into unconsciousness, but when he saw Mari he regained awareness although he was still immobilized. Mari then licked him to give him encouragement and went downstairs several times to check on her pups before quickly returning to the man’s room. She ran back and forth many times even though her paws had been injured by the sharp-edged glass and pieces of porcelain that lay all over the floor. Each trip gave her new wounds, but Mari managed to kindle new hope in the grandfather’s heart, and looking at Mari he thought, “I must live on. I cannot give up,” Finally, he pushed at the wardrobe with all his strength, it gave way and he managed to free himself. Then with Mari's encouragement, the grandfather spent two hours climbing down the stairs—a feat he had previously been unable to accomplish without help. Upon reaching the ground floor, he was happy to find that the three puppies were safe and sound.

A sad parting and further ordeals

After the October 23, 2004 earthquake Yamakoshi Village was in a state of total destruction and isolation as all local roads had been cut off. And with a continuous series of aftershocks increasing the danger of landslides, on October 25 all the villagers were evacuated by helicopter to a nearby accommodation center. Under these circumstances, the grandfather was forced to leave Mari behind for in times of disaster saving human lives is the main concern. He left all of his pet food for his beloved dog, prayed that she and her pups would be safe and took off her collar. Then, with no other options, as he boarded the helicopter to leave behind the one who had saved his life, he said with guilt and sadness, "I’m very sorry, Mari," and felt heart-broken as Mari howled in deep sorrow.
As time passed and her supply of rations ran out, Mari had to search for food in her abandoned village, suffering many ordeals as she tried to protect her little puppies. All the while the grandfather thought of her constantly, and with anxiety over the continuing tremors fell ill and had to be hospitalized. Then two weeks after the evacuation, the villagers were allowed to return to Yamakoshi to see their homes. Among the returnees was the man’s son, who immediately began to search for Mari. Upon finding her, he noticed that she was much thinner, and she hesitated for an instant after hearing her name but then dashed toward him. He held her close in his arms for a long time. Mari had not had enough food for herself, but she fed her babies milk and took care of them as well as she could. In contrast to their skinny mother, the three puppies looked chubby and healthy as they slept sweetly on the porch. The son was delighted to see the little pups growing up in good health.

Before Yamakoshi Village was reconstructed, the villagers remained in temporary housing in a neighboring city. Being in charge of advertising affairs for the village committee, the son was a busy man so he placed Mari and her puppies in the care of another family. When the grandfather was still in the hospital, Mari's caretaker took her to visit him. Thus, after undergoing countless trials, Mari and the old man were finally reunited. Mari was very happy to see the man, who was recuperating and said with quivering lips and tears filling his eyes, "Thank you for saving my life."
Then in April 2005 the grandfather was discharged from the hospital and began living with his son and Mari in an apartment. By that time Mari's three puppies had been adopted by other families and were growing up healthily in their new homes. Today, the grandfather and his family are still living in the apartment but look forward to returning soon to Yamakoshi Village.

Fireworks for Mari

Mari’s touching story, which illustrates the mutual trust and love between humans and animals that helps them through ordeals, has frequently been reported in the news media and has also been adapted as an illustrated storybook — Mari of Yamakoshi Village and Her Three Pups. The book has received a huge response in Japan and serves as a great inspiration for disaster victims. The company that published the volume is contributing part of its sales revenues to the reconstruction and relief funds for areas affected by the October 2004 earthquake, and distributes the book free of charge to children in Yamakoshi Village and its thirteen neighboring cities.

On August 2, 2005, the villagers held a fireworks celebration in their city of refuge just as they do in their home town each year, and this year event was entitled “Fireworks for Mari.” While participating in the festivity they wished that Yamakoshi Village could be recovered as quickly as possible. Amid the dazzling light and smoke of the fireworks, Mari's radiant smile seemed to fill the night sky, bringing hope and encouragement to the spectators.

Nokia N900 Virtual Keyboard Missing

noreply@blogger.com (Nickelby) — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 09:18:00 +0000

If you're like me, always fooling around with packages from the extras and the extras-devel repositories, you may have come across packages that enables you to input native Eastern languages on the N900.

However, installing SCIM for Nokia N900 will cause one annoying issue which is in place of your new CJK capabilities, you will lose the default virtual keyboard. Enabling and re-enabling it works for some but not all. I am in the latter group. My fix? Well after scouting off the forums and Internet for pr0n, I came across this solution :-)

1. DELETE "/etc/event.d/scim" if it exists
2. RUN "/usr/bin/gtk-query-immodules-2.0 > /etc/gtk-2.0/gtk.immodules"
3. Finally run "rm -f /home/user/.cache/launch/com.nokia.controlpanel.pvr" if you still see it appears for a while in the SETTINGS menu.

With Linux, anything is possible ^_^ otherwise the Mac OSx will never base its kernel off the Unixes would it? ;-)

Danny Choo Kuala Lumpur Meetup

noreply@blogger.com (Nickelby) — Sun, 16 May 2010 13:56:00 +0000

Danny Choo of www.dannychoo.com fame is in town! We had a meet up about a few hours ago at Hutong Lot 10 (same floor as the ISetan supermarket). Crowd was about 70-80 people at least with yours truly :-). No ... Danny isn't in StormTrooper armour but even then, he had the force to attract quite a number of people even those who were just having some grub there!
Danny just arriving at the meet up location with his daughter, Mirai-chan. Notice how beautiful she is? Classic I tell you!
Danny preparing some magic tricks or rather his customary name cards to be given out to his fans. I managed to get mine signed by him.
This picture does not really do justice as there were really a lot of people at the place to meet up with Danny. I wonder how he has all the energy to smile so very often and not showing us his murderous angry face ^^'
Here we have Danny laughing after I wore a shirt displaying "I am looking for a Japanese girlfriend" in Japanese and told him that I was 'seriously' looking for a Japanese girlfriend in both 2D and 3D worlds. My wife will probably murder me after reading this post ...
The customary picture of Danny and me. I never noticed I looked so 'big' compared to Danny. This picture will serve as a reminder to me that I must lose some pounds :-)

Getting Danny to sign my Otacool 2 book. I gotten a friend of mine to ask Danny to sign my Otacool 1 book. I wonder how will I ever get Danny to sign my Otacool 3 book when I get it ...

Danny finished signing my book. Marvelous piece of work if I should say so myself? Why? Anything that is rare to get (how often do you get someone famous and cool signing your book) is considered marvelous at least in my dictionary ;-).

Danny signing another fan's piece of work. You got to admit it was kind of nice and creative to have the picture printed out with really cool borders and to finally have Danny's signature on it!

Another picture of the above. I liked it hence another picture of it ;-).

This is the other picture that the same fan did and had Danny signed it as well.

Hong aka Headbleeder, one of the Melati hackers having his picture taken with Danny.

This is Yoong aka Grim Reaper, the other Melati hacker also having his picture taken with Danny. The quality of the picture wasn't so great as I don't really have a top notch SLR :-)

Mirai-chan with another dolfie from a cute girl whose name I forgotten. Don't they look like sisters? :-)

Mirai-chan with a really cool drawing done with a computer and of course some magical creativity and skills.

I really liked this picture hence here is a second shot of it. Wish I got mad skills like that :-)

And here you have Danny and the creator/designer of that marvelous piece of art. He's a young chap. Just graduated and hoping to work in Singapore. I hope we'll see more of his work. Really a talented person!

One of the cute figma pictures I took during the meet up. She costs RM 11 only (UPDATED: Her owner told me it's RM 22 ;-)). Her owner is a really lucky dude :-)

This is the other picture which I liked and also taken from the Danny Choo meet up.

Since I like both of them a lot I decided to 'steal' them for a while and put my name card there for the world to see :-)

This is Solomon, the guy who made the Danny Choo meet up possible. You might know him as the Danny Choo copy or the fake Danny Choo but whatever it is, he has my gratitude for making this meet up a possibility.

Solomon really took some nice pics with his camera. He has mad ass camera skills :-). He kindly took this of Danny Choo and me ^_^

He then took this of Danny Choo giving me his name card. Danny gives generic name cards to all his fans. It only lists out his website and his e-mail address.

Me showing Danny my Otaku-ness with my copy of Otacool 2 book. I actually had Danny signed my Otacool 1 book through Hong ^_^'

Another picture by Solomon capturing Danny signing my Otacool 2 book.

That's all folks for now. I will be updating my blog soon with some other stuff which might be interesting or uninteresting for you depending on what you like. Please feel free to add me on Twitter or Facebook. Nickelby is an easy name to find :-). Signing off ...

Japanese New Year Celebrations in Japan Club, Kuala Lumpur

noreply@blogger.com (Nickelby) — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 00:24:00 +0000

These pictures were taken with an iPhone 3G on the 16 January 2010 at the Japan Club, Taman Seputeh, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on the occasion of the Japanese New Year celebrations. Although celebrated annually in Malaysia, it does but not have a fixed day but it is usually held within the month of January. This year, I tagged along with my best Japanese friend of many years, HiroKL-san. Please note that you need to be a member of the Japan Club to enter here or at least your friend is a member.
This is the first picture showing the location for the lucky draw winners (one entry per member) and also the video arcade section for kids/adults to have some video games time. This was in the Japan Club building itself.
Just outside the video game section, you can see these beautifully designed flowers. I am not sure who the designer is but if it's another Japanese friend of mine I will not be surprised as she has excellent flower making skills! ^_^
Some calligraphy outside done by adults. You can judge by the strokes and the presentation of the words.
Of couse, not forgetting the young kids' passion at calligraphy too. Maybe I should send my future children to learn this art ^_^
These are some of the stores that were set outside in the compounds of the Japanese club. There are more pictures of the stores later.
One of the games that most Japanese children will participate. The trick here is to get those ballons out of the water without breaking the water-sensitive paper tape that is attached to those ballons. The prize? The ballons of course ^^'
Another popular game for the Japanese kids and honestly one of the games that I liked to watch. You will need to throw the ball into any of those boxes and if you have a cetain number of balls in the boxes, you'll get a prize. Watch the boy in the picture getting ready to throw the ball...
He got two and getting ready for his third strike! He has probably better luck and chance than me getting the prizes! At the end of the day, the kids are bound to have prizes as the main objective of these games (apart from getting parents to spend their money) is to see those kids happy. Yes, the boy in the picture got some prizes but unfortunately I did not get the chance to snap his really big happy smile ^_^
A pretty hard game where the kids are expected to throw a hulla hoop over the items/prizes that they want. For RM5 approx USD 1.50, the best prize you'll get is probably a can of soft drink, some snacks and a small toy. I would join if the toy was a Doraemon figurine ^^'
Probably the hardest game of all. You may choose on a bow with plastic arrows or a toy gun that can fire a big plastic projectile to try and take down the items/prizes that you want. Believe it or not, as simple as it looks, to these poor kids, it's a pretty hard chore to get the prizes they want!
Ah ... what is New Year celebrations without food. The is the famous Kakigōri (かき氷) store where I never fail to visit whenever I have the chance to do so. Kakigōri is famously known as 'ice kacang' in the Malay language or also commonly known as 'ABC' to the locals here.
And these are the main ingredients of Kakigōri whereby it consits of shaved ice, some colourful flavored syrup (dark green means green tea, blue means blue hawaii (whatever that means), red means strawberry, light green means melon and yellow means lemon).
Of course, there's also other food such as onigiri, yakitori, etc. including sushi as well.
Other food as well (I am feeling hungry already just typing this ^^' ...)
BBQed calamari or 'ika' costing RM8 each. They taste nice and good IF there weren't so many overcooked (burns) on them.
Back to the Japanese club building again and on the way to the roof top, I was greeted by a familiar sign ...
ONE plate per person ... must be something really good ;-)
Look at the queue! What could this be? *suspense suspense*
The cooks are preparing something that only one plate per person. It has to be good!
The secret's out ^^ It's mochi (餅), a Japanese rice cake made of glutinous rice pounded into paste and molded into shape. In Japan it is traditionally made in a ceremony called mochitsuki.
The big brown thingy you see is where the flour mixture is pounded to soften the texture before they are molded into paste.
Lady in glasses: Now let's mix this ...
Lady in glasses: Mix it over here as well ...
Lady in glasses: Let me put this here ...
Lady in glasses: I better be quick before that fella starts to pound my hand instead ^^'
View from the roof top. You can see four rows of stalls selling all kinds of food and also games for the children (as per shown in the earlier pictures). See any pretty Japanese girls? ^_^
Man in white: Haiyah!!! I am getting good in pounding.
Man in white: I am going to do this in a record time!
The mochi paste getting ready to be cooked.
One of the popular ingredients, red bean filling!
And the final product is out! You will get three kinds of mochis and it's FREE. The only thing is like stated earlier is you can only have one plate at at time. Still it tastes good and it's free and my stomach is very happy ^_^
Nice! Instructions for where to get your free mochi and whether you want to do mochi pounding which is actually getting you to do the fun and dirty job of making food for people like me to eat ^^'
The Shogi room. Shogi is Japanese favourite past time of all ages in Japan. Shogi literally means Japanese Chess. I have Morita Shogi on my iPhone as well as Kakinori Shogi and these games are really good if you want to learn shogi on the go ^_^
Looks like reversi but I may be seriously wrong ^^'
Back outside, I got a glimpse of the famous fish catching game whereby you are given a paper cup or a paper 'spoon' to fish out as many fishes as you can into a bowl/bucket/cup before the paper gives in. I personally have seen a girl catching 8-10 goldfishes in one scoop. Don't ask me how she did it ... she has to be a vetaran in this kind of games.
Performance time started with some Japanese and local ladies doing a Malay dance. To be honest, I was expecting more of the Japanese culture to be seen instead of the local ones. But I guess that is what interest the Japanese here more ...
Due to rain outside and not having an umbrella and also not wanting to get sick again, I went back into the building and decided to really have a look at the video games section. First things first, this game is where you play to win sweets. Looks very tempting indeed with all those candies waiting to be gobbled up! ^_^
Dance Dance Revolution-like game. Three kids playing it??? No wonder they get all the moves wrong ^^'
A Japanese girl showing her best moves on this drum simulation game. She is very focused on getting high scores ^^
Another drumming game. The cute Japanese girl that you see seems to be really good in this game judging from the scores I saw at the end.
Nintendo's Mario Kart 2 is always a favourite for kids and racing game enthuasists like yours truly ^^'
I cannot remember this game's name but I do know how to play it and it is usually present in any amusement centre.
Ok this is probably the only game that I can never understand on how to play it. Some kind of games that requires picture cards.
And they have super power ups too! ^^'
A game specially designed for the young female games. Surprisingly though, this game language is in English.
This is the game where you will be hitting the 'crocodiles' that are popping out of the machine with a rubber hammer and score points when you hit those 'crocodiles'.
This kid was pretty cunning. He knew that he could never get the score high enough if he were to play it alone so he got his entire family to join in by knocking ALL the 'crocodiles' that were coming out. In the end, he scored hitting over 70 'crocodiles' in one minute!!! ^^'
At the end of the day, this is where we ate. At the Japanese restaurant called Hiwamari (reminds you of xxxHolic's Hiwamari-chan). I had beef sukiyaki and to be honest, this is one of the best sukiyaki you can have while in Kuala Lumpur.

After dinner, I said my goodbyes to my friends and headed home after a very eventful day ^_^ Hopefully I will be able to participate again in the New Year celebrations next year!