May Contain Bolts

So here I am, droning on drearily about my dull life. (by suggestion of…oh crap, I can’t remember. Lousy short term memory loss) (oh wait, I think it was Timmy?)

I was just called by some random who said “Hello?” and then hung up on me. Great. At least have the courtesy to say sorry…I guess you could really freak people out if you kept doing it though, and they didn’t know your number. It’d be like The Zodiac Killer who just called people and breathed deeply into the phone (Zodiac is a great film btw).

People often ask me: What does a loser like you do on Thursday? The answer is:

Heh, I found my old MSN space. I realised that pieces of me are scattered all over the intarwebs. SBlog was something I did in 2006, when I used to play Battlefield 2 and was a moderator for EAPlay (now EA Asia Pacific/Africa). I had a small stint on PALGN Blogs (1) (2), and now this is my latest attempt at a blog. The stuff I used to do (apart from the space), I guess, wasn’t so much blogging as it was news. And interesting to note that this blog is following on from the Vista Beta 2 screenshots from the old space. (still can’t believe how Vista turned out to be such a disaster)

Last night was the first time that I have seriously watched TV for a while. Thank God You’re Here premiered on 7, The Simpsons premiered in HD (albeit 2 months after the US), House lost his mojo and Lawrence Leung found himself (the asian references are so good – if you missed it, it’s on ABC2 tonight at 9, or on iView for the next week). All in all, a good night of viewing. (no suprises that TGYH topped the ratings for Wednesday)

I really want new decent headphones. Thing is, when I want something, I will research it EXTREMELY THOROUGHLY. It’s a bad habit, because it means that I extensively procrastinate on menial topics. Like when I chose the 360 over the PS3 and Wii in December 2007, it was weighted on value ($449 for a 360 [JB post-Christmas special] vs $699 for a PS3), games (Halo vs. Resistance), quality of games (ie. Skate was badly ported to the PS3, and the 360 was generally the lead platform at that time), necessity (I already owned a PS2, and the PS3 had no backwards-compatibility anyway), the high-definition war (I was on HD DVD’s side – damn Warner, those traitors) and deals/freebies (the Xbox Street Team was offering Halo 3 CE + Tenchu Z for free with a 360).

Headphonics are doing a deal where the Audio Technica ATH-ES7 are only $99, which is an absolute bargain. I want one because a) It’s a bargain b) I want closed headphones for some isolation – having computer in open area next to dining room and TV area is bad; lousy chinese movies c) They’re cheap for decent cans d) They’re sexy But the deal ends today, so doesn’t look like I’m getting any. Ah well, now to think of upgrading to the high class stuff. (I can dream, can’t I?)

Today was the athletics carnival, and surprisingly my legs aren’t feeling that bad after doing 100m (twice), 200m, 800m, 1500m, long jump and discus. I need new shoes though, the ones I have right now made my feet hurt like hell after the 1500 :/ (or maybe it’s because I didn’t do my shoe up tight enough…)

Anyway, I think I’m done now, this has gone long enough, and I’ve run out of things to say off the top of my head.

READER DISCRETION ADVISED: DO NOT READ IF YOU ARE EATING.

So, I’ve had this ongoing ant problem on my desk for the past few months. Nothing major, just the occasional ant or two crawling on the monitor or the wall. Today, however, I was installing some stuff for my brother’s new computer, which was on my desk. Now, I usually don’t use my keyboard (as I use a laptop most of the time now, instead of my desktop PC), however I noticed that the ant activity on my desk increased when I my keyboard was there. After leaving the keyboard there for about 10 more minutes, and seeing a few extra ants, by deduction I concluded it was the keyboard.

So, out came the screwdriver, and… (for your sake, read after the jump)

Read the rest of this entry »

Thanks to everyone that has commented so far! (it makes me feel warm and fuzzy on the inside)

Looking at Jason’s blog the other day, I noticed this image, and knew I had seen it somewhere before.

Well, I found it. It’s on Forest Road, and I see it on the way back from church every week. (this Google Maps image is too old though…)
View Larger Map

Had a haircut today at that $5 asian place in Hurstville. I’m kinda sad to lose all that hair, but it’s nice to not have my hair in my eyes anymore. Heh, as the hairdresser was cutting it, he kept saying “it’s too long”. XD

Kmart Tyre and Auto Service at Hurstville is really dodgy. My dad told my mum to take the Corolla to service (because it was cheap there – $119, and apparently you need a ’safety check’ for a pink slip) last week, but then they called and said that the right CV shaft (part of the CV joint – I have no idea what this stuff is) was leaking oil (even though it had never done so before?). We weren’t willing to pay any more than the service, so we left it as is, but when we got the car back, lo and behold, it was leaking oil. Dad took it to a family friend to have it checked out, and turns out that they had used a razor blade or some thin sharp object to slice the rubber in the right CV shaft, causing it to leak. Our friend replaced it at cost price, which was $300 (!?). So a big up yours to Kmart Tyre and Auto Service Hurstville.

A strange feeling came over me today, and I feel like developing an iPhone app or something. It seems like a lucrative market, with people selling random pieces of crap and making a fortune. But apparently you need Mac OS X to develop, so there goes my plans…or does it? (cough…Hackintosh) Suggestions on what to make anyone? XD

I will leave you with a screen from Lego Rock Band (coming Nov/Dec 2009). Apparently there’s “LEGO-themed rock challenges” where you can “Play killer riffs to destroy a giant robot, summon a storm, and demolish a skyscraper using the power of rock!”. And it has The Final Countdown, so it has to be good, right?

So, as per my last post, I’m going to do a quick rundown on what’s new in Windows 7. (not much has changed since beta, so I’m just going to talk generally)

Installation was amazingly fast – it only took 20-25 minutes from start to finish. The first thing you notice is the Mac-dock like “superbar”, which works almost like it does on the Mac (ie. it’s like a launchbar, but when you open new programs they appear there), but with a few more nifty features, like a live preview of the window(s) of the program when you put your mouse over it.

The start menu looks largely the same as Vista, although the search function now works much faster. (and not only search, but performance overall in Windows 7 seems to be much better).

Classic programs like Paint and Wordpad have both undergone major reconstructive surgery, receiving the ‘ribbon‘ treatment. Paint now has simple shapes that you can insert (similar to Word), and Wordpad now has the ability to open .docx files (but cannot open .doc files for some strange reason…).

The calculator has also been refreshed, with new conversion functions and modes, including scientific and programming (no graphing yet unfortunately).

The games included are the same as Vista (as in, Pinball is still missing ), and the Games Explorer returns, with info-ey stuff on your games when compatible.

New is this ‘Math Input Panel’, which allows you to handwrite maths equations, and have it convert it into a form that you can easily insert into your Word documents. I thought it was pretty cool. (I feel like such a nerd…)

Most of the other things are small tweaks to things like networking, stuff under the hood, and stuff that hasn’t really changed (like Internet Explorer 8 and Windows Media Player 12). Quite happy with the changes so far, although the new taskbar will take getting used to. I’ll leave you with a screenshot of random stuff open. (feel free to ask any questions you may have)

Edit: Decided to go back to the old style taskbar (again). This is what it looks like with it ungrouped, and set to use small icons.

So, the RC (Build 7100) of Microsoft’s upcoming operating system Windows 7 was leaked sometime this morning, just over a week before the expected May 5th official release date. You can get it at the usual places. Will update once the download is complete, and everything is loaded up.

Also, a heads up that The Orange Box (containing some of the best games this century – Half Life 2 + the episodes, Portal, and Team Fortress 2) has been slashed to US$9.99 – 66% off, and it’s even cheaper than if you bought the games individually. Highly recommended.

And here’s a random one for you.

Apparently Linkin Park are helping to do the score on Transformers 2. Should be pretty cool.

EDIT: I seem to be getting a lot of hits from search engines. The song which the title (“I smell the blood of an Australian”) is from is Foreign Land by Eskimo Joe. The full lyrics can be found on LyricWiki.

Well, since everyone else is blogging, and I have nothing else to do, may as well start now. (hi everyone reading this – ie. nobody)

So, yesterday I got back from the Australian Informatics Olympiad Team Selection School at Macquarie Uni. Didn’t make the team (congrats to David and Mank (reserve) btw), but had an awesome time. We got to visit the new Google building, which is near the National Maritime Museum in Darling Harbour, and apparently it’s the first 6-star energy rated building in Australia. The place is pretty cool (sorry, no pictures), and they had themed floors – one was a beach, and another was underwater, and there was this little sitting area surrounded by little threads hanging from the roof that looked like the tentacles of a jellyfish. They also had what was probably some of the loudest bean bags in the world (who makes bean bags out of plastic?), and apparently there’s this stuff called Google Goo which is snaps when you pull it quickly, but does other cool stuff when you play with it (I only saw it on someone’s table, didn’t get to see it in action ) – like non-Newtonian fluids (corn starch+water)? (gah, don’t want to think about chem and phys D: )

Got some interesting schwag too: A few stickers, a pad of post-it notes (with the same thing written over all of them), and a Google propaganda book which talks about the history and structure of Google.

you can never have too many free black pens

Right now, I’m listening to Eskimo Joe’s new song (Foreign Land) on loop – it’s different, but I like it I was never one to understand lyrics though…

I really don’t know what else to say. My dull and monotonous life ends here.

Oh, and keep your eye out for the next Prefect News (shoutout to Michael for editing this one, and all the prefects that managed to collab this while I was away ). Here’s a sneak peak, featuring the one and only: Kris.