iPhonographs

Here are some pics I took with my iPhone and touched up using adobe photoshop app for iPhone:




Christmas curls





Yuletide lights



Halo shade



Stacks
Hope that you like my pics. Please comment.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Making a blog post from my iPhone.

This is my first blog post from my iPhone. I've downloaded the blogpress lite app for iPhone as it is the only native app that can post to blogger (that I know of). Do you use iPhone to blog? If so, please share how you're doing it.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

StormWarriors (a.k.a StormRiders 2) / 風雲2

Finally after more than a decade, the sequel to the StormRiders is finally released. And I have to say, my expectations were sky high for this sequel. Going into the cinema, armed with a drinks and some popcorn, I was ready for a good time. Add to this, I had a conversation with someone working with UIP just a few days ago and he was telling me this should be a good movie with all the Hollywood-styled special FX. And being a big fan of the first movie (back when I was still in university), this sequel came already too late with a series of postponements. For those who don't know what Storm Riders or Storm Warriors is, it is very successful and popular Hong Kong comic series created by the Ma Wing-Shing.

This will be a pretty brief review and I hope it does not contain any spoilers (BE CAUTIONED: THIS ARTICLE MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS!!). The most noticeable improvement was of course the special effects and eye candy. Being a decade later, this shouldn't come as a surprise with the rapid development in computer technology and cinematic techniques. So you SHOULD expect good graphics and special effects here. The graphics mostly tries to portray its comic counterpart and makes the action parts in the movie very comic like (much like Marvel's super heroes movies in the USA). For most of the movie, the special effects is pretty much enjoyable, so thumbs up for this department.

As for the sound department.... one word: HORRENDOUS. Okay, firstly, either the stupid film operator turned the volume too loud or he was instructed to turn it TOO loud. Every clink and clank of the swords will hurt your eardrums and sometimes even when the guys shout. Super loud and there were parts in the movie that I had to squeeze my ears to actually watch it. Anyway, I doubt it was the operators mistake. Why I say that? Well, the movie excelled in graphics and video department and they probably tried to make the sounds effects good too. They failed.... AGAIN. All too common in Hong Kong movies. No wonder I didn't see any THX or Dolby Digitial Surround intros at the start. In the movie, the music was pretty "surround-y", but that was all. Apart from one part in the movie where Nameless wrote something with his sword on the mountain walls, everything else was not surround at all. Add to that, music selection and placement was pretty bad too (but thats only me, probably some may have no problems with it or may even like it). It makes you feel like the sounds were pretty much a rush job. So that is why I suspect the film operator was instructed to turn the volume up, so that the sound "feels" like surround.

The movie starts off pretty well I would say with the villain Lord Godless (I know, I'm speechless with the direct translation of the names as well) capturing most of the martial art experts in China and most importantly Nameless (if you ever have no idea what to name your child or pet, this would be a good name =D). The story continues with Godless wanting to conquer China by capturing the Royal tomb of the Chinese Kings. The dialog in the movie was terrible and also minimal. The actors/actresses had a pretty easy time I would say. I will not say too much about the story but I will only say I did not like most of it. There was a little too much drama for my liking (keeping in mind this is suppose to be an fantasy action Kung Fu movie). And at the end of the movie, it either keeps you wanting more (the ending makes you feel that StormRider 3 will be made, maybe in another 10 years?) or makes you glad it has ended. I was mostly glad it ended. Another 10 years to wait for the next sequel? Maybe, but by then the two main characters would be another 10 years older.... they'd probably them. That brings me to one of the rare plus points of this movie, the two main characters are still Ekin Cheng and Aaron Kwok. Had it been any other stars replacing them, this movie would be even crappier. I hope you enjoy it more than I did, but unless you're high on something, I don't see how this could be a recommended must-go movie.

My final rating for this movie: 4/10.

Placenta treatment on sportsmen

Recently there is a surge of sportsmen, especially football players (soccer for americans), that are undergoing placenta treatment. Googling it didn't give much as it is a fairly new (and also controversial) treatment allegedly founder by a Serbian doctor, Mariana Kovacevic.


First it was Arsenal's Robin van Persie, now half a dozen more Premier League stars are making the pilgrimage to Serbia for treatment with "placental fluid".

The placenta is the tissue that attaches the baby via the umbilical cord to the wall of the womb, and is delivered as the afterbirth. It does not contain fluid, but is surrounded by amniotic fluid in which the baby swims while in the womb.

How rubbing this fluid, or any part of the placenta, on to an injured ankle could hasten its repair is anybody's guess. For the team doctors only one thing matters: that it does no harm. As it is unlikely to do anything, they will feel reassured.

Well, I certainly need some of this treatment too as my neck and shoulder pain is killing me everyday. Until this treatment or ointment is available in the general public, I will have to rely on good 'ol natural human masseur. 

"24" Season 8

Season 8 of Fox's "24" has been announced and will be premiered on the 17th January 2010 in the United States. I've been an avid fan of 24 ever since season 1 and although I'm looking forward to season 8, I gotta admit my expectations are not so high now for this series. For one, every new season seems all the more predictable. Can't blame the writers though. It has been the flagship of the 24 series to have all the conspiracy, internal traitors, etc. They have probably ran out of ideas on how to make a new season more creative or different (or they might just wanna keep it the same). But that being said, 24 has actually evolved a lot from being a primarily Counter Terrorist Unit to CTU being abolished (season 7 onwards). Not sure if CTU will be revived in season 8.

Nevertheless, I still look forward to watching the new season and watching Jack Bauer get screwed all over again! But maybe I would like to see the "powerful" people behind all the conspiracies in the US Government brought to justice (wishful thinking). At least 24 ends every season with an ending. Unlike Heroes, which seems to be never ending and hopefully they know their ratings aren't really as great as they would have liked. And I'm kind of glad Prison Break came to a series ending too. That aside, my current favorite series would be Dexter but its a shame Dexter seasons are pretty short and makes you crave more for the new season...

Blacksn0w will be released soon. 11/03/2009.

Geohot has done it. Blacksn0w (a.k.a Blackra1n with unlock) will be released tonite. Here is an excerpt from Geohot's blog:

Today 11/3/09 is a sn0w day. School is officially cancelled, and all your iPhones will be unlocked. Remember getting those calls?


At Noon EST, I will be making it sn0w, and I'm looking to see "#blacksn0w" trending. blacksn0w is the unlock for the latest 05.11.07 baseband, and will also enable official tethering. blackra1n, a jailbreak for 3.1.2, has been updated to RC3, with hacktivation support, 15 second speed improvement, Tiger+PPC support, and installation of the latest blackra1n.app. Here is how getting yourself some sn0w and ra1n will work.


Nothing is live until Noon


If you are a loyal blackra1n user who kept the blackra1n.app on your iPhone, run it. You will see Icy replaced by an option "ra1n". Install this to upgrade your app. After upgrading, run blackra1n.app again. You will see "sn0w". Install this, and enjoy your unlocked iPhone.


If you are new to the scene, just looking for an unlock, finally ready to upgrade to 3.1.2 and the accompanying baseband, willing to restore for the latest and greatest, or stuck on the "Connect to iTunes" screen, you are in luck. Jailbreaking and unlocking have never been easier. Go to blackra1n.com, click on the logo corresponding to your operating system, run the app, and click "make it ra1n". When your phone reboots, you'll see blackra1n.app. Run this, install blacksn0w, and enjoy your unlocked iPhone.


If you jailbroke using pwnage or deleted your blackra1n.app, you are in luck too. Sometime later in the sn0wday, blacksn0w will be added to Cydia, and instructions will be posted here.


If you are on a 2G iPhone, blacksn0w isn't an option for you. But BootNeuter is, a completely free permanent unlock for your 2G. Of course, blackra1n will work great, and even hacktivate for you.


If you have been getting 404 errors when downloading from blackra1n.com, first off, be sure you use the links at blackra1n.com If you are, something is blocking your http referrer.


Thanks to ih8sn0w for bringing the at+xemn command to my attention. This is the injection vector used to get code running on the baseband. One of these days I will write a technical post about how it works.


Also, a note. This may be the best iPhone users ever have it. Be sure, if you have a 3GS or iPod Touch 3, to use Cydia's "On File" or Firmware Umbrella in order to be able to restore to 3.1.2 in the future. And as always, the baseband cannot be downgraded, so be *super* careful with updates if you need the unlock.


Anyone with an upgraded (FW 3.1.2) iPhone 3G/3GS, your baseband will likely be 05.11.07 baseband and if you're not on the official network, then you will need this to unlock your phone. Brace yourself people.. for BLACKSN0W!

New Blackra1n RC2 jailbreak from Geohot for iPhone

I jailbroke my iPhone 3GS on firmware 3.1.2 last month using the Blackra1n software by Geohot. Everything was smooth sailing for me, but I do understand many people went through a lot of problems with their iPhones. Mainly because of the different versions there are (i.e. 2G, 3G, 3GS with different firmwares as well). Well, Geohot has released version 2 of the Blackra1n jailbreak method which hopefully solves many of your problems.

Here is the update list:

• Fixed 3G issues
• Tethered jailbreak for 3.1 OOTB ipt 8GB and new 3GSes
• Fixed Icy issues
• Both Windows and Mac
• If you used RC1 with success, no need to rerun

Note the last one. IF YOU HAVE SUCCESSFULLY JAILBROKEN YOUR IPHONE USING THE FIRST VERSION, YOU DO NOT NEED TO JAILBREAK AGAIN WITH THIS VERSION!

Sorry I had to SHOUT that.... some people just don't understand it :)

If you're looking for a step-by-step guide (I'm not gonna write one since so many are already available on the net), go here for a pretty good guide: iPhone Download Blog and you can download the blackra1n executable here: BLACKRA1N.

Please note though that this jailbreak method (blackra1n) DOES NOT UNLOCK YOUR PHONE. So if you need to unlock your iPhone, do not use this method.

Microsoft My Phone... their solution to Apple's MobileMe

Microsoft has a new service called My Phone (maybe it isn't new, but I just discovered it). Its a very apparent respond to Apple's MobileMe service. Well, I do not use MobileMe service for my iPhone and neither do I own a Windows Mobile cellphone, so I can't make any comparison about these two services. One thing I know though is that Microsoft's My Phone service is free (although service provider data charges may incur).

Google Wave, I HAVE!

I was recently given a spanking brand new Google Wave beta account :D With all the hype about it a few months back, I think I remember signing up for the beta account. If you do not know about Google Wave, check out the loooonnngg video below:



Of course I was like a kid receiving a new toy and dived right into it. I'm a little perturbed to explain what Google Wave does. I will quote from Google's website:

"Google Wave is an online communication and collaboration tool that makes real-time interactions more seamless -- in one place, you can communicate and collaborate using richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more.


A wave is a conversation with multiple participants -- participants are people added to a wave to discuss and collaborate on its content. Participants can reply any time and anywhere within a wave, and they can edit content and add more participants as a wave develops. It's also possible to rewind waves with the playback functionality, to see what happened, and when."

Obviously being only the first few who get this account, I do not have many things I can do in it. Fortunately I have another friend who also received an invitation to test the account. Its a great tool for collaborations or online meetings to take place and certainly at this moment in time looks promising. You can't do much yet beside the messaging part, embedding Google Maps and some other extensions.

Whats amazing is that you can see what is being typed in real time. So whatever you need to type, think about it first before you type. Because if you make a mistake, the person on the other side will see it even if you have backspaced to delete it. Of course you can always disable the real time typing, but you might as well use Windows Live Messenger then =)

You can even edit previous messages or your collaborators' messages. All in real time. Watch the video above and you will see what I mean. But would this replace the messengers out there? Well, we'll just have to wait and see.

Demonoid still down...

My favorite torrent site Demonoid is still down. According to their message, they are having some technical problems (dB problems) and are still trying to recover their data. If you visit their website (http://www.demonoid.com) you will see these messages:

The site will return as soon as possible, but there was a problem that caused data loss and the person who can help us get the data back is not able to help at this moment. The site will return when we can get his help

A loss of a some months worth of activity including registered users and torrent submissions is to be expected because the backup we are hoping to get back is not up to date, so please be prepared for it

---

If you have a torrent tracked by Demonoid, you can add the following tracker URLs to it to help speed up the transfer.
Please refer to your bittorrent client documentation for help how to do this

http://bittrk.appspot.com/announce

http://trackhub.appspot.com/announce

http://ultraluxx.appspot.com/announce

http://tracker.openbittorrent.com/announce

http://tracker.publicbt.com/announce

http://tracko.appspot.com/announce

http://tk.comicat.com/announce

http://torrent.ipnm.ru/announce

http://denis.stalker.h3q.com/announce

http://tracker4.finalgear.com/announce

http://betadoctor.appspot.com/announce

http://theninjahideout.appspot.com/announce

http://tracker.prq.to/announce

http://tracker.bittorrent.am/announce

http://nemesis.1337x.org/announce

Oh well... Anyway, there are still tonnes of other websites out there which I rely on my sources for torrents. Can still live without demonoid. I'm still getting my constant flow of American series :D

iPhone/iPod Touch future owners take note, Apple is breaking Jailbreak!

It seems that Apple is going all out to stop all jailbreaks on their iPhones and iPod Touches. This excerpt from iClarified says it all :-

Apple is now shipping the iPhone 3GS with a new Bootrom that is not vulnerable to the 24kpwn exploit.

The iBoot-359.3.2 started to ship last week. A screenshot posted by Mathieulh shows the new version number.

MuscleNerd from the iPhone Dev-Team has confirmed that the loss of the 24kpwn exploit would mean a normal jailbreak would be impossible for the time being.

oh oh, from what @cpich3g + @Mathieulh have found so far, a normal untethered JB may be in jeopardy in brand new 3GS units

For the time being we would suggest locating old stock or refurbished units. Hopefully, the dev teams will be able to find another exploit for the new bootrom.

Well... fortunately i've got my iPhone already. But for those looking forward to get their iPhones and jailbreaking them, better hope you're not getting one of these new ones. But I'm sure the genius hackers out there would probably find a way around it again.... you'll just have to wait a little longer if Apple does what is said above.

Gay footballers of the month picture

Now here's a pic that shows how gay football (soccer in the USA) can get. Can Sol Campbell (the one being grabbed sue for sexual harassment/molestation? Lol... Nice one.

Now here's the real story behind it from SkySports

Demonoid.com down for maintanence... phew!

One of my favorite torrent sites is down for (prolonged) maintenance. And here I thought it is being brought down again like what happened a few years back.


This is what I got from a website:

Demonoid, the most prominent and frequently visited private tracker has closed the site for maintenance today. The operators are trying to solve some technical difficulties that have caused problems for several days already.


“We are experiencing power outages that have caused some ram and hard drive issues. We might have to shut down everything to fix and prevent further damage,” Demonoid’s operators wrote several days ago and today they shut the site down temporarily.


“We will be back as soon as possible, but this will probably be a prolonged downtime. Thank you for your patience,” visitors can read on the Demonoid home page.


How long the downtime will take has not been announced, but we hope it’s shorter than the six months downtime they had in 2008.

Hopefully they will be back up soon. I want my Star Trek Movie!!

Owned 2 iPhones 3Gs in as many weeks (and OS ver 3.1)

I just got my new iPhone 3Gs from Maxis last Sunday and this week I have another new one. Well, I still only have one, the second one being a replacement from my first one (from last week). Why you might ask? The first one went kaput and I sent in for repairs on last Saturday and got a replacement on the recent Monday. The iPhone was beyond repair (thanks to the car lighter USB port which I used to charge it). The moment I plug it into the car lighter outlet, I could feel the heat on the iPhone and the next thing I know the iPhone's battery was draining like 1% every 30 seconds. By the time I send it to Maxis center, it was already drained out and the 'experts' there couldn't start it up (and they can't check whether I jailbroke the iPhone too!! Lol...) so they deemed it irreparable. I was told the replacement would probably arrive in another 2 to 3 weeks due to shortages in supply and also the fact that they had to get it from Singapore (I suppose Singapore's Apple is the regional office). Great! I waited 2 weeks for the iPhone and now I gotta wait another 2 weeks minimum.

However I was pleasantly surprise when 2 days later (Monday) I received an SMS from them saying that my iPhone has been repaired and ready for collection. Two thoughts came to my mind.

1. Maybe they found out it can be repaired and so replaced the circuit board and voila! But I had mixed feelings with this thought. What if the battery unit is not slightly defficient now because of the draining??
2. Maybe they were able to start the phone and found my phone has been jailbroke before and decided to void my warranty... that would be crap!

Anyway, when I arrived to pick up the unit, I was told that it was a replacement unit... imagine my relieve when I heard that. But I am really surprise that they have the replacement in little more than 2 days only. And it is actually just one day if you minus the Sunday as it is a non-working day.

Now that I have the new iPhone, i'm not going to use that darn car lighter USB anymore. Learnt my lesson. Maxis though, do not need to know about this (or there goes the warranty). Ok... off to jailbreak my iPhone now!!!

Ok... Apple has just announced the latest iPhone OS ver 3.1. It has little enhancement over the previous ver 3.01 but nevertheless still an enhancement. Jailbreakers do not attempt to upgrade yet as it would probably remove all your settings and Apps. As for myself, I'm not so hyped about this ver 3.1 OS. There isn't really any enhancement that I would REALLY want that I would sacrifice my jailbreak and upgrade the OS. So if you can wait, just hold horses and wait for ver 3.1 jailbreak before upgrading.

Here is a list of some of the enhancements:

• Improved syncing for music, movies, TV shows, podcasts, and photos
• iTunes U content organization
• Redeem iTunes Gift Cards, codes, and certificates in the App Store
• Display available iTunes account credits in the App Store and iTunes Store
• Save video from Mail and MMS into Camera Roll
• Option to Save as new clip when trimming a video on iPhone 3GS
• Better iPhone 3G Wi-Fi performance when Bluetooth is turned on (this one sounds funny, why would bluetooth improve Wi-Fi performance?).
• Remotely lock iPhone with passcode via MobileMe
• Use Voice COntrol on iPhone 3GS with Bluetooth headsets (Should have been here all along!).
• Paste phone numbers into the keypad
• Option to use Home button to turn on accessibility features on iPhone 3GS
• Warn when visiting fraudulent websites in Safari (anti-phishing)
• Improved Exchange calendar syncing and invitation handling
• Fixes issue that cause some app icons to display incorrectly

As you can see, no bluetooth file transfer between bluetooth enabled devices yet. If they had enabled that, it would be something that would entice me to upgrade. Anyway, to catch more about the updates go to http://www.apple.com/iphone/softwareupdate/. You can update it via your iTunes (did I mention iTunes is also being upgraded to ver 9.0?). iPod Touch users can also update your OS to ver 3.1 for free!

Korean Chicks!! 소녀시대 - 소원을 말해봐 (Genie) MV

Stumbled upon this amazing video on youtube... God have mercy!!

Sony Playstation 3 Slim unveiled

And to think i nearly bought the PS3 in the past few months, now I'm glad I have held my horses. Today I read on Engadget of the unveiling of the new PS3 Slim which will be available from as soon as next month! Wait, when I say available means countries like the USA, Japan, Europe, etc... But being in Malaysia, I hope to be surprised by Sony Malaysia and not have to wait for another year or two.  The good news is the PS3 Slim will be cheaper (thats the point right?) and from what I have read so far, all features in the original PS3 will be in the PS3 Slim (no cut-backs). Other good news are, the price of the current original PS3 will also be cut. It will cost US$299 for the 80Gb PS3 as well as the new 120Gb PS3 Slim. Unless you like the original PS3's design more than the PS3 Slim, I see no reason why you would wanna buy the original PS3.

Here are some of the spec sheets:
Spec sheet:

• Product name: PlayStation 3
• Product code: CECH-2000A (Charcoal Black)
• CPU: Cell Broadband Engine™
• GPU: RSX
• Audio output: LPCM 7.1ch, Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, DTS, DTS-HD, AAC.
• Memory: 256MB XDR Main RAM, 256MB GDDR3 VRAM
• Hard disk: 120GB 2.5" Serial ATA
• USB 2.0 ports: 2
• Networking: Ethernet (10BASE-T, 100BASE-TX, 1000BASE-T), IEEE 802.11 b/g, Bluetooth 2.0 (+EDR)
• Controller: Wireless Controller (Bluetooth) x 1
• AV outputs: HDMI x 1, AV MULTI OUT x 1, Digital out (optical) x 1
• Resolutions: 1080p, 1080i, 720p, 480p, 480i (for PAL 576p, 576i)
• BD / DVD / CD drive (read only): BD × 2 (BD-ROM), DVD × 8 (DVD-ROM), CD × 24 (CD-ROM)
• Power: AC 220 – 240, 50/60Hz
• Power consumption: Approx. 250W
• External dimensions (excluding maximum projecting part): Approx. 290 × 65 × 290 mm (width × height × length)
• Mass: Approx. 3.2kg
• Included in box: PlayStation 3 system × 1, Wireless Controller (DUALSHOCK 3) × 1, AC power cord × 1, AV cable × 1, USB cable × 1

PS3 Slim (top) compared to PS3 Original.

Dinosaurs beneath us!!!

Finally able to bring my son Kyle to watch his first ever movie in a cinema, ICE AGE 3 : Dawn Of The Dinosaurs (IA3). Tried to watched it last weekend but the queue to the ticket box was sooo looonng. Anyway we didn't wanna wait for next sessions last week so decided that we would make an online purchase prior to going this time around. I must say this is the first time i'm bringing a child (4 years young) to a movie and I'm kinda anxious about him being noisy (like those pesky little things other parents bring that make a whole lot of noise!). And being anxious means not being able to concentrate 100% on the movie. My kid did ask me lots of questions and made comments here and there, but fortunately was able to do so somewhat, undisturbingly...

My son calls this movie "The Squirrel & The Acorn movie". 

As for the movie well, like i said, not 100% concentrated. But it was certainly way more enjoyable than my previous outing (Transformers 2). IA3 looks a lot more gorgeous compared to the first 2 installments. Especially when they ventured into dinoland. The storyline was a very simple search and rescue theme. But hey! these movies are also meant for kids and simple is good! (saves kids from asking too MUCH questions.. lol). This installment of Ice Age also has more kids elements in it as more baby (cuter) versions of the prehistoric animals are included in the story. Its simply a more "adorable" movie than the first two.

The cutesy little T-Rex babies.


I'm not going to spill any spoilers here, but to put it simply, this movie is worth it and if you're looking for some good family entertainment. There's a 3D version too and I'll probably watch it again in 3D sometime soon. I'm giving this movie an 8/10 for good family kid entertainment (only because its my kid's first movie... :P)

The Middle Finger

"I'm not having that crap! Eat this!"

My little nephew Dwayne (barely 12 months old). Usually a man(baby) of little words but when it comes to food, don't mess with him!

Apple iPhone 3Gs - Maxis selling cheaper than Lelong!

I recently came across Maxis' website and saw that they are already offering the iPhone 3Gs. At first I thought they are probably selling it at over RM3000 like when they offered iPhone 3G few months back. The price as mentioned in their website is RM2,490 and RM2,990 for the 16Gb and 32Gb versions respectively. I then went on to Lelong website (http://www.lelong.com.my) to search for sellers. To my surprise, they are all selling much more expensive than Maxis. Prices range from RM2,800 to RM3,980!! Wait till these sellers see what Maxis is offering.

Its probably still to early because Maxis just launched their price like 5 days ago. It would be interesting to see what the auction site sellers are going to drop their prices too. Furthermore, Maxis' iPhones come with legitimate iPhone support, warranty and it is not sim-locked. Although if you use it with another service provider, they will void the warranty. So anyone waiting to get the iPhone 3Gs, don't buy it from vendors Lelong for the moment. If you can wait, then wait while more. If you can't, might as well get it from Maxis. What more, if your phone usage is more than RM100 per month, you can even sign up with a package and get the phone cheaper from as low as RM1590. Now that's a good bargain (but you're stuck with Maxis for at least 12 or 24 months)

Google squeezes Windows users to switch to Chrome OS!

How appropriate!

Transformers 2: Revenge of The Fallen (WARNING: MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS)

MY RATING: 4/10

Nice scene

Finally I got to watch Transfor

mers 2: Revenge of The Fallen two weeks (or was it three?) after its release. Reason: No need to stand in long endless queues for tickets. I know there's such thing as online booking/purchase nowadays. Well, still I'd have to be damn quick just to get the best seats I want.

The movie was around 150 minutes and I must say, I preferred the first instalment much better that this one. I find a lot of draggy scenes in this one and I especially hate all the parts with the annoying mum in it. Besides, why make the movie so dramatic and all those corny little

jokes in the movie are totally inappropriate. I mean jokes are fine, but unintelligent jokes... I find them annoying. And why is it there's always too many decepticons and too little autobots. Autobots are always not around whenever one of their mates are being beaten to death. The part where Optimus Prime fight with Megatron in the forest area, you see autobot rushing and you think they are near. But they only arrive after Optimus is killed! And why is it that whenever the Allspark transforms a machine into a robot, it has to be bad decepticon?

And why the hell did they leave Megatron's head attached to his body and then sinked it down in the ocean? Didn't they think the decepticons could swim? Can't they just have crushed his head and fed his whole body to the hot m

elting lava of an volcanic mountain or a steel factories iron molten pot?! That could have solved their Megatron coming back alive problem! But then again, we wouldn't have part 2 of Transformers would we??

nice booty

Don't get me wrong, I love Transformers and I loved it from young. But they gotta built a story more intelligent than this. Some parts just doesn't makes sense at all. Like the part where the decepticon disguises as Alice. I got a feeling like this was turning into a Terminator movie. And then there was the idea of Sam being able to absorb all the Energon information into his brain just by touching the AllSpark. And then having that vision while he was in class and trying to prove Einstein wrong?? Whats wrong with this movie!! This is turning into a Terminator + Matrix + Alien movie (add a little of American Pie too with all that booty and boobies showoffs). And the parents... gosh, all those scenes with them weren't funny at all man.

The part that really put me off completely was the final part where Sam supposedly died and saw all the dead "Primes" who tells him that its not his time yet and they will send him back to hell to save Optimus Prime. Damn... now robots live in our afterworld.

constructicons, transform!

The only thing I can praise about this movie is the special effects, the superb transformations and the spectacular modified Optimus Prime (and of course the site of Megan Fox's ass). I also like that the Constructicons were brought into this movie (and later merge to be Devastator). Maybe they can bring the Dinobots into Transformers 3 (if there ever going to be one). Battle scenes are great looking just a bit confusing as to which is autobot and which is decepticon.

Sigh! well, like I said, I love Transformers but I'm really disappointed with this second instalment. I'm not so eager about Transformers 3 happening now. God knows what they will make next time around.

Photo mosaic software

Ever wanted to make your own photo mosaic potrait? Found this (Free!) software, Foto-mosaic(http://www.sixdots.de/mosaik/en/), that will help you do just that. You can create a beautiful photo mosaic out of few hundreds of photos.

The software is quite intuitive. All you need is a collection of pictures (you can get tonnes of them can be found on picasa or other image repositories. But just make sure you have permission to use them for your Picasso..

And if you feel generous and find the software useful, you can probably donate to the creator of this software.

TV Series Season Premieres schedule

Here are a few season premier schedules of my favorite TV series

• Fringe (Season 2) - Monday, Sept 17, 2009.
• Heroes (Season 4) - Monday, Sept. 21, 2009.
• CSI: Miami (Season 8) - Monday, Sept. 21, 2009.
• CSI (Season 10) - Thursday, Sept. 24, 2009.
• CSI: NY (Season 6) - Wed., Sept. 23, 2009.
• Dexter (Season 4) - Somewhere around September 2009.
• 24 (Season 8) - Sunday, January 17, 2010 (long time more to go!).

There is also a new series coming from NBC which "looks" interesting. Its starting next year (2010) though. Here is the trailer.

From this trailer, it looks like a big catastrophic end-of-the-world movie or i could be wrong. Could be an aliens invasion/attack movie.

Synopsis from NBC's official website

"In the aftermath of a global event that devastates the world's infrastructures, a small band of survivors strives to rebuild society and unravel the mysteries of why the event took place and what the future has in store. Told from the point of view of an eclectic group of neighbors in a Van Nuys, California apartment building, this journey of survival will show us that hope is found in the smallest of victories and heroes are born every day."

So long to wait!!

Evian, Live young!

Found this while following a tweet. Super cute.

Patrick Teoh

Some of you may not know him. He is the infamous radio DJ from Malaysia's Radio 4 (I think) many years ago. Why infamous? He has hosted radio shows where listeners can call in to give opinions and then he would shoot them down with his sarcasm and sometimes you can even tell that he is uninterested with what callers have to say. My opinion, he's right... hahaha, sometimes the calls are really uninteresting. The topic may be interesting, but the callers.... just plain boring.

Patrick Teoh has also got into trouble with authorities because of his bluntness on radio and his sarcasm. Of course, intelligent and educated people would understand his point of view. Need I elaborate more?? Well, just read The Star Online news and then read Malaysiankini news. Notice the difference (or rather the bias) in tones for political news.

I recently found Patrick Teoh's blog... and its appropriately (and rather funny) named Niamah!!! Hehe... and if you wanna know in more detail about him, go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Teoh.

Michael Jackson's Memorial service

My cousin asked me to record MJ's memorial service for her on Astro (Malaysia's satellite TV). Unfortunately, I do not have a video recorder or a DVR. I did found a few ways to watch it though for those of you who don't have any cable/satellite TV subscription. You can find a lot of sources online actually. Here are the few ways you can watch MJ's memorial that I found:

1. Watch Michael Jackson's memorial on television. The television channels that will telecast the memorial include ABC, CNN, E!, and MSNBC. You can tune into the channels on Tuesday, July 7 at 10 am Pacific Standard Time (PST) (GMT-8). I believe many cable/pay TV in your country will broadcast this event.
2. Watch the memorial online, streaming live over the Internet. Visit the websites of major TV news channels like CNN or MSNBC. You can also tune into your local news channel websites who will have a webcast going on.
3. Visit specialized online video sites like uStream.com, Hulu.com, webtvhub.com, newteevee.com, or livestation.com. These websites will broadcast the video of Michael Jackson's memorial live over the Internet as soon as it begins at 10 am PST on Tuesday, July 7, 2009 (GMT-8).
4. (NON-VIDEO) You can follow minute-by-minute update on the internet thru many other sites, most popular being http://www.Twitter.com/TVGuide and http://www.Facebook.com/TVGuide.

I believe there are many other streaming sources on the internet. If you don't get to watch it live, no worries! I'm sure there will be recorded videos available in your favorite torrent sites or even YOUTUBE!

HDD Hardisk migration/duplication

I have twice migrated my computer hardisk. Both times when I upgraded my computer hardisks to a larger HDD. Basically, its pretty straight forward, install a ghosting software, plug-in the new HDD into the USB or an empty HDD slot in your desktop, ghost the whole image of your old HDD into the new while creating partitions to it. After that you can disconnect/remove your old HDD and install your new HDD into your computer and select it as the primary boot device. Once you have done all that, reboot your PC and voila! your old system in a new HDD, with much more disk space and you can install that new game you just bought which requires 50Gb of space!

One drawback though, if you had any virus, spamware, malware or any other software problems you have in your old HDD will all still be around =D If you want those off and you can't get rid of them using any anti-spam software or any antiviral software, the only way to get rid of them once and for all is to do a painstaking full format and then reinstall your OS as well as all your other softwares.

I have posted a listing on lelong.com.my to offer my services for anyone who needs professional help in migration or simply just duplicating of your HDDs.

http://www.lelong.com.my/Auc/List/DetailSale.asp?ProductID=38601490

A 2 year old boy in China, Smoking!

This video is shot in China of a 2 year old boy lighting up and smoking a cigarette. Surprisingly, the adults beside him find it amusing or even found him cute (talented?). I know of China kids less than 10 years of age drinking beer/alcohol, but smoking? Actually, I'm sure this doesn't happen only in China. You could probably find it in Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam. So, don't think its only China.

TVB 八婆 (gossip) news site

I was hunting for some pictures of Theresa Fu (傅穎) today and came across this site http://tvbnewsworld.blogspot.com/ . Excellent for people who are nosy about Hong Kong TVB celebrity news and can't read chinese.

R.I.P to a legend, Michael Jackson.

It is indeed a sad day on the 25th June 2009. The passing of a legend, MJ. I remember when I was a young boy, just a little over 7 years of age, his song Beat It was my all time favorite. But then of course there are the other numbers which are my great favorites too. Billie Jean, Smooth Criminal, Thriller, Bad, Dangerous and the list goes on and on. Almost all were big hits. His songs, no matter I listen to it when I was 7 or even now 25 years later, they never sound a tad old. This was his magic. If you ask me, MJ is greater than then the Rock King (Elvis) or even the Beattles. But thats probably because he sang during my lifetime. Nonetheless, he sits up there with these legends. For him to be taken away from this world at his young age and also while he was about to revive his career and mend his name (the scoundrels who smeared him with allegations), does him no justice at all. It does his fans no justice at all. Nevertheless, we all feel for his family and his close friends.

What surprises me is the myriads of news all around the world seems to attached the news of his death and tributes with stories of the allegations of his wrong doings. Why this insensitivity and disrespect for his family? Isn't he dead already? Tributes should not be placed side-by-side of any shameful (if not false) allegations. He did not die a criminal! And he certainly wasn't found guilty or put in jail! I for one do not believe he had spent his millions to shut the mouth or cover-up any wrong doings.

I am lucky that I have attended to one of his concerts before back in the 90s. I am glad I did not miss one of the Kings of all time perform live on stage. I once even spent countless hours sitting in front of the TV watching his music video trying to learn his legendary Moonwalk, during my younger years. Although not perfected, I am proud to have tried. Not that I can still do it (due to my more gravitational challenged weight now).

His inspiration was enormous to a lot of people. His contribution to the world so magnanimous. His death so heartfelt by the whole world. But MJ, we will remember you, our children will hear your music. Your songs will inspire, your music will continue to echo for long long time. Rest In Peace.