Nybbles from Albert

One Week in Greenhills

2011-12-14T16:04:00.003+11:00

Did pretty much what we did in Shanghai - shopping and eating.

Not much shopping on day 1 as we had to start with basic stuff like converting our money, doing the laundy, buying groceries, etc. Lunched at Shakey's, then dinner at MoA. Well, the wife had dinner at MoA; I had to stay behind to take care of the baby.

Day 2 we got down to serious business - dental appointment. Went to SM Megamall to have lunch at Pancake House, then dinner at C2 with the family.

Spent the next day shopping for shoes at Shoppesville. Had lunch with the wife's aunties at Gerry's Grill, then tea at Coffee Bean. Dinner at Bizu where it's less crowded.

Day 4 is BarKD Day at Jollibee (EDSA Ortigas). The old kids and the young ones had lots of fun taking pictures and playing games with the dancing Jollibee. As expected, our kid was mortally afraid of the mascot, but warmed up to him very quickly as he was exiting the venue. After party is at the adjoining Cafe France till late afternoon. No chitchat for me, as I was the designated yayo. There's only so much you can do with a balloon and the birds outside. Late dinner at Crystal Jade with the family.

Day 5 saw us having brunch at UCC. Yummy! Dropped by the old house for a short tour/inspection, then off to Resort World Newport City. Not too many shops, and not too many gamblers in the casino. Went to Glorietta for some Red Ribbon cakes and Fino leather goods. After a short rest at the hotel, went to Virra Mall for takeaway Chickenjoy and bought an SGY on the way back.

Day 6 - Raisin bread for breakfast and Starbucks for mirienda. Went to Cubao to have the baby checked out. The Aussie GPs are saying that the sniffles is normal, but it's always good to have a second opinion. Left the clinic with bottles and bottles of medicine. Lunch at Pho Bac at Centris Walk, then mirienda at Angelicum. Went to Trinoma in the afternoon to kill time. The lines at M&S were so long, the baby and I got bored walking round and round the block. Farewell dinner at Okegawa in Tomas Morato.

One Week in Shanghai

2011-12-07T15:03:00.017+11:00

Our whole stay in Shanghai can be described in just two words: shopping and dining. First night we arrived in Shanghai, we trooped down to the nearest Chinese restaurant for late dinner. The weather was fairly cold, but I had a sleeping baby wrapped around me for warmth. And with the wife feeding me tasty morsels, I can't complain, except for the locals smoking cigarettes beside us.

Strangely enough, I woke up quite early the next day, so I went out to buy a big pack of bottled water and an electric toothbrush. We were told the local water supply is not suitable for foreigners. As for the electric toothbrush, that's another story. Had breakfast of some pastries we bought last night. Off to Super Brand Mall to have lunch at Chamate. Killed time at the arcade for a while, then the group broke up. Some went for more shopping. Some wanted to visit the Oriental Pearl TV Tower. I and the wife and SIL brought the kids to the Shanghai Ocean Aquarium. It presently has the longest underwater tunnel in the world. Entrance fee for adults is RMB160, kids under 1 metre go free. Went to Xintiandi for some Bavarian fare at Paulaner Brauhaus. Haven't had iced tea for a while, so I ordered Long Island iced tea for drinks. Tasted a bit bitter, so I had to dilute it with some Coke.

Day 3 found us buying breads and pastries and coffee at Apple Garden for breakfast. Spent the day at Xu Jia Hui district. SIL was looking for a new SD card for her digicam, so we went to one of the tech malls there. If I'm not mistaken, it's probably the Grand Gateway. Since we're already there, I bought a case for the wife's new Ixus. Cost me RMB100, which I'm sure is a rip-off. The other guys were on the hunt for iPhone 4s, which I'm told is currently very hot and very rare. Lunch is at this old traditional restaurant at the basement for some authentic Shanghai dishes. Spent the afternoon looking after Aidan, while the wife did some shopping. Passed by FIL's favourite DVD store for the latest TV series and movies (ahem!), then dinner at Heng Shan Xiao Guan for some HK cuisine. The guys later went out for a massage. Me, I took a stroll along Jin Ling Road until I got to The Bund. The night is a bit cold, but magnificent views on both sides of the Huangpu River. Too bad I only brought along the wife's Ixus instead of my proper DSLR. By 10pm, the buildings started turning off their lights. Took a left at Nanjing Road, and headed back to the hotel. Things got scary when I got the pedestrian street. This may be Shanghai's main shopping street, but at this time of night it's a bit deserted. Some guy would approach you with flyers or stuff they want to sell. I was later approached by a smartly-dressed woman asking for directions. I admitted that I'm a tourist myself, and can't really help her. This doesn't seem to deter her, as she struck up a conversation asking me personal questions. She then invited me to join her (and her friends) for some coffee. Right. Thanks, but no thanks. I'm not about to pay for overpriced drinks for you and your partners in crime. Giving her a lame excuse about meeting my friend back at my hotel, I went my own way.

The next day is FIL's birthday. Had birthday lunch at the posh Royal China on the top floor of the Jiu Guang Shanghai. The kids went to sleep after lunch. Bought some training chopsticks and lucky charms to entertain them. Took a tour of Jing An Park across Nanjing West Road with MIL, then went to Jing An Temple by myself. Entrance fee is RMB30. First time I saw an 800-year Buddhist temple beside a shopping mall. Main attraction would probably be the Jade Buddha Hall on the west side, which houses the 3.8-meter jade Buddha, the largest sitting jade Buddha in the country. (Not to be confused with the other jade Buddhas in the Jade Buddha Temple along An Yuan Road.) More shopping at Nanjing Road. Dinner is at Moon's Steakhouse in Xintiandi.

Day 5 saw us having a photo session at Barefoot Portraits along Huaian Road in Jingan. Took us a while because Aidan was sleeping and we can't risk waking him up. Finished late, so we just had a quick pasta and sandwich at the Italian cafe downstairs. Then off to Han City (a.k.a. Taobao City) for some cheapo shopping. The locals can immediately tell you're a foreigner, so have your bargaining skills ready. From the first quoted price, divide it by ten. Yeah, it might be too low, but the saleslady will let you know anyway. Name a price which you're comfortable with. Be prepared to walk away. The saleslady usually will give you her best price by then. If not, you can always still ask around, and come back later. That's how we got Crocs for RMB30, sweaters for RMB50, rubber shoes for RMB50, and three T-shirts for RMB100. Note that these are all kiddie/toddler items. Nothing for the adults. Dinner at Maboonkrong Restaurant.

Did some major shopping on day 6. Went to Shanghai Times Square and after some deliberation, the wife finally decided which Coach bag she wanted. Lunch is at Lisboa. Went back to that tech mall at Xu Jia Hui for some iPhone4s and laptops. Word of advice, the next time you want to buy a Sony Vaio S (or Acer Aspire S3), just get one back in Sydney or online. At the very least, you get the official English version of Windows 7, not some Vistalizatorized Chinese version, which took literally hours to complete. And you don't get shonky excuses like "Oh, the laptop you wanted was actually out of stock. Why I don't I give you one with a slower CPU and chipset and smaller hard drive, but I'll give you an extra 2GB RAM. Heck, I'll even throw in a free 4GB USB stick?" Supposed to have dinner at Din Tai Fung, but the place was packed. They're willing to open a function room for us, for a minimum consumable charge of RMB3000. No thanks.

Spent the last day in Shanghai packing. Went to Raffles City for some more shopping, then lunch at Watami.

Movie 2011.11.26 - Exam

2011-11-26T23:11:00.004+11:00

Suspense-thriller with a nice plot twist. So there are eight people in a bare classroom during the final round of selection for a prestigious job with a mysterious and powerful corporation. They were given three rules and 80 minutes to answer one question. The only problem - their questions sheets are all blank. What follows is an extended character study on how individuals react in stressful situations, as they try to figure out what the heck is going on. In the end, the CEO was after a person with the right moral fibre and compassion for his/her fellow man, as the company was about to introduce a new drug for the current pandemic(?). Quite liked the movie as it kept me guessing.

Hardly Normal Ixus

2011-11-26T15:03:00.005+11:00

Cocky fat salesman either doesn't know his stuff, or trying to push me to buy a higher-priced item with a higher commission for himself.

Was after a 115HS for $148, but he was recommending the 220HS, which is priced at $70 more. According to the guy, compared to the 115HS, the 220HS has a better processor, full HD recording, and dual-core. Wow! But wait, there's more! He's also throwing in a 4MB SD card $40, a carry case worth $25, and extended warranty worth $100. All this for an extra $70! Man, I would be crazy if I don't take this deal!

Well, call me crazy, but I know for a fact that both cameras use the same DiG!C 4 processor. Heck, even my 550D DSLR has the same processor. Dual processor? We're talking about an ultracompact IXUS here. Only the EOS 7D and the EOS-1D Mark IV pack dual processors. As for full-HD video recording, both models support it. It's even written on the body of the camera. Did I point these out to the salesman? Of course not. Gerry Harvey is not paying me to educate his staff.

Even at the last minute, the guy was still pushing me to get the $100 extended warranty. For a $148 camera? No, thanks. I have a feeling the salesman might pull a fast one, so down at the cashier, I quickly opened the package to make sure everything is there - camera, cables, battery, etc. Only when I got home did I found out that he slipped me a blue camera, instead of the silver one I asked for. It's a good thing the wife is not too fussy.

Movie 2011.11.25 - Shaolin

2011-11-25T21:09:00.003+11:00

From what I heard, this is actually a remake of Jet Li's film debut, The Shaolin Temple. It was just after the breakup of the Qing Dynasty. The local warlords and the foreign powers are fighting among each other for power and wealth. Warlord Hou Jie (Andy Lau) chases down rival Huo Long to Shaolin Temple, and shoots him dead, despite the monks' pleas for mercy. Afraid that his sworn brother might want to share in the spoils, he hatches an assassination plot. He finds out too late that his brother has no such plan. Worse, his own right-hand man Cao Man (Nicholas Tse) betrays him, and turns the assassins on him and his family. His daughter dies during the ambush, and his wife eventually leaves him. The cook (Jacky Chan) in Shaolin takes him in and teaches him compassion and enlightenment. Hou Jie later discovers that Cao Man has been selling relics to foreigners in exchange for arms. He hires labourer to dig up these relics, then kills them off after the job. Cao Man eventually locates Hou Jie and send his army to catch him. The foreign powers decides it's a good time to wipe out everyone and starts bombarding Shaolin. Hou Jie sacrificed himself to save Cao Man from certain death from a falling beam, thereby repaying an earlier debt. The monks managed to fight back to foreign devils, but the temple is left in ruins.

Movie 2011.11.24 - The Sorcerer and the White Snake

2011-11-24T22:10:00.004+11:00

Reworking of an old Chinese legend where a herbalist meets and falls in love with a thousand-year old white snake, who has accumulated enough XPs to be able to transform itself into human form. Eva Huang plays the sultry white snake, while Raymond Lam plays the herbalist. Jet Li plays Abott Fahai, who goes around catching demons. He makes it his mission to capture the White Snake, even though she is doing any mischief and her only crime is to liaise with the herbalist.

The original Legend of the White Snake is more of a love story, but that aspect takes a back seat in this movie. Here, it's more about the CGI and the extended fight scenes. The scriptwriters should've stuck to the original story.

Google Music

2011-11-20T19:07:00.000+11:00

Been hearing some much about Google Music, I decided to join in. It came out of beta a few days ago, but it's still US-only. Engadget has a good article on how to bypass this restriction.

Basically, you use a Tor browser to sign up for the Google Music service. Make sure you use a US exit node, so Google won't complain. Once you've signed up successfully, download the Music Manager to start uploading some songs. The upload process is a bit slow, so don't try to upload your whole music library now. A few choice songs will do just to test out the service.

You can listen to your online songs via any browser or using the native Android app. Again, the app won't be available to you unless you're in the States. In this case, Market Enabler is your friend. A quick search for com.google.android.music.4.0.9.apk is also bound to get you some hits.

Having a cloud-based music locker that stores 20,000 songs for free is nice, but I don't listen to that many songs, and I can simply dump them on my microSD card for fast and local access without eating up my data quota. Anyway, free is free.

Movie 2011.11.12 - Leaves of Grass

2011-11-12T20:08:00.003+11:00

This is one messed-up movie. I had no idea what it was about, so I didn't know what to expect. You have this esteemed Ivy League classical philosophy teacher on his way up. Then you have his identical twin brother who designed and manages this state-of-the-art hydroponic drugs glasshouse. The loan sharks are hot on his tail, so he cooks up a plan to lure his good brother to come visit, while he goes to Tulsa to finish off the loan sharks. So I was thinking something like The Hangover. Not.

The bad brother and his sidekick kill off the loan shark and his goons in cold blood, then rushes back to town pretending nothing ever happened. Just as the good brother is about to leave for the airport, some depressed Jewish dentist saw through their scheme and came to the house with a gun to blackmail them. Good brother stepped up and managed to diffuse the situation. Bad brother made a sudden move, so the dentist shoots him. Outraged, the good brother fires back. A few seconds later, the police came. The dying bad brother took possession of the incriminating gun, so good brother is not implicated.

To pay for the funeral costs and support his widowed pregnant SIL, good brother talks to the remaining goons if they're willing to buy off the greenhouse. Say what?! The bad boys reckon they should have it for free. Good brother turned and left, but not before getting hit with a crossbow arrow right through the chest. The sidekick killed off the bad guys and took him to the hospital. The Hangover this is definitely not.

Movie 2011.11.04 - Gran Torino

2011-11-04T22:10:00.003+11:00

Great acting from Clint Eastwood as a grumpy old war veteran. Wife has recently passed away, so it's just him living in a predominantly Hmong suburb overrun by youth gangs.

He started getting close with his neighbor's kids and fought off the gang members when he can. Obviously, the gang didn't like his meddling, and took some tough measures against the kids. Feeling guilty for the gang's retaliation, he went to the gang's lair for a showdown. Before he had a chance to take out the cigarette lighter from his breast pocket, the gang members opened fire, witnessed by all the neighbors. The bad boys are hauled off to jail, and there is peace in the community again. Such a sad movie.

Audiobook 2011.10.28 - iCon: Steve Jobs

2011-10-27T13:11:00.005+11:00

Full title is iCon: Steve Jobs, The Greatest Act in the History of Business. The unauthorized biography written by Jeffrey S. Young and William L. Simon tracks his rise from making and selling blueboxes with Wozniak to founding Apple Computer, to getting booted out of Apple, to founding NeXT Inc., to buying Pixar from Lucas, and back to heading Apple and unleashing iPod into the world.

Main takeaway from the audiobook is that all you need is one hit, and everything is forgiven. You can produce flops like the Macintosh, the NeXT Computer, the NeXTcube, the Pixar Image Computer, etc. As long as you have the iPod to save the day, then it's all good.

JVP to JVT

2011-10-25T23:11:00.002+11:00

Firmware releases for the SGS is becoming less and less. I feel JVT is going to be one of the last. Instead of waiting for ICS, I bit the bullet and flashed (again) my SGS to JVT.

Same procedure as before:

flash stock JVT ROM from sammobile
flash CWM-enabled kernel (I chose Semaphore)
do a couple of wipes, do a couple of formats
flash the Romkitchen ROM

Phone is much faster and responsive than before. Only issue is that the Gingerbread keyboard goes FC every time it's called, and I get restarts once in a while.

Movie 2011.10.23 - Hannibal Rising

2011-10-23T21:09:00.004+11:00

I can't imagine Hannibal Lecter as a sword-wielding teenager traveling from country to country hunting down his enemies. And a Japanese aunt in France from a samurai clan? That's a bit of a stretch.

Movie is a bit boring as we know nothing bad is going to happen to Hannibal. The SS guards are not going to eat him up, so obviously we know it's the little sister who gets sacrificed. Police inspector Popil is not going to put him behind bars. The baddies are not going to shoot him by stealth as he works at the autopsy room. He gets shot from behind in the spine by Grutas, but we all know he's got a wakizashi hidden in the back, which he uses to mutilate his archenemy.

Movie 2011.10.21 - Get Smart

2011-10-21T21:09:00.003+11:00

The movie plot is not that smart, but I have to admit there are times when I laughed out loud. Steve Carrell is funny because he's such a clueless guy. Dwayne Johnson is funny because of his deadpan lines. Masi Oka and Nate Torrence are funny because their acting is over the top.

Heck, I can't even remember the plot, but I remember the part where Max was on a plane and he gets some matches to burn off the gum on his shoes, and he gets attacked by the air marshall. In the toilet, he tries to cut the tiewrap on his wrists by using the mini-crossbow on his Swiss army knife and proceeds to shoot arrows into himself. Another arrow hits the eject button and away he goes without a parachute. The ballroom dance sequence is also quite entertaining, although not really necessary.

Audiobook 2011.10.14 - Beethoven's Piano Sonatas

2011-10-13T23:11:00.004+11:00

With classical music, I tend to listen to the parts I like (the familiar ones), and skip through the slow, boring, unfamiliar ones. With this audiobook playing in the car, I'm forced to listen through all of Beethoven's 32 piano sonatas.

The audiobook is an extensive academic discourse by Professor Robert Greenberg on each of Beethoven's piano sonatas. More than that, the lecturer goes beyond the music and expounds on the life and times of Beethoven, how the music came about, how it works, some funny anecdotes and metaphors here and there, etc.

By the end of the course, my head is full of movements, cadence material, modulating bridge, coda, tarantella, gigue, fugue, adagio, allegro, pianissimo, bel canto, open cadence, theme and variation, trills, major/minor keys and chords, etc.

Din Tai Fung at The Star

2011-10-08T12:12:00.003+11:00

Went to the city to look at QVB's new light show projected on the central dome. Had a bit of time to kill, so ended up at The Star. Didn't know the renovation work on the facade is already completed. Mighty impressed with the clean open design. Some of the boutiques like Gucci, Bottega Veneta and Salvatore Ferragamo are not yet open, but you can still window-shop at Chanel, G-Star RAW, and CK Jeans. Food court open, too. There's Flying Fish and Chips, Kampung, Messina Gelato, and Din Tai Fung. Adriano Zumbo's Patissier is also supposed to be around, but I don't see it.

Upgrading the Huawei U8300

2011-10-07T22:10:00.004+11:00

This little beauty running on Eclair is just begging to be upgraded. Out of the box, it came with build U8300 V100R001AUS C34B257SP01. Latest official build available is U8300 V100R001AUS C34B271. Interestingly, Huawei's pulled it off their website. Good thing someone made a copy and is hosting it.

To install the firmware:

create dload directory on SD card
extract UPDATA.APP from the ZIP archive and copy to dload folder
go to Settings --> SD card and phone storage --> Software upgrade --> SD card upgrade --> Confirm

If you're still not happy with that, you can go all the way and install a custom ROM like Adrenalin 2.3.5.

Root the device with z4root. It's not in the Market anymore, but Google can help you find the apk. Root process takes a while to complete.
Install ROM Manager and flash CM Recovery. When asked, choose Huawei Ascend.
Copy Adrenalin RC1 and updates to SD card.
Reboot into recovery mode, and do a full backup of your current ROM in case something goes wrong.
Do a wipe data/factory reset.
Install Adrenalin 2.3.5 RC1, then fix permissions.
Reboot the device.
Reboot into recovery mode, and flash Adrenalin 2.3.5 RC1 Update2, then fix permissions.
Reboot the device.
Reboot into recovery mode, and flash kernel patch (optional).
Clear Dalvik cache.

The only thing not working for me after the above procedure is the WiFi. Workaround is to flash back to the original firmware, then do the upgrade again. This time, RC1 , then Update1, then Update2, and it works perfectly. I guess some stuff were in Update1 that were left out in Update2.

First impressions. Screen is a bit small compared to SGS, but everything works as expected. Images and text are crisp and clear, better than I expected. System a bit sluggish, so I overclocked it to 710MHz, which seems to help a bit. Quite hard to pull down the notification area. Phone's default orientation is landscape, so apps that work in portrait mode are rotated the wrong way. Built-in camera app also has this 90-degree bug. More testing to come.

Huawei U8300

2011-10-06T10:10:00.003+11:00

What do you expect to pay for an Android smartphone that has the ff. features:

Android 2.1 (Eclair)
528MHz Qualcomm MSM7225 processor
256MB RAM, 512MB Flash
320x240 pixel QVGA, 2.6-in resistive touchscreen with 256k colours
3.2MP camera with LED flash
gravity sensor, digital compass, proximity sensor, ambient light sensor
dedicated torch key and trackball
GPS
WiFi 802.11 b/g/n
Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP
microUSB 2.0
3.5mm jack
QWERTY keyboard

Thanks to OzBargain and Optus/Boost, I managed to snag a Huawei u8300 for a measly $50 (RRP $150). All it needs now is a bit of hacking to bring it up to Gingerbread.

Whole-Day Sunshine

2011-10-05T20:08:00.002+11:00

Customer tried to do a remote upgrade and failed. Now the system is in a funny state, and the only way out I can see is a clean install. Bootloader-based FTP install doesn't work possible due to VLAN issues. What do to? Tried calling my colleague down in Melbourne. No answer. Boss says worst case I have to fly down first thing in the morning. After having only three hours of sleep during the night?! Sure!

So there I was at the domestic airport waiting for the last possible moment to check in. Final call to Melbourne colleague - no answer. Sunshine, here I come. Just before I turned off my mobile inside the plane, I get the call. See you soon, dude.

Spent the rest of the day doing backups and clean installs and restores. Customer finished their checks by 3:30pm. Got back to Sydney by 8pm.

Churros at the Baby and Toddler Show

2011-10-02T17:05:00.004+11:00

It's a day of discounts. Went down to the city for the Baby & Toddler Show at Sydney Exhibition Centre. Parked at the newly opened Wilson Parking at Darling Quarter for $9 flat-rate. Entrance to the show was free as we got complimentary tickets from Coles.

On our way out, we were offered complimentary tickets to MasterChef Live. Went to the nearby St. Moritz at Harbourside for $5 churros and hot chocolate for two - courtesy of Groupon.

Lunch 2011.09.25 - Bianco

2011-09-25T13:11:00.004+10:00

Wrong day to have lunch at Bianco Brighton-Le-Sands. Supposed to have a nice walk along the beach before or after the meal. With this pounding rain and howling wind, I don't think so. Couldn't find the restaurant so we called them up. No wonder. They're along the Grand Parade, instead of Bay Street as listed in Eatability and their own website. And yes, they offer complimentary parking at the Novotel. Apparently, that parking lot was being shared with a shopping centre, which is not doing too good. And we thought we parked at the wrong place.

Looks like we're the only party at the restaurant, as only our table was set. It's all good because it's nice and quiet. The kids have the whole place for themselves - the main dining area, the lounge, and the bar. The food's not so bad, but for the price, I expected better. The pork belly (slow-cooked for 15 hours) was kinda small, and I would've liked the skin to be crunchier. The lobster pasta didn't have a lot of lobster. The mashed potato is quite chunky, and the cod fish is a tad too salty. Service is excellent though.

Dinner 2011.09.22 - Piano Room

2011-09-22T21:09:00.005+10:00

Not as classy as we thought. Perhaps the pictures on the website was taken from a different era. And to think that we actually dressed up. Can't find any decent parking space nearby, so had to use Wilson Parking. $20 per hour, can you imagine!

Can't find where the place was, so we just followed where the others are going. The place was so dark, I can't see the decor. Most of the light was coming from the surrounding streets and the giant Coca-Cola sign below through the wide windows. Entertainment was provided by an old-timer on a baby grand piano and a crooner singing Sinatra on the centre stage. Food's ok, but slow in coming. We had calamari and bocconcini-stuffed risotto balls for entree, lamb cutlets for mains, and ice cream for dessert. Red wine to wash it all down.

ZTE V9 Optus MyTab Reflashed

2011-09-17T22:10:00.004+10:00

Ever since I've upgraded my MyTab, I haven't been playing with it a lot. We basically use it to watch a few kiddie videos and play some MP3 files. Heck, there's so little activity, the battery lasts for weeks on a single charge.

I checked the Modaco ZTE V9 Gingerbread thread again, and looks like the latest build has pinch-zoom emulation. It even repartitions the NAND to yield a bigger /data partition for more apps. Now this I gotta try. I started reading all the threads and got a bit confused. Should I downgrade back to stock 2.2, or to stock 2.1, or even at all? Or should simply reflash with the latest firmware?

Anyway, found the answers. Correct applicable thread here:

http://android.modaco.com/topic/342556-repartition-nand-for-optimal-cm7-setup-2011-08-15/

Download the 2.3.5 build here:

http://www.mediafire.com/?hi7rhddjb2j33iv

After flashing, you'll end up with Clockword Recovery 4.0.1.4, 2011-08-15 build of CM7, and 20110613 Google Apps.

Movie 2011.09.16 - Doubt

2011-09-16T22:10:00.003+10:00

When in doubt, give the other party the benefit of the doubt. Apparently, the principal of St. Nicholas in the Bronx never heard of this before. When Sister Aloysius Beauvier (Meryl Streep) gets wind that Father Brendan Flynn (Philip Seymour Hoffman) is befriending troubled boy Donald, she assumes the worst and makes it her personal mission to drive him out of the parish. She starts spreading rumours and talking to the boy's mom. The boy's mom doesn't want to cause any problems, so the sister tries a different tack. She lies about making enquiries with his former parishes and uncovering his past offenses. With this, the father resigns and was actually promoted to a larger parish. The sister has her doubts, but she feels she has done her part.

Movie 2011.09.11 - Kings of Pastry

2011-09-11T21:09:00.003+10:00

As a fan of Iron Chef (料理の鉄人) and Masterchef Australia, this movie is an eye-opener for me. The movie tracks a couple of pastry chefs making preparations for the MOF (Un des Meilleurs Ouvriers de France) competition. The contest is held every 4 years over 3 grueling days, and some participants prepare for months, even years. Watching how these guys perfect their craft, it's sad to see them miss out on the coveted title. No offense to Adriano Zumbo, but these guys are the real thing.

Movie 2011.09.09 - Cemetery Junction

2011-09-09T22:10:00.002+10:00

Cemetery Junction is written and directed by Ricky Gervais and his sidekick Stephen Merchant. Surprisingly, it is not a comedy. More of a light drama about some teenagers stuck in their working-class town. Freddie gets a job as a door-to-door life insurance salesman and has aspirations of a better life. Bruce works at a factory and spends his nights chasing girls and brawling in bars. Snork works at the local train station and hopes to be a station master one day.

This and that happens. At the end, Freddie leaves town with high-school sweetheart Julie, who happens to be the boss' daughter (already engaged). Bruce gets a dressing down from the police chief and makes up with his unemployed dad. Snork starts seeing someone.

Updating the TomTom XL 330S

2011-09-04T22:10:00.004+10:00

Another TomTom, another read-through of the forums. This time it's the TomTom XL 330S (a.k.a TomTom One v9).

First thing to do is connect up the GPS device to TomTom Home, and get some updates. I was hoping the navcore will be updated, but no such luck. I did get an extra computer voice, the QuickGPSFix, and some small updates to the US/Canada maps. After the update, make a backup of the file system.

Latest SE navcore I can find is 9.205.547817.1. Latest map I can find is v8.75. There's a new patcher called FastActivate that does everything in one click. Delete everything from the internal storage aside from ttgo.bif. (In case you've also deleted this file, just restart the unit, and the file will be regenerated.) Copy over the SE navcore basicpack files, then the ttsystem files. Copy over the maps that you want, plus the safety cams, and FastActivate. Copy over the VocalizerTTS and voices folders. (As the XL 330S has only 32MB of RAM, it won't use LoquendoTTS.) Run FastActivate. Update meta.txt first if your copy of FastActivate is outdated already. Then patch the maps.

By default, SE navcore will use x40 emulation. You get the 3-pane status bar, but TTS is broken. Computer voice tries to read the street name, but instead it says "Language Eng". Tried the X40light option by setting the model as x40light in the setconfig.txt file under config directory. Now that works. Downside is that you only get a two-pane UI.

You can also get TTS running on PNDs that are not supposed to be TTS-capable. For example on my TomTom One 130, I just added the line ttson on setconfig.txt, and TTS works fine. Sweet!

Movie 2011.09.02 - Friends with Benefits

2011-09-02T23:11:00.003+10:00

Just look at the movie poster. Geez. With soft porn movies like this, who needs a plot? Just a little bit I guess. Guy and girl become friends purely to have s3x. Guy asks girl to join him at the family home over the July 4 weekend because obviously he can't have s3x with his sister. Girl gets confused and exclaims, "You're just like all the guys. All you ever wanted is to get into my pants!" Duh, wasn't that the deal? Guy realizes he can't live without his walking-and-talking live s3x toy, so he makes up with girl.

To make things interesting, we have the guy working for GQ flicking photos across the computer screen using a tablet. Guy and girl sit atop the Hollywood sign and get arrested. Guy had to be rescued and airlifted because he's afraid of heights. Throw in a couple of flash mobs dancing to some old tunes for that Bollywood effect.

Lunch 2011.08.28 - ABBA on Rhythmboat

2011-08-28T12:12:00.004+10:00

Took on a Rhythmboat Cruise with the family. There's a three-course meal plus an ABBA tribute show. What more can you ask for?

The meals' not too bad, but nothing spectacular. The same thing can be said about the tribute show. The sound system is not the best, and the acoustics of the "room" leaves much to be desired. Most of the patrons on the boat liked the music and the performers nonetheless. Liked them enough to get up and dance. Me, I'm here for the cruise, which took us from the King Street Wharf to Pyrmont to Balmain to Luna Park to Kirribilli to North Sydney to Cremorne Point to Mosman then back with spectacular views of the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House from the top deck.

If you don't want to miss the ABBA action while checking out the views, there's a fenced opening on the floor, so you can still dance to the music.

Movie 2011.08.27 - Hoodwinked Too: Hood vs. Evil

2011-08-27T23:11:00.002+10:00

The movie's so forgettable, I can't remember what it's all about. Quite a pity, as I really liked the first one.

Red's in some kind of training academy run by the Sisters of the Hood. Granny was kidnapped by an evil witch with a mask while trying to rescue Hansel and Gretel, who turned out to be the real villains. The witch Verushka was a former classmate of Granny. She harboured a lifelong jealousy of Granny because she was always second-best. In any case, they forced Granny to cook up a batch of magical truffles, which the kids use to become powerful. The good guys were helpless in stopping the kids from terrorizing the city. They did manage to trick the naughty kids into eating more and more truffles, which made the puff up, rendering them immobile. That's the end of their criminal career.

Movie 2011.08.26 - The Change-Up

2011-08-26T23:28:00.003+10:00

Another switched-body comedy. Only reason we "discovered" this movie is the wife did a search for her two favourite actors, Jason Bateman and Ryan Reynolds, and Google came up with this.

The concept has been done to death. An unexplainable metaphysical event happened causing two very different persons to swap bodies. One's an overstressed working family dad/lawyer, while the other is a happy-go-lucky ladies man. They eventually learn to like their new selves and settle in. One wants to prove that he can complete a merger deal. The other wants to have a fling with a hot colleague, which he can't do while in his married self.

As with the other switched-body movies, the guys can now see their lives from a different vantage point, and turn things around once they get their bodies back. The only highlight of the movie are the very inappropriate things that they say and do.

Swatch Metal Flash

2011-08-21T21:09:00.002+10:00

After selling the Brise-Glace (GK274) and the Sheikh (GG183), both with expandable metal bands, mind you, I bought a brand new Metal Flash (SSK104). This is the first time I've owned a Swatch Stop watch, and I quite like it. The watch has only one crown and it controls all functions on the watch/stopwatch.

Pull out the crown to adjust the time. Slow turn adjusts the minute hand one minute at a time. Fast turn moves the watch forward (or backward) by an hour. Press once to activate stopwatch mode. (Hands go to 12:00 position.) Press again to start couting. Press again to stop. Press once more to switch back to normal mode. In case the stopwatch doesn't reset to 12:00, do a long press (about 3 seconds). Pull out the crown. Turn crown clockwise to adjust the minute hand. Turn crown counterclockwise to adjust the hour hand. Once at 12:00, push crown back.

Movie 2011.08.20 - Hop

2011-08-20T21:09:00.004+10:00

Story of how a bunny doesn't want to become the Easter Bunny, how a right-hand chick tries to take over the spot, and how a lazy human bum ultimately became one. That's pretty much the whole movie. I was quite impressed with the live animation - looks so seamless. The introductory segment at the Easter Island chocolate factory is also very impressive, very colorful.

Interesting trivia: Hank Azaria did the voice for both Carlos, head of the Easter Chicks, and Phil, his sidekick, who was the cause of his downfall because he can't stop himself dancing.

Movie 2011.08.19 - Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

2011-08-19T21:09:00.003+10:00

I'll tell you what this movie is about. Never mind Dumbledore's long-winded effort to recruit Slughorn; the romantic tension between Hermonine, Ron, Romilda, Lavendar, Harry, Ginny, and Dean; the Slughorn parties; the Quidditch matches; etc. It only got interesting during the latter part of the movie.

With the aid of Potter, Dumbledore discovers that Tom Riddle is immortal because of horcruxes. By splitting one's soul into multiple pieces and injecting them into objects, one's soul lives on even after the body has been killed. Dumbledore and Potter go in search of the horcrux. Meanwhile, Draco opens up a portal that allows the Deatheaters to enter Hogwarts. By the time Dumbledore and Potter apparate back, the Deatheaters were already there waiting. Potter goes into hiding, while Dumbledore faces the enemies. Snape hits Dumbledore with an Avada Kedavra spell, and he goes flying out of the Astronomy Tower - dead.

Movie 2011.08.15 - The Great Global Warming Swindle

2011-08-15T21:09:00.002+10:00

Possibly meant as a rebuttal to the case presented by Al Gore in An Inconvenient Truth. The Great Global Warming Swindle argues that carbon dioxide is not a cause of global warming, but simply a byproduct. It's been there all along, so why worry? We've had hotter climates before. The polar icecaps have melted before. Huge chunks of ice have fallen off iceshelves before. We think it's a big thing because we're only seeing these events now. Give it a few more years, and she'll be right, mate.

So why all this fuss about global warning from the scientists, if things are ok? For one, that's the only way you're going to get research grants and funding from the government nowadays. And the media? Well, news about freak weather events sells, and each one tends to get more extreme that the next in order to catch the jaded public's attention.

So why is the climate getting warmer? It's the sun, dummy. We're currently at the peak of the solar variation cycle. More solar activity means hotter temperatures. Makes sense, right?

Trip to Costco

2011-08-14T15:03:00.006+10:00

Today, we went to check out Costco Auburn. We've been given some warning that it's gonna be packed, especially on a weekend. I guess that's to be expected, given that it's been open for only a couple of weeks, but I mean, how bad can it be?

So from M4 we took the Silverwater exit, then left to Parramatta Road. Street's blocked. On a Sunday afternoon? That's strange. Looks like quite a few cars are turning into the Bunnings parking lot. There's actually a Bunnings staff talking to some of the drivers and waving them off. Next left is the Costco parking lot entrance, but that's been closed off. Ahead, I can see someone putting cones in front of the other parking entrance. Drove to Olympic Park, doubled back, and parked at Lidcombe Power Centre. Even that one's almost full. Crossed the street with about a hundred other people to Costco. The warehouse club is so full, I can't even have a good look at what's on the shelves. The checkout lines stretched all the way to the other side of the building. I had to ditch our trolley because there's no way I'm lining up. All we managed to buy is a combo pizza, an all-meat hotdog, and a very berry sundae from the food centre.

Movie 2011.08.13 - Manufactured Landscapes

2011-08-13T20:08:00.002+10:00

A bunch of pretty pictures by Edward Burtynsky woven together with some minimal narrative and snippets from a TED talk.

If you don't have access to a decent photo gallery or museum, watch this movie. That is, if you can tolerate loooong tracking shots with zero dialogue. The movie features scenes from an electric iron factory floor in China, e-waste recycling village in Fujian, a loading dock, a massive shipyard in China, recycling dockyard in Bangladesh, a coal mine, the construction of the Three Gorges Dam, old and new neighborhoods in Shanghai, etc.

I'm sure the photographer is trying is to tell us something about social inequality, human consumption, rampant industrialization, wanton pollution, etc. Me, I'm just here for the pretty pictures.

Movie 2011.08.11 - Zombieland

2011-08-11T19:07:00.012+10:00

Almost similar to Shaun of the Dead, but with more on-screen special effects, which makes the movie quite refreshing. It's only 88 minutes long, and there's no idle moment with all the zombie-killing.

It's the 21st century, and the US is overrun by zombies caused by mad cow disease. College student Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg) manages to survive the plague by staying in his room and playing WoW. He decides to go to Ohio to check whether his parents are still alive. Along the way, he meets redneck Tallahassee, whose sole purpose in life is to torture and kill zombies. At a grocery store, they meet hot Wichita (Emma Stone) and her little sister Little Rock (Abigail Breslin), who dupe them out of their SUV. The boys find a yellow Hummer full of guns and ammo and gives chase. They find the girls stranded on the road with the SUV, and duly gets duped again. At least this time, Wichita decides to give them a ride. The girls were on their way to an amusement park in Hollywood, which is supposed to be zombie-free. Wichita knows this is not true, but she just wants Little Rock to be happy. They arrive at Hollywood and stays at Bill Murray's mansion. And why is Bill Murray still alive? He dresses up as a zombie when he goes out. Columbus doesn't know this, so when Bill plays a prank on him, he goes for his shotgun and shoots him dead. End of cameo. The girls goes to the abandoned amusement park at night, and turns on all the lights and the rides. Of course, this draws out all the nearby zombies. Columbus and Tallahassee charges in and saves the girls, then they ride off into the night.

Movies 2011.08.12 - Fuschia, Bahay Kubo

2011-08-11T19:07:00.008+10:00

I don't know why we keep on watching these Filipino movies. I guess if you want enough of them, you're bound to find a couple of good ones. These two are not. In fact, the plots are so forgettable I have to think hard in order to write up this post.

Fuschia is a about old woman (Gloria Romero) who's trying to be hip. Can't remember whether she's married or widowed, but I seem to recall that she has a boyfriend, but she's still flirting with another guy (Eddie Garcia). Then there's the mayor who's after some land because some property group wants to develop it into a memorial park. She then makes a speech in public, berating the mayor and exposing his shady deeds. Unbelievable! In real life, she would've been abducted and salvaged before managed to hold the mic. Why Fuschia? Because that's her favourite colour.

Bahay Kubo: A Pinoy Mano Po! is Regal Films' official entry to the 33rd Metro Manila Film Festival. Not saying that the Mano Po series about a Fil-Chi family is any good, but Bahay Kubo is nowhere near the "quality" of Mano Po. We have province girl Eden (Maricel Soriano) adopting kids left and right. She marries Perry (Eric Quizon), bore a child, and adopts some more. A few years down the track, the kids started getting unruly. You have sibling rivalry between the real and adopted kids. The biological parents came a-knocking. Perry's business failed, and he had to make tracks. Boo hoo hoo. If you know of any other cliched drama elements, feel free to add them here. By the end of the movie, the Dad comes back, and everything is okay again.

Movie 2011.08.09 - Flawless

2011-08-09T20:08:00.003+10:00

Another heist movie centered around two disgruntled employees at the London Diamond Corporation - a lady senior executive Laura Quinn (Demi Moore) who was passed over so many times and a night shift cleaner Mr. Hobbs (Michael Caine) who lost his beloved wife to cancer.

The plan was for Laura to steal the vault codes, and for Hobbs to get into the vault during his night shift and sneak away a thermos full of diamonds. The next day, surprise surprise, the whole vault was cleaned out. They tore up the whole place, no diamonds. They called in the insurers, won't pay. The chief investigator managed to secure a grainy photo of the two together at the tracks and some prints, inconclusive.

Ms. Quinn eventually traced the diamond cache at the end of a sewer pipe. The insurers eventually paid the ransom to the tune of 100 million pounds, but not before the insurer Mr. Sinclair killed himself. Mr. Hobbs disappeared without a trace. Ms. Quinn eventually took ownership of the 100 million pounds and spent the rest of her days giving it away to charities all over the world. As her last act, she gave her exclusive story to a cocky news reporter, plus the 168-carat South African Star.

Audiobook 2011.08.08 - Fight Club

2011-08-09T08:27:00.003+10:00

Better than the movie! Better than the book! Just because you can't fast forward or speed read, you're forced to listen to every word of the audiobook. And if it's a Chuck Palahniuk book, you don't want to be missing anything.

I've read the actual book a couple of times already, and yet I still missed a few bits and pieces. Have to say I prefer the book ending than the one in the movie. In the movie, our main character manages to dispatch Tyler by firing a gun in his mouth. Some other skyscraper blows up, and not the one they're standing on. In the book version, the bombs didn't detonate because Tyler used paraffin. So our main character ends up confined in a mental institution. Staff would approach him, call him Sir, and talk about future plans.

Movie 2011.08.08 - Equilibrium

2011-08-08T21:09:00.003+10:00

Big-Brother movie in the same vein as Fahrenheit 451 and Nineteen Eight-Four. At the end of a disastrous World War III, a new regime called the Tetragammatron Council rose to power and controls society by making people take an emotion-repressing drug called Prozium. "Sense offenders" who don't take their daily dose are persecuted by Gammatron Clerics. All materials that might incite emotions are confiscated and destroyed.

One day, cleric John Preston accidentally breaks his vial of Prozium, and didn't manage to get a replacement. He starts having stirrings of emotions, and stops taking Prozium altogether. That's the start of his upward spiral. He now reads books on the side, plays with abandoned puppies, and ultimately falls in love with a member of the Underground resistance. Disillusioned with how things are, he unleashes his gun kata skills and fights his way through to the office of the Father. Turns out Father doesn't take Prozium himself. Doesn't matter - after a short fight, Preston kills him, too.

In the final scene, we see the Underground members activating bombs and fighting with the Gammatron guards. Chaos, anarchy, and lawlessness. Wouldn't have it any other way.

Movie 2011.08.06 - Mostly Martha

2011-08-06T21:09:00.003+10:00

German movie about a workaholic chef with a superiority complex who tries to balance her life, career, and a niece who ends up in her care. Sounds strangely familiar? Turns out there's a Hollywood adaptation featuring Catherine Zeta-Jones.

Martha usually only has to contend with picky patrons. When her boss Frida hires free spirit Mario, she got stressed even more. The last straw was when her sister dies in a car accident, and she has to take care of her niece. She starts to bond well with Lina, then the estranged father shows up and brings her Italy. For a happy ending, Maria eventually reconciles with Mario, and with his help, they travel to Italy to bring back Lina. They marry and open their own restaurant.

Audiobook 2011.07.30 - Pale Blue Dot

2011-07-29T17:05:00.006+10:00

A very enlightening read from a very enlightened guy. Sagan starts off the book by going through how humans eventually discovered that we are not the centre of the universe. And what better way to develop this humility by studying the universe. He then proceeds to give us an introduction of the planets and the major moons, and whether these have a good chance of harbouring life or not. If none are found in the nearby planets, maybe we can start things off by colonizing them. If not the planets, then maybe the asteroids. Sagan also gives an introduction of the US space missions, especially Voyager. He shares some interesting anecdotes, how it was beset by technical problems mid-mission, and how human ingenuity always manages to save the day, etc.

"It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known."

Downgrading JVP to JVP

2011-07-21T10:10:00.004+10:00

After almost a week of using Tricky103's Laila JVP ROM, I've decided to reflash my SGS. Getting FCs from the FM Stereo app. Getting FCs from the Google Navigation. Good thing CoPilot works fine. Worst of all, the phone goes dead at least one a day without warning. It's okay if it resets and comes back up. The problem is, once it goes dead, it doesn't come back up until a manual power-on. For a guy who lives by the phone, this just won't do. So it's back to stock JVP with cooked-in apps from the Kitchen.

Installation is pretty much the same as the Froyo-to-Gingerbread upgrade. Instead of Tricky103's ROM, substitute it with the cooked ROM (using Talon kernel). Installed from scratch to make sure everything is clean. The finished product is not as fast as the Tegrak kernel, but as least no more FCs. I was hoping BLN will work, but it's not.

Sony Vaio Recovery

2011-07-17T15:46:00.004+10:00

What recovery?! Spent the whole day fooling around with the Vaio, but no recovery options whatsover.

I go to Start --> Programs. There is no software called Vaio Recovery Wizard anywhere.

I go to Control Panel. There is no option for Performance and Maintenance.

I tried pressing F10 when the Vaio logo comes up after reboot. Nothing happens. Went straight to Windows XP.

One other option is to order the Recovery Disks from Sony Support. No way, Jose!

The only reason I'm persevering is that I know the recovery option exists. I've reinstalled this same Vaio laptop from recovery before, and I even remember creating some recovery disks, but can't find them now. Is it possible because I've already created the disks before, so the system removed them from the recovery partition? Maybe Sony only allows one set of recovery disks?

In any case, my partition manager tells me that apart from the primary WinXP partition, there's an unallocated partition of about 8MB. Too small to be the recovery partition. What the heck. I wiped everything off and installed TinyXP on it.

More Gingerbread

2011-07-16T21:09:00.008+10:00

So I've had a chance to play around with JVP, and I must say it's the fastest ROM I've tried. (Already mentioned that before.)

My only complaints are:

There is no live wallpaper support.
There is only one ringtone and one notification tone.
Even though this is 2.3.4, there is no VoIP support.
Boot animation is just a scrolling bootlog of Tegrak.

Spent the rest of the night trying to put these back in with mixed results.

Download SGS2 live wallpapers from here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=13167454
Install as normal APK.

Get additional apps from the RomKitchen/Stefunel's update.zip generator:
http://romkitchen.org/m/updgen.html
Don't bother with the kernel, modem, and boot animations. Just select the apps, then Generate!

If you want FM Radio and Screen Capture, get them from here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=12004748&postcount=948

Normally, you would install update.zip using CWM recovery. With a Tegrak kernel, you have to place the file in /sdcard/tegrak/folder directory, then run Tegrak recovery on bootup. More details here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=920711
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=11402601&postcount=116
Installed FM Radio, MIUI Music Player, and Voice Recorder this way.

As for ringtones and notification tones, I managed to download some stock SGS and SGS2 ringtones from the Internet. Install via update.zip didn't work, so took the MP3 and OGG files and pushed them to /system/media/audio directory via ES File Explorer. (Root Explorer is too expensive for me.) New ringtones and notification tones worked fine, but disappeared again after a reboot. Strangely, the files are still in /system/media/audio. Fixed this by moving the files to /sdcard/media/audio.

Froyo to Gingerbread

2011-07-15T23:11:00.009+10:00

After months and months of waiting for RomKitchen to come out with a proper JVP, I gave up and decided to upgrade the manual way. Yes, I know JVO, JV9, and JV5 are there, but like everyone else, I want the latest and the greatest. For now, that's Tricky103's business edition super-slimmed Laila JVP ROM. Doesn't matter if it might be full of bugs.

First thing to do when upgrading from Froyo (2.2.1) to Gingerbread (2.3.4) is to flash the new bootloaders from a stock ROM. If you're installaing JVP, get the JVP stock ROM (from SamFirmware) and flash via Odin. Actually, the very first thing to do is to backup EVERYTHING to the PC (app list and config, APN list and config, contacts, SMS log, call log, WiFi passwords, widget settings, etc.) Backup the whole external SD card. With a factory reset, this might also get wiped.

To flash a stock ROM via Odin, follow this guide:

https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1BNrIarwcaxS8wycCob5_VDxuH4bJXASktRfLAKs3ozM

Next step is to do a factory reset. Disconnect the phone from the laptop. Open up the dialer and type in *2767*3855# This will cause the phone to do an immediate factory reset.

Now that everything's clean, we're gonna put in a kernel that supports ClockworkMod recovery. The one I chose is Chainfire's kernel. Flash this using Odin using the ff. guide:

https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1PF4t0ACxup_Pq7NBLb7tHEmKnHTfc3oC4QAWv7Ytb6Q

At this point, we have a stock JVP ROM running CF kernel. Copy Tricky103's JVP ROM to the external SD card via USB. Follow this guide to clean up some more stuff and install the JVP ROM:

https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1E6cQI6sd__UmTJsvR1GN4bCljiG-QKLnHoM8XxqprWg

Note that Tricky103's JVP ROM makes use of Tegrak's kernel. One special feature of a Tegrak kernel is the onenand mode lagfix. Onenand mode swaps the /system and /data partition. Downside is that now you only get 270MB of space for applications. Upside is that your SGS now runs ridiculously fast, and this I can confirm. Follow this guide to convert everything to ext4 and enable onenand mode:

https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1XC-Wy_np31VwFJr3pasyUS2Zo6lfBvWgPswJKKbByRI

Before enabling onenand mode, I was getting a quadrant score of 1340 - equal to a Nexus One 2.2+, which is already very impressive. After enabling onenand mode, I got a quadrant score of 2128. Unbelievable!

Movie 2011.07.01 - X-Men: First Class

2011-07-01T22:10:00.003+10:00

Nice, interesting prequel for those who are unfamiliar with the X-Men universe. In this movie, we see how Erik Lehnsherr went from Nazi war prisoner to becoming Magneto. On the other side of the world, young Charles Xavier catches young Raven stealing food from the fridge, and they became close friends. Fast forward to the '60s, in the middle of the Cuban crisis. Shaw and his gang of mutants are playing the Americans against the Russians in a bid to start a nuclear war in order to start a new world order. Meanwhile, Lehnsherr and Xavier negotiates a deal to use CIA resources and recruit other mutants to their cause. This happened and that happened. In the finale, Shaw and his goons try to force the Americans' hand by driving a Soviet ship towards the American line. Xavier negates this by mindcontrolling another Soviet ship to blow the rogue ship out of the water. Meanwhile, Magneto locates Shaw's submarine with the help of Banshee, and lifts it out of the water. Both Soviets and Americans are awed at this show of mutant power that they simultaneously decide to annihilate the mutants with their missiles. And this is when Magneto's worst fears are confirmed. He turns against the humans (and Professor X), and sends the missiles back to the ships. Huge fight ensues between the two guys, with Professor X getting hit with a bullet in his spine. Crisis averted. Even though Magneto regrets injuring Professor X, he does not forgive the humans.

We patiently await the sequel - X-Men: Economy Class.

Movie 2011.06.30 - Green Lantern

2011-06-30T20:08:00.004+10:00

Movie has quite nice special effects. Not as cartoony as I thought it would be. Plot is a bit incredible - Guardians of the Universe, Green Lantern Corp, green essence , yellow essence, etc. I mean, destroying the big bad planet-crunching Parallax by luring him to the sun to be burned?

Lots of sitcommy jokes, which doesn't feel right in a comic book adaptation. Heck, take away the aliens and it feels like a romcom. Anyway, all the wife cares about is Ryan Reynolds.

And yes, there will definitely be a sequel. Sneaky Sinestro.

Movie 2011.06.24 - Kung Fu Panda 2

2011-06-24T20:08:00.004+10:00

Movie should've been entitled Panda vs. Peacock or How Po Got His Groove Back.

So we've got a new bad guy in town in the form of Lord Shen a.k.a The Prodigal Peacock. He's been sending his wolf goons and grabbing all the metal utensils from peaceful townsfolk to build his arsenal of cannons. While fighting with the goons, Po loses his concentration, starts having flashbacks from his childhood, and the goons escape. In an epic fight with Lord Shen, he gets blown to kingdom come, and was saved by a goat soothsayer who helps him remember his past. With renewed strength, the Furious Five together with Shifu and other kungfu masters, they defeat Lord Shen.

The last scene of the movie removes all doubt that there's going to be another sequel.

Audiobook 2011.06.24 - Hot, Flat, and Crowded

2011-06-24T18:06:00.003+10:00

First off, an explanation of the title. Hot refers to the global climate, as in "It's getting hot in here." Flat refers to the globalization brought on by the Internet. Crowded refers to the global population.

In this audiobook, Thomas L. Friedman argues that the US needs to take the lead in developing clean, renewable energy for its own economic and political future. Friedman argues that global warming is not a question of if, but when. The country that can develop the cleanest, most efficient green energy gets first-mover advantage that other countries might not be able to overcome in the short term. With less dependence on oil, this will encourage the petro-dictatorships to open up and maybe become less of a dictatorship.

The Sleepy Gong

2011-06-19T10:10:00.001+10:00

We got to Wollongong around lunchtime. It was relatively quiet compared to Sydney. Actually feels like a Sunday. Took a walk along Crown Street Mall. It's a 2-3 block strip of pedestrian shopping, like Sydney's Pitt Street Mall. There's some retail shops here and there, some already closed. There's David Jones, Myer, JB Hi-Fi, etc. The only time I got excited was when I spotted some $20 PS3 Singstar bundles and a ceramic white PSP on clearance for $99. (Take a further 20% off for the missing battery.)

After a late lunch, we went to the beach and the lighthouse for some picture-taking with the birds. (Real birds.) Not too many tourists there. By 4:30pm all of the shops, except for DJ, are already closed.

Next day, MIL woke up early and went out for a coffee. It was 9am, and all the shops and cafes are still closed. Good thing we found Campos Coffee and that's where we had our (big) breakfast.

Searching for Truffles

2011-06-18T20:08:00.004+10:00

I know Truffles is very difficult to find, but this is getting ridiculous. The address given to us was 427 Princess Highway, Wollongong. We set off from our hotel around 6:15pm hoping to locate it in 15 minutes using our GPS units. We got to the place, but no Truffles. We got out of the car, searched the whole block. Nada. We asked around and somebody told us it's near the Corrimal RSL. Nope, it's not. (Remember, it's Truffles Restaurant, not Truffles Bistro.) We called them up, and were given some vague directions. We headed back in the direction of Wollongong, thought we might have missed it, so we doubled back. Nope, must be the other direction.

We finally found the restaurant at 8pm. Way past the babies' bedtime, which made them really cranky. The menu sounds very nice, but tastes average. Or maybe I was just not in the mood anymore. Prices are quite reasonable though, especially when it's somebody else's treat.

160GB of FAT32

2011-06-17T22:10:00.004+10:00

Strong SRT 5431 I recently bought from BigW seems to record and timeshift with no problems, but can't play back recorded programs. All files on USB HDD showing up as 0.0MB on the GUI. I can see the LED light blinking all the time, so the PVR is recording, but where have the files gone? Works fine when I used the USB stick though. Is it because the USB stick is FAT32, while the USB HDD is NTFS?

To test, I tried to format the external disk as FAT32. Nope, Windows XP won't do it. Can't have FAT32 partitions 32 gigs. Turns out that the theoretical limit for FAT32 is actually 8TB, but under XP, Microsoft hardlimited it to 32GB. Solution? Use fat32format from Ridgecrop Consultants Ltd. Now there's even a GUI version, so you won't have to mess with the command line.

After the format, everything works perfectly. Neat little PVR for only $49.

Upgrading ZTE V9 Optus MyTab

2011-06-16T12:12:00.011+10:00

After days of waiting, finally received the ZTE V9 a.k.a. Optus MyTab last night from DSE. Left it charging overnight. First impression: hefty weight, nice build quality. Screen resolution is not that sharp, especially when compared to the SGS. Resistive touchscreen is also not as responsive as a capacitive one, but I've been told the response is already pretty good.

First order of the day is to upgrade the software from Eclair 2.1 to Froyo 2.2. That's easy enough. Just download the upgrade tool from either Optus' or ZTE's website and run it. Put the tablet in FTM mode (power on, then simultaneous press on the volume up and down keys when the Android mascot shows up), and connect it to the PC. For me, it didn't work the first time because the upgrade tool can't find the image files. Had to quit and re-run to upgrade tool for it to work.

Next up is to perform the network unlock. Wife's going to use the tablet, not me. There are a couple of websites out there that will generate the unlock codes for free. All they need from you is the IMEI code. Try:
http://nextgenserver.com/calculator/
http://www.jictechnology.co.uk/calculator/index.php
If you're feeling generous, there are a couple of guys on eBay who do it for a fee - ranging from $1 to $6. Shame on you, people!

Get your files from here:

http://android.modaco.com/content/zte-light-v9-lightv9-modaco-com/340064/rom-gingerbread-cm7-working-on-gen2-zte-light-v9-2011-06-15/

Instructions here:

http://whirlpool.net.au/wiki/zte_tablet_v9_optus

and here:

http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=1713293

Latest CM7 and GApp here:

http://wiki.cyanogenmod.com/wiki/Latest_Version

Upgrading XBMC

2011-05-26T09:09:00.005+10:00

I'm kind of old-school, so when I say XBMC, I mean XBMC for Xbox. Been a while since played around with XBMC. When v3.0.1 came out, I decided to upgrade my system.

Halfway through the ftp transfer, XBMC hanged. Next time I ran XBMC, it wouldn't boot anymore. Uh, oh. Fortunately for me, first boot is actually Evolution-X before running XBMC as an app, hence I was still able to restart the ftp process. This time, I was able to boot XBMC, but no text on all of the menus. Quick search of the forums point to an unsuccessful upgrade. XBMC was running while files were being transferred, so the skins weren't upgraded.

Solution here is to make a backup of UserData, delete the whole xbmc folder, copy over new xbmc folder, then restore UserData. Worked.

Movie 2011.05.24 - Eagle vs. Shark

2011-05-24T08:08:00.003+10:00

Quirky romcom from NZ about two socially-awkward-inept geeks finding love and meaning in their lives. I like my quirky movies, but this one is too quirky for me.

Movie is centered on Jarrod gearing up to fight his high school bully Eric, who made life hell for him. Lily works in a fast food outlet, and she has a crush on Jarrod. They got on quite nicely until Jarrod decides to dump her, and goes after his dead brother's fiance.

So Jarrod shows up on the school yard with his family and friends only to discover that Eric is actually paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair. Doesn't matter. He starts to beat Eric (and himself) with nunchucks, but Eric managed to wrestle and pin him to the ground. Jarrod got depressed because of this, and Lily reconciles with him.

Audiobook 2011.05.20 - Why Evil Exists

2011-05-20T18:06:00.003+10:00

The Great Courses lecture series by the esteemed Prof. Charles Mathewes. I had really high hopes for this one, but was really let down. I was so disappointed that I didn't even finish the series. Basically, it's the way the professor delivers his lecture. All I want to know is why evil exists. Prof. Mathewes' lecture runs the gamut from ancient literature to present philosophies, analyzing the concepts of evil, the definitions of evil, how and why evil exists, how different philosophers perceive evil, etc. He covers Satan, Dante, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Montaigne, Pascal, Milton, Kant, Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche, Dostoevsky, Conrad, Freud, Camus, Arendt, etc. Sometimes I have the feeling that not all these guys have anything to do with evil. Our professor just wants to show off the depth and breadth of his knowledge. And he spouts lots of high-falluting words that even I have never heard of. I seriously doubt if some of those words are in the dictionary, and he's just making them up as we go along.

For every series, Prof. Mathewes starts off with a new philosopher, gives a short biography, how great and/or profound he was, what was his greatest work(s), his signature philosphy, a few anecdotes here and there. Then, he somehow associates that philosophy to the study of evil. Then, he moves on to the next philospher. All throughtout, he talks as if he knows all these philosophers personally. Mr. So and So wants believes that..., Mr. So and So thinks that..., Mr. So and So wants us to know that... Heck, he even knows what Satan is thinking. Seriously.

I've been waiting for so long for the final punchline as to why evil exists that I gave up halfway.

Movie 2011.05.09 - A Woman, a Gun, and a Noodle Shop

2011-05-09T11:11:00.003+10:00

Had no idea this movie is directed by Zhang Yimou. And that it's an adaptation of the Coen Brothers' Blood Simple. The only reason I watched the movie is because I found the title interesting. What would a woman in a noodle shop do with a gun? I was not disappointed - interesting plot, colourful characters, breathtaking landscapes.

Turns out the woman is married to an abusive husband who bought her for 3 guan and 800 wen. She is having an affair with one of the noodle shop staff. A Persian arms dealer is in town and she buys a gun from him for 3 guan. The husband suspects the affair and bribes the chief police investigator with 15 guan to "salvage" them.

Now this is where the plot becomes interesting. Did the police investigator really plan to kill the couple, or was he just after the husband's money? Was the wife and the shop intern really having an affair? Watch the movie and find out.

Movie 2011.05.07 - The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters

2011-05-07T23:11:00.006+10:00

Movie is about a bunch of nerds trying to set world records for arcade games. Wife got bored during the first few minutes, but I quite liked the movie. Sure, it's a low-budget film, but it's got heart.

There's this Billy, who has been the godfather of Donkey Kong for almost 25 years. Heck, he even has goons working for him. Then, this new guy Steve practices on his personal arcade machine in his basement garage while unemployed. He breaks Billy's record, but the authorities (Twin Galaxies) is unwilling to acknowledge it, insinuating that the circuit boards might have been tampered with. So Steve goes to the annual Funspot tournament. Despite repeated request, Billy doesn't show up. Steve goes on to break the record with a live score. Billy then furnishes Twin Galaxies with a scratchy VHS tape showing him going beyond the new record set by Steve. Twin Galaxies declares Billy as the record holder. How's that for hypocrisy?

I won't tell you how the movie ends. It's not really about some arcade game, it's actually about life. It's about righting a wrong. It's about setting a goal, and achieving it against all odds. It's about knowing when to admit you're wrong and take it like a man.

Upgrading TomTom Maps

2011-04-30T21:09:00.003+10:00

TomTom unit came up with a warning saying that my map is out-of-date already. So what do I do? Download the latest ones from the Internet, of course.

Lots of sites host TomTom maps, but I usually do a search on forum.gsmhosting.com first. The forum would usually have a compatibility matrix, too. As before, upload the new maps to your unit, and run the EasyUseTools keygen to crack the maps.

I used to run RunMeForAllAutomatic and the batch file will do everything in one go. Didn't work this time. I had to supply my DeviceID, copy the map meta files to the laptop and then run RunMeforDCT. And I had to run the batch file multiple times for multiple maps.

Trip to Viking Twice

2011-04-28T10:10:00.003+10:00

Not a lucky day for me. Rushed out of the house to find that I have left all my keys and even wallet behind. All I've got is my backpack and my phone. Called up the wife. Really no point to have her drive all the way home to open the door for me and drive back to work. Called my siblings. All of them have left for work already. At least Mom's home. I decided to walk the 1.5kms to get the spare keys from her.

A few hundred meters down the road, it started raining. Ran to the nearest taxi rank and hopped into a cab. Lucky for me, my cabbie doesn't mind the short distance and the fact that I don't have any money with me. Though I did pay him with the money I borrowed from Mom. So I grabbed the spare house keys, took the spare car and drove back to my house. The keys won't work. In our haste, we got the wrong keys.

Drove back to the house. This time, my Mom's already waiting outside with the right keys. Got back to the house, grabbed my keys and wallet, switched cars, off to the office.

Nook Color Upgrade

2011-04-26T20:08:00.001+10:00

Days after the new software came out, I upgraded the Nook Color from version 1.1.0 to 1.2.0. I don't really care about the new email client, Adobe Flash Players, or the Nook appstore. Newest is always the best.

Upgrade can be done OTA via WiFi, or if you're trigger-happy, do a manual download of the zip file, copy it over to the root directory via USB, and the firmware will auto-install after a few minutes.

Sydney Royal Easter Show

2011-04-24T17:05:00.004+10:00

Has been drizzling the whole day. If it weren't for the date-specific tickets, I would've just stayed at home, instead of going to the Sydney Royal Easter Show. The rain stopped for a while by the time we got out of the bus, so it's not too bad. Still happy that the wife and baby didn't come along, as the whole place is packed. First activity we watched is the dog races. Man, those dogs are really hyper. I wonder what the trainers do to make them so motivated. Next, we watched the daredevil bikies do some stunts. The ground is still wet, so they only performed the easy ones. Started drizzling again, so we took shelter inside the Woolworths Fresh Food Dome. Everybody else had the same idea, so the place is packed. Love the produce displays.

Lunch is hotdog on a stick for $4.50 and chips for $6.50. Strange that the chips cost more than the hotdog. If you look hard enough, you'll find stalls selling hotdogs for $6. Ponchos for $5. Umbrellas for $9. After lunch, we checked out the cows, the horses, the sheep, the cats, the blokes chopping wood, etc. By 5pm, it's time for the Grand Parade, which has more cows, more horses, more sheep, more alpacas, more pigs, etc. Can't believe we wasted 1.5 hours for that. By 6pm, I was in such a hurry to meet up with the wife, I didn't have the time to look at the showbags anymore.

Movie 2011.04.21 - Ears, Open. Eyeballs, Click.

2011-04-21T22:10:00.004+10:00

Definitely having mixed feelings after watching this movie. Call it a documentary, but you never hear the background commentary. From start to finish, it's just the camera recording what goes on in a military training camp. Morning till night, the officers shout at the recruits non-stop. Just watching their daily routine is so stressful, I don't think I'll survive a day. I wouldn't be surprised if one of them goes amok and does something crazy. Bath time, meal time, training time, cleaning time, prayer time - the recruits are being shouted at, manhandled, threatened, insulted, abused. Makes me wonder whether what the COs are doing are legal or not. Maybe that's how it's done to toughen up the newbs. Maybe it's just a necessary evil.

Movie 2011.04.16 - The Accidental Husband

2011-04-16T16:04:00.002+10:00

Wavering insecure bride-to-be breaks off from happy-go-lucky firefighter fiance on the advice of a radio host cum doctor love. Patrick Sullivan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) takes his vengeance by marrying Dr. Emma Lloyd (Uma Thurman), at least in the computer records. Now, Emma is supposed to marry her publisher fiance (Colin Firth), but that's not going to happen unless her previous "marriage" is annulled. That's the set up.

A lots of things happen while Emma is trying to get Patrick to sign the papers. In the process, Emma realizes that Patrick is not such a bad guy after all. Ditto for Patrick. Heck, they even started to like each other. All that turned sour when Patrick reveals the true state of things. He signed the papers, and Emma went back to her fiance. On her wedding day, right in the middle of the proceedings, she decided that she loves Patrick more, and rides off with him in a firetruck. Movie's not as bad as I expected.

Nookie Froyo and CM7

2011-04-15T22:10:00.006+10:00

After some forum-browsing and a bit of downloading, I managed to have the NookieFroyo image installed on a microSD card and running on the Nook Color. Not too impressed - it's just the standard AOSP (Android Open Source Project) Froyo with not much apps included. No GApps, no Android Market. I believe there's a browser included, but it's not as fast as the one on my SGS.

Installed the CyanogenMod7 (Android 2.3.3) and GApps package instead, and things are starting to look better. The whole thing feels faster, snappier, and best of all, Android Market. Flash runs fine. YouTube works. 7" kiddie video goodness for the baby.

Next step is to maybe flash the NC with CM7, instead of simply running it off the microSD. However, I kinda like the simple, clean interface of the NC. And I still wanna see what the April B&N update will bring to the table. I can simply install the Nook app to my microSD-based CM7 (or even the SGS), but I just found out that Read to Me Books only works with the real Nook Color. Oh well, maybe I can wait till the Nook app is upgraded to support Read to Me books.

NC Is Here

2011-04-12T20:08:00.003+10:00

The Nook Color finally arrived. The Barnes & Noble Android-based ebook reader retails for US$250, but I managed to snag one for US$200 in B&N's eBay store using a coupon code. First impressions - the tablet is a bit hefty; the IPS screen is very bright and very clear; the whole things feels solidly built.

Not much of a book reader (anymore), so I'll just whack in NookieFroyo and turn the Nook Color into a full-fledged 7" WiFi full-color multitouch Android tablet. Heck, with CyanogenMod7 just released, I might skip Froyo and get myself a Gingerbread!

Cancelling eBay Bid

2011-04-12T07:07:00.002+10:00

Last day of auction for my 40GB iPod Photo, and the winning bidder emails to say that he wants to cancel his bid because he put in an unrealistically high value. $775 for a second-hand 4th-generation iPod? Right.

Next time this happens to you, immediately put in the correct maximum bid. That should overwrite the previous one. According to eBay, you can't retract or cancel your bid as a general rule. Unless there's a significant change in the item description, or you've made an honest mistake in typing in the max bid.

Two avenues open to you:

fill up a Bid Retraction form
if you're lazy, contact the seller and get him to cancel the bid

All-You-Can-Eat Ribs

2011-04-10T12:12:00.003+10:00

Dropped in Tony Roma's on Sussex Street for some all-you-can-eat-pork-ribs goodness, compliments of a Cudo voucher. Normal price of a pork ribs buffet is around $30. With my Cudo voucher, it's only $15 for every person on the table. But wait, there's more. You also get rice or fries as a side.

With the first round, you get three big slabs. Once you've finished everything, they'll serve you smaller pieces, about three bones wide. This is about what we can finish within the two-hour time limit anyway.

Communicator Hard Reset

2011-04-08T15:03:00.005+10:00

In case you need to hard reset your Nokia Communicators. This is how to do it.

On the 9210, turn on the phone, and press Ctrl-Shft-F when the hands show up. CAUTION! This will wipe out everything on the phone. Grab your original applications CD that came with the package to re-install the software. Another option is to download All_Memory_Data.sis and All_Nokia_9210_data.sis from the Internet. Nokia USA used to have these files online, but not anymore.

Same thing for the 9300: Ctrl-Shft-F when the hands show up. No need to reinstall the applications. Ctrl-Shft-I to delete ini files.

Movie 2011.04.06 - Megamind

2011-04-06T21:09:00.003+10:00

Not your regular superhero animated movie.

So supervillain and superhero have been battling it out for years. Finally, supervillain managed to take out the superhero. Supervillain goes on to terrorize the town with impunity. He eventually gets bored and creates another superhero worthy enough to fight him. Unfortunately, this new superhero would rather be the bad guy - more profitable. The supervillain had no choice but to be the good guy and save the city (and the girl).

Audiobook 2011.03.30 - Mary Queen of Scots by Antonia Fraser

2011-03-30T22:10:00.004+11:00

Quite a sad story, really.

Mary Stuart, the only surviving legitimate child of King James V of Scotland, spent her childhood in France, and married the French dauphin Francis when she was 16 to become the Queen consort. Widowed in two years, she returned to Scotland to rule as its Queen. Things weren't easy for her - she didn't get along with her lords and the Protestant clergy. After four years, she married her first cousin Henry Stuart, the Lord Darnley. He was no good for her, and the marriage ended in tragedy. There was an explosion in the house in the middle of the night, and he was found strangled to death in the garden. She later married Bothwell, who was the chief suspect in Darnley's death. She had no choice for Bothwell abducted her and brought her to Dunbar Castle, where he allegedly raped her. Some uprising followed, and Mary was forced to abdicate in favour of her one-year old sone James VI. Meanwhile she fled to England to seek protection from Queen Elizabeth I. Seen as a threat to the English throne, Elizabeth had her arrested and imprisoned in various castles and manor houses. After 19 long years, she was tried and found guilty of treason for being party to the Babington plot to assassinate Queen Elizabeth. She was 44 when she was executed.

Language Change in Windows XP

2011-03-29T12:12:00.003+11:00

After reinstalling my laptop with a fresh copy of Windows XP, I noticed that my language settings kept changing. I would start typing and in the middle of a sentence, the y key would become z, and vice versa. And my punctuation marks are all over the place. I turn on the Language Bar, and guess what? My language has changed to Bosnian. Sometimes it decides to go German. With the Language Bar activated, I can now see what language my OS has switched to and can easily switch it back to English.

To stop this problem once and for all, this is what you do. Go to then Control Panel, select Region and Language Options. Click on the Language tab, then click on Details. Under Key Settings, make sure all of the Key Sequences are set to None.

2011.03.26 - Resident Evil: Afterlife

2011-03-28T22:28:00.004+11:00

As the movie is based on the videogame, I wasn't expecting a polished storyline or proper character development. The fight scenes are very slick though. Feels like they took the best cut scenes from the game and transported them to the big screen.

In a post-apocalyptic world, Alice and a few survivors take on the Umbrella Corporation, which has gone underground. The group busts out of the prison stronghold, which is being swarmed by zombies, and gets on the Arcadia ship, which is supposedly safe haven for uninfected humans. Turns out it's a trap. The good guys defeat the bad guys and releases the human prisoners. As the movie ends, we see Umbrella helicopters on their way to attack the Arcadia.

Eagerly anticipating the next movie.

Froyo 2.2.1

2011-03-12T23:14:00.003+11:00

Took the plunge and upgraded from to Froyo 2.2.1. Nothing that I needed from the latest release. Just wanted to try out Doc and Stefunel's RomKitchen, so called because you use the web front-end to "cook" your custom ROM. Basically, you choose your base ROM, CSC, modem, and what apps, tweaks, themes, etc. you want to add, and click the Generate button. That's it.

Copy the custom ROM to the sdcard. Go into recovery mode (VolUp-Home-Power). Select factory reset, then install zip from sdcard. Reboot. It feels a little faster than before, but maybe because all of my apps and data have been wiped.

Movie 2011.03.10 - The King's Speech

2011-03-10T23:11:00.005+11:00

No complicated plots here. The King's Speech is a movie about the stuttering King of England making his first war time speech to all his peoples.

The movie starts with the Duke of York (who shares my name and it is not Colin) delivering the closing speech of the Empire Exhibition at the old Wembley Stadium. He was tense, he was nervous, and he stuttered a lot. That didn't go down well. His gracious wife Elizabeth sought help from many speech therapists to no avail. Then they met Lionel Logue, who hails from Australia. Part speech therapist, part psychiatrist, he tries to understand why Bertie got his stutter in the first place. Slowly but surely, he guides and encourages Bertie to control his speech.

King George V later dies, and after six months, King Edward the VIII abdicates the throne to marry some American socialite, so now Bertie is pronounced King, much to his dismay. Worse, England joins the war against Hitler, and he has to make a 9-minute speech over radio. Lionel rushes to the palace to give him some last-minute speech lessons. During the speech, it's just the two of them in the room, and the King delivered.

Audiobook 2011.02.27 - A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century

2011-03-02T15:18:00.004+11:00

If anyone is in need for a "short" history of 14th century Europe, this should be it. From Pulitzer-Prize winning historian Barbara Tuchman, this book pretty much covers the notable events during the Middle Ages: the Black Plague, the Hundred Years' War, the papal schism, the civilian uprisings, the knights' crusades, etc. Narrative is centered around French noble Enguerrand de Coucy and his contemporaries.

That's 170 audio files of 10 minutes each. Almost thirty hours of Bluetooth audio driving to and from work. Beats listening to the pop stations on the FM radio.

Movie 2011.02.26 - No Strings Attached

2011-02-26T22:16:00.004+11:00

Friends with benefits? Fcuk buddies? That's nothing new. The only novelty in this movie is Ms. Natalie Portman taking on such a daring role.

So two old friends bump into each other and decide to be friends with benefits - no strings attached. Problem is, they start to fall for each other, but the scriptwriter won't allow it. Need to extend the movie to the max, you know. A few arguments and fights later, they eventually have s3x and make up.

I just love movies with happy endings.

Movie 2011.02.25 - Mean Girls 2

2011-02-25T22:10:00.002+11:00

I can't believe I'm saying this. I like the original Mean Girls compared to the sequel. Relatively speaking, of course. Say what you want about Lindsay Lohan. She's still a better actress compared to Meaghan Martin, who's too thin for my liking.

Jo is a new incoming student at North Shore High School. Seeing her potential, the resident mean girl clique called "The Plastics" tried to recruit her. She turned them down, and instead became best friends with Outcast Abby, whose father paid her $4000 for the role. The Plastics made life hell for the two of them, until Jo decided to fight back. She then became the resident hot shot. That is, until her deal with Abby's dad was exposed. What happened after that, I can't remember. Yeah, the movie is that boring.

iPod Hoarding

2011-02-15T21:09:00.004+11:00

I was in the market for an iPod. My external hard disk is getting full of MP3s and OGGs, but I rarely have time to listen to them on my PC. I do have a portable MP3 player, but my iRiver x20 can only hold 4GB worth of music. I need a huge MP3 player, and that would be the iPod classic.

I did a quick search on Amazon for the 5th generation iPod Classic (a.k.a. iPod Video). Typical price for second-hand units is $130 and above. Checked the auctions on eBay next. I saw this entry for two iPods plus some extras, and the auction is finishing soon. I started putting in my bids. As the seconds count down, the higher I bid. I reckon if I won the auction at $200, it would still be a bargain. (Or so I thought.) I won the auction for $182.50 plus $10 postage. Lot includes:

one 40GB 4th gen iPod Classic (iPod Photo)
one 60GB 4th gen iPod Classic (iPod Photo)
one 8GB 4th gen iPod nano (with cracked screen)
one 512MB 2nd gen iPod shuffle
one Belkin TuneCase FM transmitter
one Belkin voice memo recorder
two docking units
one Belkin leather case

Bargain?

Book 2011.02.14 - The Prophecy

2011-02-15T07:53:00.005+11:00

So I was down at the local library a few days ago, and this book by Chris Kuzneski caught my eye. Nice cover design with embossed characters and gilded patterns and the title in a fancy font. Cover is dark blue with a hooded figure facing some sort of an altar.

"The new bestseller from the author of The Lost Throne & Sign of the Cross". If this is his third book, then he must have some writing skills. There were all sorts of praises on the back cover of the book:

"Think Indiana Jones and The Davinci Code and you're in Kuzneski-land" - Sunday Sport

Hmm, Indiana Jones and Davinci Code? This doesn't bode well.

"A fast and furious thrill ride with the perfect amount of history and humour blended in..." - Raymond Khoury, bestselling author of The Last Templar

Mix of history and humour? Getting worse. And if you have to introduce an author by mentioning his work...

"Makes you wish it would never end" - Clive Cussler

Funny enough, Kuzneski's characters in the book also mentioned some characters in Cussler's books. Hmm... By the way, there were also references to Harry Potter and Twilight. And you know how I feel about those two.

Anyway, I didn't like the book. Full stop. Putting in a super-detailed description and history of the Cathedral of Learning at the University of Pittsburgh and the Beau-Rivage in Geneva and Brughes only makes the book look trying hard to shore up its credibility. And the endless juvenile bantering and wisecrack between the protagonists during stressful times of life and death didn't help. Finding it hard to crack a centuries-old code? No worries. Simply dial a friend. Need to track down some classified government information? No problems. Just dial a friend. Need to slip into a country quietly with your own cache of high-powered firearms? Hakuna matata. Dial a friend.

A suave criminal mastermind. An ancient puzzle box handed down from generation to generation. A sacred text from Nostradamus. Two brash, irritating Americans. In the end, when I try to remember what the book is about, I can't remember anything.

Movie 2011.02.12 - El baño del Papa (The Pope's Toilet)

2011-02-12T20:08:00.002+11:00

It was the year 1988, when Pope John Paul II came to visit Melo, a small town near the Uruguay-Brazil border. Expecting a huge crowd, the poor townsfolk sold off most of their possessions to set up stalls selling chorizo, burgers, paper flags, drinks, etc. Beto, a small-time smuggler, tries something different. Using his daughter's college fund, he constructs a proper outdoor toilet.

Unfortunately, it's just media hype. Instead of the hundreds of thousands of Brazilian pilgrims promised by the media, only around 400 came. It was a sad day for Melo. Well, at least, Beto and his family has a brand new toilet to use.

Movie 2011.02.07 - Life as We Know It

2011-02-07T21:09:00.004+11:00

Lately I've been watching movies the way I listen to music. I let them play in the background. Maybe it's because of the quality of the movies I've been watching lately?

I dislike Katherine Heigl for the same reason I dislike Sandra Bullock and Julia Roberts. They overact, they try to be quirky, they talk too much, etc. etc. Movie has an interesting premise, but it's trying to be too cute for its own good. The baby's cute, but she cries most of the time. If I were to have parents like these two fools, I'd be crying, too. They spend most of the screen time flirting with each other, breaking up, running off to other states, coming back, and making up. Two years on, when the movie budget is almost gone, they decided that they are actually in love with each other and stayed on as parents for Sophie.

Swim School

2011-02-05T08:08:00.003+11:00

Aidan's first day at swim school. Got to the Aquatic Centre a few minutes late. No big deal. Then my wife tells me that the class lasts for only 20 minutes. What?! Mad dash to the kiddie pool without even taking a shower. I hope the others will understand.

Today's lesson involves the instructor taking the baby and gently swaying him in the water left and right. Then she pushes the baby towards the parent. After a few rounds, a rubber mat was brought out. The babies were left sitting on the mat. We turn the mat round and round (while singing Ring-a-Round a Rosie). At one point, we lift our babies and let them splash into the water. Then back on the mat for more. None of the babies liked it, as most were bawling at the end of class. They're probably confused as to what going on.

Movie 2011.01.29 - Must Love Death

2011-01-29T21:09:00.005+11:00

Once in a while, I'd like to watch those never-heard-of movies. You never know, it could be a sleeper hit. Or a dud. This one's a dud.

The movie is categorized as a romantic horror comedy. Not enough romance. It's not funny. I haven't seen any of the Saw movies, so the torture scenes are horrific enough for me. Story of a heartbroken musician who made a suicide pact with some guys. They meet up at a cabin in the woods, and as expected, things are not what they seem. Two of the guys proceed to tie up Norman and torture him and some random people in an amateur internet TV show called "Torture or No Torture".

That's about it.

Movie 2011.01.21 - The Green Hornet

2011-01-22T09:29:00.005+11:00

Whoever chose Seth Rogen to play The Green Hornet should be sacked. Oh, Mr. Rogen co-wrote the film? That's why. And don't tell me they cast Jay Chou for his acting skills, too.

Seth Rogen is over-acting again. "Who made my coffee?!" Bah! The way the newspaper is being run, and the way the editors allowed themselves to be led, I believe The Daily Sentinel must be a tabloid. Something like The Daily Telegraph. Jay Chou just bored, or he's trying to contain his excitement that he's now in Hollywood. He can put on his cool dude attitude back in Asia, but he now has a different audience. He needs to put something on the table and not just rely on his looks(?), charisma(?), paino skills(?), or his great singing voice(?).

In the end, the movie has nothing to offer in terms of story and character development. The Batmobile can beat Kato-car (a.k.a. Black Beauty) any day of the week. Kato-vision? I'd like to see that work when all the guns are firing simultaneously. Cameron Diaz? Ho-hum.

Movie 2011.01.15 - Eat, Pray, Love

2011-01-15T19:07:00.002+11:00

The book is quite popular, and so is the movie adaptation. I fail to see what all the fuss is about though. I hope the book is good because the movie is not, specifically Julia Roberts. I've lost all interest in the acting skills of Julia Roberts. I think the only time I liked her was in Pretty Woman, My Best Friend's Wedding, and Erin Brokovich. The rom-coms started looking all the same to me. She's always got this same look regardless what role she plays. Her eyebrows are too long, her mouth is too wide. When she emotes, she has this uncanny ability to make this vein in the middle of her forehead throb to show she's agitated.

I can sort of see the appeal. Who wouldn't want to divorce your boring husband and have a break for a year? Learn Italian in a bathtub. Have a fling with a younger man. Fly to Italy and make friends with total strangers. Fly to India to meditate and attend a lavish Indian wedding. Fly to Bali and raise funds to build a house for a local healer. Then, have another fling with an older man. The end.

Weird Weekends with Louis Theroux

2011-01-08T23:59:00.003+11:00

Spent most of my free time watching Season One of Louis Theroux' Weird Weekends. In this offbeat documentary series, Louis takes us into some strange and unfamiliar subcultures. He doesn't just interview the UFO fanatics and porn stars and off-Broadway wannabes and black nationalists and white supremacists, he goes deeper than that. He stars in an infomercial; he joins a rap competition; he goes under hypnosis; he interviews some potential Thai brides; he joins a demolition derby.

After the break, we'll have Season Two.

Movie 2010.12.31 - After.Life

2010-12-30T23:05:00.004+11:00

Story of a mortician with a sixth sense (as in "I see dead people.") and a car accident victim who can't tell whether she's dead or alive.

So mortician Liam Neeson keeps Christina Ricci mostly naked and locked up in his workplace. He convinces her that she died during that car accident, and the reason they can talk is that he has a gift. He tells her that her soul's still around because she's not letting go. The suspense in this movie comes from trying to guess whether she's really alive or dead. There was a time when she checks her own pulse and feels none. One time a police officer visits the funeral parlor, gropes her naked body, but she didn't wake up. Another time her breathing produces some moisture on the mirror.

He drugs her into unconsciousness and buries her alive six feet under. He then insinuates to her grieving boyfriend that maybe she's still alive inside the coffin. The agitated boyfriend drives crazily towards the cemetery and crashes his car. Another victim for the self-righteous mortician.

Movie 2010.12.22 - Inception

2010-12-22T22:10:00.006+11:00

One of the better films of the year.

Set in a world where extractors can enter your dreams and steal your innermost secrets without you knowing what just happened. Dom Cobb is one such extractor. In a botched operation, he gets to know his victim Saito, who offers him and his buddy Arthur a chance to redeem themselves by attempting a tricky operation called inception, whereby an idea is injected into a person's mind. For this to work, the inception has to be very subtle with the subject believing it was his own idea.

Now, the interesting part here is that Dom has done this before. And his last attempt caused his wife Mallorie to lose track of reality. To jump back to the "real world", she abandoned their two kids and killed herself by jumping off a building. For this mission, Dom and his accomplices have to transport Fischer to a dream within a dream within a dream within a dream (how many was that?), and convince him that dissolving his recently-deceased father's business empire is a good idea. Of course, this dream-within-a dream trick gives you more time to complete your mission, but this also allows the target to become suspicious.

As long as you get the basic concepts, the movie is not that confusing or complex. The special effects are mind-boggling though.

Mobile Phone Hoarding

2010-12-16T17:05:00.011+11:00

So the company is having its last mobile phone auction for the year (forever). Unlike before, we weren't told what models are available, how many are available, and how much they are. I guess because of this, it attracted more people to the auction.

The auction started off with new N97's. The auction was taking too long, they started selling the stuff for $130. Then we moved to the N97 minis. Then to ex-demo N97's for $65. Things were just getting exciting, when I had a call from a colleague who's having some problems connecting back to the core. Dang! After an hour of troubleshooting, I was back in the auction. Not sure what I missed during that hour, but there are still lots left to bid on. By 5pm, the auctioneers are in a hurry to vacate the premises, and started doing fixed-price sales on the ex-demo E-series phones and navigators. E75 for $50, 6710 Navigator for $40, 6210 Navigator for $30. Phones that are locked to certain carriers are being sold for less than $50. By 5:30pm the only phones left are some N-series and E-series phones that are going for $40 and less. Accessories like Bluetooth headsets, mobile speakers, handsfree carkits, mobile phone cases, etc. for $10 or less. Gold coin donation for phone chargers, earphones, USB cables, TV-out cables, etc.

When the smoke cleared, I got myself an N97, an N96, an N91, a 5310 XpressMusic with MD-8 mobile speakers, a 2700 locked to Virgin Mobile, and a 6710 Navigator.

Movie 2010.12.14 - Despicable Me

2010-12-14T21:09:00.005+11:00

Simple story on how a supervillain becomes a father.

So this small-time crook Gru decides to go big-time and steal the moon. He goes to the bank for a loan and gets rejected because the loans officer doesn't have faith in him. To make his plan work, Gru tries to steal Vector's shrink ray and gets pummeled. So he goes to an orphanage and adopts three cute little girls. With their help in delivering robot cookies into the villain's lair, he gets his hands on the shrink ray. He flies to the moon, shrinks it, and brings it back to earth.

By the time he gets to the girl's ballet recital, it was over. Worse, he discovers that the girls have been kidnapped by Vector. He wants the moon. Gru hands over the mini moon in exchange for the girls, but Vector changed his mind. An epic battle ensures and Gru kicks Vector's butt to the moon, which has expanded back to its original size. From then on, the supervillain becomes a superdad to the girls and the alien minions the he keeps in his basement.

Audiobook 2010.12.06 - The Ancestor's Tale

2010-12-06T18:06:00.003+11:00

Another audiobook I finished in the car while commuting to and from work these past few weeks. Richard Dawkins' popular science book talks about human evolution - traveling back through time to meet our common ancestors. We traverse through 40 rendezvous points (from zero to 39) until we meet up with the eubacteria, the ancestor of all living organisms.

I'm not particularly into evolution and biology and the origin of life, but this book is interesting enough for me to go through the whole thing.

Froyo Upgrade

2010-12-04T20:08:00.006+11:00

Froyo has been out for a few weeks now. Given that my phone is not really tied to any carrier, there's no real need for me to wait for the official release. There's really not much that I need on 2.2, but it's just a matter of time, so might as well upgrade now.

First thing you need is to root your Android device, so you can make a backup. I installed z4root via the downloaded apk. Didn't work for me. The app ran, but it doesn't seem to do anything. Next one I tried is the One-Click-Root desktop software. Too lazy to connect the SGS to the laptop, so I simply renamed the root.zip file to update.zip, and installed it via 2e recovery. (To go into recovery mode, switch off your device, then do the 3-finger salute: VolUp-Home-Power.) That is how I got root. Next, I installed busybox from the Market and adb on the PC. Turned on USB debug, then connected the SGS to the PC. Tried doing a backup of the /efs partition, but adb kept complaining that filesystem is RO, even though I'm already root. Didn't bother doing a backup anymore.

Next step is to install the Clockwork Mod Recovery (again as update.zip) via 2e recovery. Select "apply sdcard:update.zip". Once installed, power off the phone, then boot into Clockwork Mod via 2e recovery. Select "install zip from sdcard", then flash the k9_cwm kernel, then flash the JPO ROM. After the update is completed, you'll be sent back to Clockworkmod recovery. Restart the phone, and flash any add-on packages that you want installed. In my case, I also cleared all the caches, wiped all data, and did a factory reset. Worked fine for me.

Editing 550D Videos

2010-11-22T21:09:00.007+11:00

The bad thing with the Canon 550D is that the videos generated are humongous. At 1280 x 720 50fps, we're doing almost 6MB/s. The generated MOV files are just too unwieldly to handle.

So I've been requested to make another birthday video. To get the video segments on Windows Movie Maker, the MOVs have to be converted into either mpg, wmv or avi. First software of choice is Freemake. The coverted AVIs are pretty laggy on WMM, and the converted MPGs have no video, even though then work fine on VLC. So I turned to online converter Zamzar. This time the generated MPGs work fine on WMM. Only downside is that Zamzar has a 100MB file limit.

Workaround is to get Freemake to convert huge MOV to smaller AVI, then get Zamzar to encode it to MPG. Still getting to video post-conversion - total waste of time and bandwidth. A closer look shows that Zamzar MPGs uses mp1, while Freemake uses mp2. This tells us that WMM doesn't like mp2 MPGs. Good thing the latest version of Freemake can do custom mp1 conversion. We don't even has to mess around with multi-format Zamzar conversions. Just use Freemake, as long as you're using 25fps MPEG1 for the video and 48kHz and 320kbps for the audio.

Another hiccup. After importing all the videos and still photos and putting in the slides and transitions, WMM refuses to save the final video. Says that the source files are missing. What do you mean the source files are missing?! As a workaround, I had to do the edits on WMM, then save the segments one by one. The resulting video files are out of sync, laggy, blurry, and full of green artifacts. Again, Freemake to the rescue. I still used WMM to generate the photo and text slideshows, but I used Freemake to trim the videos, and merge all the files into one.

Movie 2010.11.21 - The Social Network

2010-11-21T22:10:00.004+11:00

Seeing that this is directed by David Fincher, I had high hopes. And I wasn't disappointed. The storyline may or may not be true, but I've read enough articles to guess that most of it probably is. Very good acting all around. I was pleasantly surprised that JT can actually act. Or maybe he's just like that in real life. Too bad the Winkelvoss brothers and Narenda didn't take decisive action and sued Zuckerberg to kingdom come for stealing their idea. That would've rid us all of this timewaster called Facebook. And instead, we'll have Harvard Connection (if all of us are bright enough to get admitted there). Um, where was I again?

The last scene had Zuckerberg looking up his old girlfriend on Facebook and adding her as a friend. He then proceeds to refresh the page again and again, waiting for her acceptance. A bittersweet ending, but we all know that's not real because Zuckerberg has a backdoor to everyone's account anyway.

Book 2010.11.20 - The Lost Symbol

2010-11-20T20:08:00.001+11:00

The Lost Symbol is a really huge disappointment. Makes me wonder how someone who wrote The Da Vinci Code can write The Lost Symbol. Well, if you've read Angels & Demons and The Deception Point, you'll have some idea. Dan Brown's writing style remains pretty much the same after all these years. After three books, nothing new is left for the latest one.

A good movie is where if you miss 5 minutes of the show, then you've lost most of the plot. A good book is where if you skip 5 pages, then you won't understand what's happening next. With The Lost Symbol, I've been speed-reading and skipping paragraphs and pages, and I still don't enjoy what I'm reading. Reads more like a tourist information on DC landmarks. Story is about a prodigal son who blackmails Masonic dad to reveal the Order's secrets to him, or else he will release a video he took of prominent politicians participating in a Masonic ritual. It's up to Robert Langdon to stop the bad guy from releasing the video. One word: EMP.

So there. Now that you know the story, you won't have to read the book.

Book 2010.11.11 - Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell

2010-11-11T23:11:00.003+11:00

Strange that the book wasn't entitled Jonathan Strange and Gilbert Norrell. Anyway, I first took notice of this book when it came out in 2004. It was the black book cover that got me, and the fact that it's about magic. I tried to read the book then, but it was so thick, and I just didn't have enough time to read all 782 pages.

Fast forward to 2010. I'm still too busy to read the book, but now I've got the book in mp3 format. On my daily commute to work and back, I would listen to the audiobook on the Nokia E75 though the Bluetooth loudspeaker. At night, before going to bed, I would listen to a few pages on the SGS. Took me a few months, but I finally finished all 213 mp3 files.

The story is set in 19th-century England where magic has slowly dwindled out of fashion, and Mr. Norrell and Jonathan Strange brought it back. The joy of reading this book is not in the plot, but in how the story was told. It's a rambling tale of selfishness, friendship, jealousy, war, forgiveness, and love.

I hope there's a sequel. It's not right for Jonathan Strange to go mad and be isolated in eternal darkness, when all he wanted to do is bring down the gentleman with the thistle-down hair, and rescue Arabella. I heard there's a movie coming out. I hope it does justice to the book.

Movie 2010.10.31 - Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps

2010-10-31T12:12:00.002+11:00

Michael Douglas' comeback movie. After eight years in the slammer, Gordon Grecko is released from jail. First things first. He fools investment whiz Jake Moore (Shia Lebouf) into fooling his daughter Winnie (Carrie Mulligan) into signing away the $100M he put in a trust fund for her back to him. He rebuilds his empire and brings down the guy who put him in jail. Now that he's got his mojo back, he regains his conscience and tries to make it up to Winnie and Jake and his future grandson. With lots of money, all is forgiven.

As usual, Michael Douglas steals the show, and Shia Lebouf is left looking like a rookie. Nice cameo from Charlie Sheen.