Live Music?

You can tell if a music band is good if the music they play live is better than the studio album. That is why I like music festivals, in which you listen to many bands and at the end you can decide what musicians are worth supporting :)

Peaceful Kinoko-World

A few days ago, I watched one of my favorite saxophone player Sadao Watanabe in concert in Bangkok. One thing I liked about Sadao is that he is extremely versatile jazz musician. Though I don't like his Brazilian offerings that much, I absolutely love how he incorporates elements of African influence his music.

Anyway, during my music browsing through YouTube, I've happen to stumble on a strange recording below:



If I'm not mistaken, it was the remix track of a theme from Mario that was rearranged by the artist I mentioned above. Strange! Now there is also game music :P

December Blues

For most people December should be a great month. First of all, there are numerous holidays on December. We have the King's Birthday, Constitution Day, Christmas (for some of us), and New Year. In addition to all of that, it seems that many of the weddings are arranged in this month also - considering it is one of the most auspicious months as defined by fortune tellers. Now that is where the trouble lies. If you have a number of friends and collegues that have weddings on the same date, and you have to go to a wedding for nearly everyday for a week, then that is where December can be very aggreviating. Maybe it is just me, but I keep on wondering why those fortune tellers don't spread out the auspicious dates into other months?

GK Glut

Every Sunday, I usually go to play football at a local field that I rent with a group of friends. One of the funny things that has happened in the field is that our group of players that has been assembled from various sources and teams (or we could call team fragments), we suddenly have a glut of Goalkeepers.

In Thailand in most amateur leagues and teams, it is difficult to find a decent goalkeeper to stand between the posts. This could easily be found in public football fields that you can rent. You will notice that many of the teams do not have a dedicated goalkeeper which is evident by the lack of goalkeeper attaire and equipment (e.g. gloves). Usually the weakest player is punished by letting them stand in that postition.

Strangely enough in our Sunday games, we now have like 5 decent goalkeepers including one of them that was in the under-17 national squad. Now we are having a dilemna on who to place in goal. At the moment, all I'm planning to do is to play one half as a GK and the other half as an out field player. That should be fun :)

Selecting a Browser Over a Decade Ago...

I started browsing the Internet around 1996, and my first few browsers I've tried was Netscape Navigator, Internet Explorer Lynx, and an lynx. For those who don't know, lynx was a text based browser. At that time then, Navigator was the best browser overall, but it was slow as a turtle. IE was lacking in features. What I ended up using the most at that time was lynx. It was a text browser, but it was blazing fast considering that I had a crummy connection back then. As I didn't care much about eye-candy, lynx was the browser of choice.

Talking about it, it was strange to recall this story. Makes me sound old and like an old dinosaur :P

Motivation

During the last few days, I'm finding that it is high ironic that seeking revenge is certainly one of the best form of motivation. What I need to do now is only to make sure that the drive doesn't consume me.

Strangely enough it sounds like StarWars doesn't it?

Test Recordings

In a few days, I have to present a paper at a research conference about a Computer Vision to aid myself playing the EWI. In my paper, I've used a number of image processing techniques to find where I am relative on the stage and then make real-time on the fly changes to the software mixer. A number of extensions to help me play the EWI such as using multiple cameras (to define surround sound position), and other natural input devices such as Using the WiiMote were discussed on the paper.

As I was preparing my paper presentation, I've noticed that the demos and music recorded in the paper presentation was rather sparse. I have one piece showing me playing the C Major Scale (which is absolutely boring), a short Glide, and a short piece. In other words, I only had very few recordings of myself playing the instrument! Just to fix things, I've decided to cover a few quick songs, just to make sure the audience knows that at least I can play the EWI :P

You can take a few listen to it at the following url: http://168.120.1.247/dump/ewi/

Buring Work

It is common knowledge that in most workplace situations especially in the land of Thailand, many people here have this easy go happy attitude in which they take things easy until the deadline approaches, they turn into a crazed mode, trying to get the project submitted before the final deadline - hench in our own dialect, we say people are burning their work. As being teaching over half a decade, one of my own personal observation is that it doesn't matter if you assign a project over a few months or a period of a week. Most students would work on it only a day or two before the deadline.

On a short note, I haven't been doing any burning work for years. During the last 10 days, I've precisely done that. It happened in a upandcoming national level event, there was a competition for seed money. Initially I did not plan to submit the work there as there was a project in the pipeline, but after serious consultation with my partner over the direction of the studio, we have decided to u-turn and submit an entirely new work in the competition that I've been designing during the discussion. I had a game design that was simple enough so that we didn't need to hire any artists, and yet interesting enough that it would be a fun game. After 10 days of sleepless and over-worked nights, we've finally finished the working prototype. Though some of the features proposed were lacking, it was polished graphically, and on the requirement, we only had to show a working prototype. So what is a better way than to test all the latest tricks in graphical programming here?

Just by the time I've finished writing this blog, the copies of the proposal and demo are finished and ready to be submitted. More details of me in this competition should follow soon, after the presentation during the middle of next month :)

Great Comedy

Talking about Comedy, I found it somewhat irritating that many of the current crop of comedic movies in the market are pretty much not funny. To sum it up, many of the movies try to play the obscene card as they think it is funny to the point that it gets repulsive. Good examples of obscene acts that are over done are like excessive vomitting, public urinating, and over miscreant behaviors. In many of these movies they spice it up with a little of sex, and they think it would sell well to the young adolesence market. As I myself am out of touch with the trends of today, yesterday, and I believe to the future, I can't really mention much more than that.

On a short note, what makes a good comedy to me? The last really good comedic movie I saw was a witty German movie called "Say Goodbye to Lenin". I don't think it would be easy to find, but the premise was tad intelligent, and was excecuted well. To get a quick idea of what type of comedies that I really like, take a look at the following video clip:



As noted, I like that skit. If you thought it was about APPLE products, think again very careful! It isn't about Apple, but its about a hidden topic, and that is why I find this parody to be extra ordinary funny and witty without all of the obscene nonsense.

If you don't get the message, try reading out the names of all the products out loud, and you will find the hidden and underlining meaning of the whole thing :P

...Bored...

Just a short note that I'm excessively bored of the late. Hard to get out of the emotional funk at the moment. Maybe I should finally resort to alcohol :P

Who would be happier?

Who would be happier?

Interesting read, sorry if it is only in Thai.

New Mobile Phone?

Just a few days ago, during one of my proctoring sessions, one of my co-worker's phone broke down for no apparent reason. After trying to resurrect it for a while without any luck, we concluded that the phone was dead and my friend needed to buy a new phone. As he was a Indian lecturer, I took him to a mobile phone store and took the time to help him browse through the list. As noted, if you don't speak the Thai here, you're pretty much clueless of what is offered. After much consideration, my friend picked up a rather nice multimedia phone for about 7k baht - which had loads of features such as photograph, MP3 player, radio, blue tooth, and a whole load of other goodies.

On a short note, I was also planning to buy a new mobile phone soon. If I do have to replace my mobile phone, on a strange note, I was planning to go to an old retro version. A mobile phone that is only a mobile phone. Cheap and effective. That is all I need. To be exact, though it is good to be excited with all the new features, at the end of the day, I figured that it was more important to have a working phone during crunch time than to burn my batteries with all the unnecessary tasks such as listening to music or playing video games.

Talk about how different the philosophies are LOL

Alone Again Naturally.

Just a short note that my little bro got married this year. The next year, my big brother plans to marry. Hmm... It seems that I'm going to be alone again, naturally :P

Is that necessarily good or bad? No idea LOL

Hello Headache!?

One of the things that I hate the most is having a headache. In most cases if you feel sick, having a headache is typical. The problem is that if you are feeling pretty normal, but you have a headache. What to do in that scenario?

I would like to work, but my headaches and its pretty difficult to keep focused on the matter at hand. I also don't feel that bad that I have to go on sick leave :( Hmm... What to do? What to do?

Zen of Python - Recommended Read for Programmers

Being a programmer, I found the following easter egg in Python a very interesting read. You might be surprised, but programmers should be considered as writers also :)

The Zen of Python, by Tim Peters

Beautiful is better than ugly.
Explicit is better than implicit.
Simple is better than complex.
Complex is better than complicated.
Flat is better than nested.
Sparse is better than dense.
Readability counts.
Special cases aren't special enough to break the rules.
Although practicality beats purity.
Errors should never pass silently.
Unless explicitly silenced.
In the face of ambiguity, refuse the temptation to guess.
There should be one-- and preferably only one --obvious way to do it.
Although that way may not be obvious at first unless you're Dutch.
Now is better than never.
Although never is often better than *right* now.
If the implementation is hard to explain, it's a bad idea.
If the implementation is easy to explain, it may be a good idea.
Namespaces are one honking great idea -- let's do more of those!

Profile of Singapore People

During the last week, I went on a business trip to Singapore. During my discussions with the numerous people I've met there, there was this observation I've made about Singaporean people due to their mixed heritage. They have the industry of the Chinese, the merchant skills of the Indian, and have the regal qualities of the British. Hmm... quite a quick way to summarize a typical Singaporean? Not quite sure, but it does sound like a good compliment!

DM of the Ring

If you like AD&D RPG and/or Lords of the Ring, you might like the following online-comic:

http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=612

When both worlds collide, it does create a very curious combination :)

Mini HighSchool Reunion

During Monday evening, I play basketball with a group of friends at EIS. Today, we had quite a number of new people appearing, in which we took the time time to discuss with them about playing rules and regulation. After a short discussion, the more we ask, it seems that we are getting a wider range of old alumnis coming over to play here. Talk about it, 20 basketball players which most graduated from the same school but from different academic years. That was quite a far cry from the early days in which we were split quite down the middle between old alumnis and people from other schools.

How to Judge the Quality of a Japanese Restaurant

For those who don't know (you might find it odd), but if you want to find which Japanese restaurant are really good and authentic, you should count the number of Japanese patrons in the shop. The rationale is easy. Japanese people like to eat Japanese food and are extremely picky. Try that when you plan to eat at your next restaurant the next time and avoid Fuji and Oishi.

Feature in Thai Post edition 23/08/2007

I just noticed that the Thai Computer Game Museum was featured in one of the pages in ThaiPost of edition 23/08/2007. Now I'm even surprised considering its only on beta-phase O_o Oh well, I've just got to find a copy. Where can I find it?

What in the World is This Blog?

There had been a few people who visited this blog and emailed me asking what type of blog is this? They were expecting more of a blog about exciting game development projects I've been up to. What they found was that the blog was long, wordy, lacks pictures (My little brother took my digital camera), and seems to completely lack focus, especially there is hardly anything about game development which is so unlike many of my colleagues in this field who would update their sites regularly with their latest developments.

Is it wrong? Hmm... I guess not. I've just figured that I've done too much about those stuff in my free time, I think I want to keep this blog just a little more personal, and a little more about things that just happened to cross my mind. Its nothing significant. Consider it like graffiti. People do graffiti as an excuse to express themselves. In my own example, I'm doing it the same way, except I don't make much of a nuisance to people in this world :P

Pisal's Secret Parma Ham Pizza

You might find it odd, but I usually cook in my free time, usually on weekends. One of my favorite dishes that I regularly make is pizza in which I make my own dough. After experimenting for a few years, I've finally honed into my favorite pizza that I usually make to impress my first time guests at my home.


The pizza that I make right now is my own dough which is made into extremely thin crust (which I usually do after some flying pizza tricks :P). The topping that I like the most currently is Parma ham. As noted Parma Ham idoesn't come cheap, but its delicious and gives a rather fine salty taste. To cover up the excessive saltiness, there are two things I've used. First is a layer of tomato sauce (could be made but tomato quality here is too low to make good sauce). The second is the layer of mascapone cheese (the one you use in tiramasu) is used below the parma ham to give a smooth cheesy taste after biting.The whole thing is covered up with some classic mozzarella cheese which is standard in any pizza. If you noticed the topics, this pizza isn't cheap, but its great for any home party :)

The only thing at the present that I can think that can help my pizza is a better oven. I fancy a coal driven pizza oven, but that is pretty too expensive, and won't fit a home kitchen that well doesn't it?

Thai Computer Game Museum

Just thought you might be interested in a few things I've been up to. I've just finished the first edition of Thai Computer Game Museum, and you can view it at this address http://museum.thaigamedevx.com

My Own Custom Music Program

I was asked to submit a research paper to a conference by my future PhD advisor. Due to the lack of time, I've decided to pick up a topic closely related with one of my hobbies. As noted, I'm studying music, and have been playing with a number of instruments including the saxophone and the EWI (Electronic Wind Instrument). One of the things that I figured that might be interesting for me is to actually work on a type of application that could be useful when I play with the instruments. As the EWI is an electronic instrument, I selected it as a topic to work on.

If you noticed the following random pictures below, it is actually part of the application I've worked on. If you looked carefully, you can notice the picture are basically extracting information from me playing with the EWI finding which part of the frame in the camera feed I was in. This information is then relayed to the software mixer that could change parameters such as the panning effects.




The application worked out pretty well, and it allowed me as the musician to change panning without having to be at the mixer which could be useful in certain situations. One example would be creating sound effects that uses lots of panning. That is one area that I could save alot of time.

Anyway, after much work on the topic, a a few ideas struck me. If I used two cameras, I could actually plot my position in 3D, which wasn't that difficult to do. Another brilliant idea that popped up my head was using motion sensor tools (e.g. Nintendo WII remote anyone?) to help in music playing.

The lesson I've learnt in the drafting of the paper was quite fun. To be exact, playing musical instruments is fun, and making programs to add to that doubles the fun! You might want to try something like that if you have the time ;)

The Root Cause of a Bad Computer

After struggling with my new computer for a year or so, I've finally found the root cause of the problem that causes unscheduled rebooting on occasional basis and lots of artifacts when playing hi-end games. After fudging around, I removed my Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Platinum sound card (with a front panel) out, and it turned that all the games worked perfectly without the artifacts and the computer stopped rebooting at random intervals.

I believed the problem has to do with the inadequate power supply that came with the case. I reasoned that the power wasn't simply enough to power all the electronic devices installed in the computer. Though I'm not completely sure on the conclusion, it does sound plausible enough.

Thinking about all of it, this is both the joy and the angst of having a PC. You just have to have a little knowledge or that PC is going to make you completely frustrated.

New ID Card

I just got my new ID card from the district. In Thailand, there are two types of ID cards. The first type utilizes a simple magnetic strip. The newer type that was supposed to replace the first was a Smart Card version. I got the old version during my update because the new Smart Card type was not shipped to districts due to a myriad of reasons.

No matter what, I'm happy with my old ID. Let me explain you why. First of all, the Smart Card ID (which was implemented a few years back) is more expensive. Also the implementation of the Smart Card had a number of flaws, as reported by a number of developers, which would make it easy to have your confidential data compromised.

As noted, I'm not always for new technological advancements, especially when they offer nothing better than the original system.

Day Plan on my Birthday

Tommorrow is my birthday. Here is the log of activities that I plan to do tommorrow.

1) Wake up
2) Eat Breakfast
3) Go to the district to get my expired ID card renewed
4) Go to the Bank and deposit my fixed monthly account
5) Get home to cook lunch
6) Take a short nap
7) Wake up
8) Continue reading one of the many books on my backlog
9) Eat Dinner
10) Watch TV
11) Browse the Internet and answer emails
12) Continue reading one of the many books on my backlog
13) Sleep

That doesn't look like a special day at all does it? Hmm... I need to do something with my life LOL

The Not So Forensic Science of Computing Habits

As teaching computer programming, one of my duties is to proctor my own programming exam. To make things as fair as possible, I have a routine that before every exam, I have to clear and purge the files from all the computers in the room.

During my purges, I have to admit that at times I am surprised at the amount of junk I find in the computers. In most cases, you would see that a number of students would be installing games, especially in the far off ends of the lab. Some of the students browse the Internet in class - both for academic and leisure. One of the programs that I hate are instant messaging clients such as MSN which is regularly used to submit answers to each other.

One of the things that I find amusing is at times some of the people setup their messaging client to automatically log in, which is extremely dangerous in a public lab. Another interesting topic that could be picked up is the log of received files in the lab. Most of the files transfered are assignment files and in some cases other trivial stuff. Once going through hundreds of computers, I can say its easy to see a pattern emerging from observing all the excessive files, logs, and mis-configurations of people previously using the lab. Try doing the same thing. You'll be surprised at some of the things you might learn from that.

Bizzare Abbreviations

It is known that many people like to give abbreviations to long names and subjects to make life easier for them. In most cases, these abbreviations make perfect sense ang logic, but in other cases, these abbreviations will sound extremely bizzare. Let me show some of them.

Macroeconomics -> Macro
Makro the wholesaler?

Business Law -> Bus Law
We need to learn the laws of riding a bus?

Game Design/Game Development/Game Programming -> Game
For students not studying in a game development major, it is typical that they abbreviate the different subjects as the same one.

Information Technology -> IT
Sounds like a cheap C grade horror movie :-/

Computer Architecture -> Come Arc
Sounds like Com are belong to us !? Bad grammar isn't it?

Analytical Chemistry -> Anal Chem
Hmm...

Elevator Tale

During my ride down the an elevator to the ground floor from one of my office, my ride was interrupted on the 2nd floor. A student peered inside the elevator and asked timidly as the elevator was going up or down.

I looked at her and replied that it would certainly be a better choice to walk down the stairs. She looked surprised before deciding to stepped in the elevator seeing that the elevator was going down. It was a few awkward moment before the elevator reached the ground floor, and we gone out with our own different ways.

Hmm... Did I do anything wrong? I certainly think I was rude, unabashed, but I do believe it was an extremely small but worthful gift for this world.

New Weapon to My Home Studio

My little home studio just had a new weapon yesterday. I was a little upset with my old midi keyboard. I had an old Creative MP3 Blaster keyboard that I bought with my Sound Blaster Live! Platinum version on my older computer. It was quite useful for simple midi input, but the keyboard lacked many features and doesn't work well with other devices other than the original SoundBlaster Live soundcard. What I found out a few days ago was that since having a new computer I decided to try to link the Blaster keyboard to my new computer. I had a creative Audigy 2 soundcard Platinum on it, so I thought I would be able to play. However I found that the MP3 Blaster keyboard requires a joystick input (which was obsolete) to supply power to it. Without the port, there was no way to get the keyboard to work as there were no other ports to supply it power, not even a AC port :(

It took me a while, but I've finally figured that I must be more careful with buying decisions. If I am going to get any new electronic device, I had to make sure that it would work well far into the future. As the old Midi keyboard is practically a deadweight, I decided to go find a new Midi Controller. After much deliberation, I decided to pick the following Midi Controller:




Basically what I just got was a Korg K61P. Instead of a simple Midi Controller, this keyboard has an internal sound module that could output audio directly to a connected speaker. I decided to pay a little extra for this because a midi controller requires the computer to be on all the time. Its not quite a good thing considering that to practice, you just can't do it at the spur of the moment. Another bad point is that it takes time to setup the computer, and it isn't that fun to do when you just want a quick jam session.

Oh well, since I haven't really used it that much yet I can't really say much more about it, except that I'm happy to replace my other midi controller.

Saxophone Influences

After doing some browsing yesterday, I've somehow stumbled into a few websites of musical artists that I like way back. The first few albums of jazz that I listen to were from two artists - T-Square and Malta. If you have been listening to jazz in the far east, you might know more about these two artists. T-Square is a modern fusion jazz band, and this band introduced me alot of fusion jazz, synthesizers, and a big influence in getting myself an EWI (Electronic Wind Instrument). Malta is another modern jazz player that I stumbled upon and liked tremendously. Malta is a saxophone player and he usually composes and play smooth and upbeat jazz numbers that fit well especially if you are in a long car drive. As I usually spent most of my weekends going to different provinces with my friends (during my studying years), Malta was our favorite artist during the rides.

In Thailand, T-Square information is easy to find. As there is an easy to access website and many other fan sites, you can find lots of information on the WWW. Also with a large number of listeners here, there are regularly many albums that end up being sold in the market here also. However in the case of Malta, you'll be hard pressed to find an album or any information in the WWW due to having a name similar to a popular tourist resort. Strangely enough, as being in a extremely bored mood, I decided to browse around, and due to luck, I've managed somehow to stumble into the website of that artist:
http://www.malta-jazzclub.com/

Might be worth a look as there are many song samples that are available for download.

My Life Sucks

To my own opinion, the fine threshold between being a perfectly happy person and a totally rotten and downcast person is so small that I keep wondering if I'm happy or unhappy with my life. I don't really think anything is seriously wrong with my life. I've made some decisions, some of them turned out well, some of them turned out badly, but at the end of the day, I'm still around, I'm still alive, and I'm doing pretty well compared to many other people.

The issue that bugs me however is that in normal circumstances, I would be perfectly happy person. I have no problems keeping a positive attitude when the world seems to turn against me. However during the last weeks I think I've been severely tested - in which my life seems to be completely rotten. I'll chronologically list out all the events that happened the last week.

Day 1: Got caught in the thundershower after trying to rush to the weekly basketball meet. Found out during my travel that it was cancelled.

Day 2: After cleaning up my room, my recently bought computer didn't work. After a long diagnostic, I found out the display adapter was broken and I needed to claim it

Day 3: Went to work, found out that the connection to my webserver was broken, and I had trouble getting the material to my classroom. The cause was a broken router in the building.

Later went to claim my display adapter, which will take me two weeks to complete the process. Thought about either buying a new display adapter or computer. Decided to be cheap and get back home to retrieve my old notebook to use. Found out that the harddisk was broken after a few hours of usage. Guarantee was over, so I had to install an older harddisk and reinstall the whole system

Day 4: Found out that my keyboard Midi Control (Creative BlasterMp3 Keyboard) will not work without a Sound Blaster Live! card. The only computer that could use it was in my office, not at home. I brought the keyboard home because I wanted to practice at home.

Lost a few documents, and had to look around all over the office for ages before I found it.

Day 5: Went to go eat at a great japanese restaurant. Found the shop was closed. Later was pinned between the subway doors. Later played video games at home. Did extremely badly.

Telephoned the shop where I ordered a case for my musical instrument. The person in charge was not in the shop, so I never figured out if it was finished or not.

Day 6: Needed a file from my computer that I didn't have the display adapter. Since I don't have any spare PCI-Express cards lying around, I couldn't get it. I didn't feel like opening and removing the Harddisk so I had to live without it.

Day 7: As having a bad week with little positives, I decided to stay home so that hopefully I won't get into another streak of bad luck.

As being home alone, decided to order delivery dinner. Found out the shop I planned to order does not allow delivery any longer. Since I didn't want to eat Pizza again, I decided to go outside to eat. Tried a new shop. It sucks...


Honestly with all the bad luck happening, somehow I wonder if My Life Sucks...

Don't know. Hopefully things would be in the upturn soon. Hope it does :)

Why Not Fiction!

When I started to appreciate reading, quite earlier on my life, most of the books I've read were fictional stories, mostly about Fantasy (e.g. Lords of the Ring, Narnia, Conan), and Sci-Fi (e.g. Isaac Asimov, Dune). After growing up and maturing, I've found that my taste has changed dramatically.

A quick glance through my current list of reading shows a huge slant towards biographies and non-fiction. What I've figured out that the reason why I read much more non-fiction these days is because I found that Life is indeed much stranger than fiction...

A paradox indeed!

Thinking Retrospective About Pranks

There was a matter that happened during my high school years. During high school, all students were required to pay a monthly activities fee. I didn't particularly like paying the fees especially when you are constantly reminded by a picky treasurer who wasn't the most friendly person in the world. After having many arguments (I had cashflow problems), I decided on the fee payment period to change all my monthly fee into coins. It was fun to see the expression on her face when I placed all the money in front of her.

Thinking back on that little prank I pulled out, it kind of gives me the shiver when I read the following story:

Back in the day, we had a pissed off taxpayer and his wife bring in several thousand dollars in pennies. At the time, we had real teller functions in most cities and they took their money-handling chores seriously and by-the-book. All cash payments were *required* (no exceptions) to be counted out twice in the presence of the person paying.

The manager saw the situation, got approval to put a teller on overtime, and started counting. They stressed to the taxpayers that they *must* remain present during the count. This was fairly early in the morning. After a few hours, some things began to change. Everytime the taxpayer needed to go to the bathroom, the count had to stop and everyone left the room. No lunch. No breaks.

Asshole taxpayer got bored. Then he got tired and cranky. Then he and his wife got into it. A screaming match ensued with the wife berating her husband for his stupid idea. "Yeah, you really showed them, didn't you?!" By that evening, she ripped the car keys out of his hand and left, telling him he could get a cab home. This was in a large, non-compact city with poor public transport and, at the time, only a shell of a taxi system. Telling him to catch a cab home was the equivalent of telling him to burn in hell.

Around midnight, the count finished. The jerk was shellshocked. He called a cab and proceeded to go stand out by the highway and wait for it. I don't know if it ever came.

I feel certain, however, that Mr. Idiot never tried another stunt like that.

On a short note, it seems that I was lucky that I didn't end up like the Idiot as in the story :P

Kicking the Habit?

Have you ever felt you have an addiction you want to quit, but somehow could never? I heard people had trouble to quit smoking or drinking alcohol. In my case, I'm addicted to softdrinks like coke, and I just can't seem to get rid of it. I nearly quit a year back, but after living a rather active lifestyle with more work and sporting activities, the need of sugar just simply got me back drinking sugary drinks as the body needs more energy. Been thinking on and off this issue, but can't seem to figure whether I should go one way or the other.

Hmm... I wonder if that this trivial matter, should be a huge issue, or simply something that I should just put as the least of my concerns?

A Parallel Story about Web Censorship in Thailand

One issue that I find rather funny is about the state of Web Censorship in Thailand. Just to rewind, about 6-7 years ago in the university I teach in, there was a web censorship program set up, in which numerous websites were blocked. Topics that were blocked included Pornography, Games, Diversions and Hobbies, and Audio/Video streaming. As being in a private university, policies like these could be dictated and implemented without consultation and consensus. I myself was rather caught by surprise by the implementation when a number of sites related with computer games that I usually read are no longer assessible. I usually like to prowl around a few local game development sites and an international site called gamaustra, which was the world's best site providing news about the game industry.

Initially I was rather somewhat annoyed, but life goes on as usual. After a few more weeks, more website were banned, including anti religious, political, and the most surprising of all was sourceforge which was the place you have to go for open-source software. That was the last straw. I found the censorship implemented to be over the top, and I've decided to start my own subversive activities. To be exact, going around internet censorship is easy if you know how. Anyone with intermediate computer knowledge will know that the use of proxy servers is the simplest form of getting around the censorship. To be exact, all you have to do is to set your browser to retrieve information that is banned from another server (proxy). So without much more thought, all my browsing in the local university net has been done with a proxy.

However after a few weeks, there were rumblings from a number of other staff and lecturers which were complaining about the sites they want to visit where censored. After comparing their list, there were many valid reasons to complain. One good example would be the banning of the CNN video/audio streaming which was completely banned. Another example would be certain programming tutorial websites. After much consultation, I decided to act by contacting the University Administrator to discuss about how the Internet Censorship in the Internet was completely out of hand. After much discussion, the administrator still refused to take down the voluntary censorship, but mentioned that he would be willing to allow reporting of websites that should not be censored. I also mentioned that the censorship was useless as it was easy to go around the system with proxies. Unabashed, the adminstrator said he can't stop the computer elite to get around it, but he said it is worth it to cut access to the majority of illiterate that are browsing websites that are inappropriate. The initial talk was unsatifactory, though I managed to get consessions that websites that are are useful could be unblocked by reporting them to the administrator. As I've already talked with numerous other sources, I had in my own hand a few pages of sites that should be unblocked along with its reason.

The system worked well for a while, however after a week, things were revered again. It seems that the adminstrators updated the list of blocked sites by keyword, and due to this reason, all the sites that were sent to unblocked, were blocked again. As the follow up discussion with the administrators was unsatisfactory (they refuse to update the list we submit them every week), so I reverted to slowly educating how to get around the censorship. After a few more months, the system was no longer in place, and all sites were available for view.

The reason why that was stopped because implementing Internet Censorship is expensive (especially if you set up a rather large amount of sites), easily subverted (with proxies), can usually end up being counter productive (censoring sites that are useful), and usually provides a negative vibe (especially in the user's view against the system).

What is strange is that the Ministry of Information Technology (MICT) in Thailand has actually started a implementation of the censorship much like what my university did many years ago. The system that the MICT used was the usage of a large number of computer personnel to browse around and individually add websites to censor which is extremely expensive to maintain. The sites that were blocked initially were immoral websites, which is later extended to counter revolutionary websites. When looking at this situation, it seems that it closely parallels what has happened in the case of my university. How long the system would be maintained would either depend on the people's persistence in demanding the system to be scrapped, or either the maintainer's organization finding that the cost is expensive and decides to scrap it.

New Changes to Blog, but Much the Same Old Stuff

The last few minutes, I've just decided to go over blogger and see some of the features in Blogger, mainly in the templates setting. Been a huge while since I've last changed the template, and I was pretty surprised in a good way on the new changes with the template system which is certainly much more helpful than the previous template system which requires extensive HTML and CSS knowledge. Not that I don't know about those technology, but as blogging just a diversion, I do think on a personal opinion that I shouldn't waste too much time on blogging. Due to that attitude, I do have to agree that it isn't surprising that this blog is a sparsely visited with very few visitors :P

Anyway, the new changes are, quite underwhelming I reckon. I prefer bland websites, which is rather like my rather spartan life-style which is quite devoid of eye-candies and things other than bare necessities, and maybe too much luxury on my books. After all of that, I've just found one picture that fits the template quite well, which was a cactus flower picture I took a few years back which was interesting. Haven't been doing much photography of late due to the lack of going into trips. I don't like taking photo of people, and without going to trips, there isn't much chance to take many. The other problem is that since having a film camera (instead of a digital one), it makes me rather too cost conscious, and partly makes me rather reluctant on taking photographs of common things.

Just to leave things off, my little brother got married, so I think I'll just post a few pictures of the wedding (p.s. as being the usher, I didn't have the chance to take a single picture).

Before the wedding ceremony

The Bride and Groom with the MCs

A view of the banquet room

Cutting the cake

A portrait of some of the relatives on our side of the family with the bride and groom

Interesting Job Description

Since my little bro was getting married, I was kind of amused when I got one email from one of my old friends. As the world becomes increasing commercialized, it seems that a lot of things are influenced by it. Take this job description for example. Utterly crazy in a funny kind of way :P

MOM - JOB DESCRIPTION

POSITION TITLE:
Mother, Mom, Mum, Mama, Mommy, Ma, Mater

JOB DESCRIPTION :
Long term, team players needed, for challenging permanent work in an often chaotic environment. Candidates must possess excellent communication and organizational skills and be willing to work variable hours, which will include evenings and weekends and frequent 24 hour shifts on call. Some overnight travel required, including trips to primitive camping sites on rainy weekends and endless sports tournaments in far away cities. Travel expenses not reimbursed. Extensive courier duties also required.

RESPONSIBILITIES :
The rest of your life. Must be willing to be hated, at least temporarily, until someone needs money. Must be willing to bite tongue repeatedly. Also, must possess the physical stamina of a pack mule and be able to go from zero to 60 mph in three seconds flat in case, this time, the screams from the backyard are not someone just crying wolf. Must be willing to face stimulating technical challenges, such as small gadget repair, mysteriously sluggish toilets and stuck zippers. Must screen phone calls, maintain calendars and coordinate production of multiple homework projects. Must have ability to plan and organize social gatherings for clients of all ages and mental outlooks. Must be willing to be indispensable one minute, an embarrassment the next. Must handle assembly and product safety testing of a half million cheap, plastic toys, and battery operated devices. Must always hope for the best but be prepared for the worst. Must assume final, complete accountability for the quality of the end product. Responsibilities also include floor maintenance and janitorial work throughout the facility.

POSSIBILITY FOR ADVANCEMENT &PROMOTION :
Virtually none. Your job is to remain in the same position for years, without complaining, constantly retraining and updating your skills, so that those in your charge can ultimately surpass you

PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE :
None required unfortunately. On-the-job training offered on a continually exhausting basis.

WAGES AND COMPENSATION :
Get this! You pay them! Offering frequent raises and bonuses. A balloon payment is due when they turn 18 because of the assumption that college will help them become financially independent. When you die, you give them whatever is left. The oddest thing about this reverse-salary scheme is that you actually enjoy it and wish you could only do more.

BENEFITS:
While no health or dental insurance, no pension, no tuition reimbursement, no paid holidays and no stock options are offered; this job supplies limitless opportunities for personal growth and free hugs for life if you play your cards right.

Forward this on to all the Moms you know, in appreciation for everything they do on a daily basis, and let them know they are appreciated!

On Reading

Being an avid reader, here is one addition caution that should be added:

"The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them."
-Mark Twain

As Fate Takes You...

Its been quite a while since my childhood years. One of the things that I've remembered well then was about wild dreams of a future there to be conquered. Some of those things dreamt where plain silly. Some of them were plan audacious. However after every passing year since childhood and as adulthood approaches, it seems that the window of opportunity seems to close little by little as reality sets in. What grandiose dreams were then changed, deemed too unrealistic to be true. Though the goals has been set from the sky down to just a jumping height, somehow it is quite funny to look back today and figure that all that most of my immediate goals were accomplished.

This is the problem of aiming too realistically and maybe in a sense too low. Once you do that, somehow when you reach the goal, it makes you kind of less fulfilled. In the hindsight if I did aim too high, the sense of anxiety from not being able to fulfill your potential is another bad feeling that is hard to get rid of.

So what does the future hold? Hard to say. At times it sounds like a good idea and just take a short step backwards to think and reflect on all that is done, reevaluate goals and just keep walking forwards to whereever fate takes me. It will be a fun and exciting road this year it things go as it is. Once more things are finalized, I will promise to write a little more about myself - though as you notice I hardly do that - being as emotionally detached at times as I usually am.

F Never Changes

Just to make a long matter short, there was a smash hit song called "Love Never Changes" by a local artist called Tik Shiro. In the late 80s and 90s, Tik Shiro has been one of the most popular singers in Thailand. He was known to be a great drummer, plays many musical instruments, a composer, a producers, a singer, and also a great dancer. However in the late 90s up the early 2000s, he pretty much disappeared from the music scene. Most of my peers, or people of the younger generation pretty much ridicule him as an ugly singer, with stupid songs, and who imitates Michael Jackson. That is pretty irksome especially when I go to the Karaoke and open some of his older songs.

Just a year back, he was back with a new album with Grammy Entertainment which was called "Boran (Ancient Man)" which seems to make fun of his past. Anyway, strangely enough, his song "Love Never Changes (Rak Mai Yom Paien Plang)" became one of the biggest hits of the year, and made him extremely popular with the newer generation of fans. Though I don't like the new album like some of his older vintage albums, it is still a solid offering, much of the old stuff, but with a better PR and marketing. Anyway, from all of that, the good thing is that I don't get ridicule anymore for playing his songs on the Karaoke Machine :P

Coming back to the subject mater about F Never Changes, I just happen to drop on a music video posted by a student from ABAC (Assumption University) where I teach, a video at a local online video sharing website. He has covered the song that I mentioned earlier with his (supposedly or real?) struggles with his studies which ended up with Fs. Anyway, at the end of the song, the message was simple - never give up.

Just one more short note from me. Never give up, but don't forget to learn from your mistakes also!

To view the video, follow the following link:
http://video.mthai.com/player.php?id=2M1176266554M268

A Notebook Reunion of the Past!

Yesterday I was just looking for a few interesting pictures to add to one of the presentation that I was supposed to speak at Silapakorn University. During the process I happen to pick up one old picture that still gives me a laugh. As there are classroom reunion, in this case, a collection of notebook computer from a number of guests that visited my home.

On a short note, if I actually placed all the desktops at my home, then it would also be even more interesting. Unfortunately, we were lazy to move the desktops because they were heavy, so this was all we could do with our limited resources.

As being a lecturer by profession, there has been many discussions on the pros and cons of teaching with different media. One of the most controversial issues involve the use of PowerPoint as the main supporting media for the instructors. Though there is a huge push towards PowerPoint, there are certain issues that I don't agree. One quote on a discussion on this issue goes as follows:

"Speaking on behalf of math instructors, there's a reason we use chalkboards.

Pacing.

Writing out your points as you make them forces you to slow down your exposition. This makes it easier for your audience to digest what you're saying, and also gives them time to take notes. Using premade slides or a powerpoint slideshow lets the presenter run unchecked, and the audience tends to zone out rather quickly. I could cover three times the material in a lecture if I used premade slides, but my students would get so little out of it that I might as well have said nothing at all."

As noted, another issue to ponder on, and why there is never any absolute answer in this world!

Memories

One issue that has been bothering me is about my short term memory. When talking about trivial things that of little importance, I have a tendency to forget about them easily. One of the things that I keep on misplacing is my mobile phone. The good point is that you could always phone into your own mobile to figure where it was. Anyway, one of the things that was bothering the last few days was that I've misplaced my key chain somewhere in my home and I can't find it!

Once I find my key chain, the next time, I won't lost it easily. I'll just fix my keychain to the mobile phone. That way I can find my key chain easily by phoning in. The only bad thing about it is that it would even look more odd. Anyway, who cares about fashion, as long as it is practical, it works :)

Jamming Session

Just asked my friend to take a few snapshot of me in my jam session.

Lately I've been playing more of my EWI4000s, but I still think the saxophone generally sounds better, even though mines is a pretty cheap and low-end one. Anyway, the EWI does have its advantage. It is easier to play, has a whole load of transposing (which makes it easy to play with other instruments), and can play a whole load of octaves, opposed to the rather limited saxophone. Anyway, at the end of day, it seems that each instrument is better for different situations, and its just up to experience to figure which one to use.

Freedom?

During a discussion on the War in Iraq in a forum with a majority of users from the States, there was a discussion whether Iraqi Freedom really made Iraq a better country. There was a huge heated debate. In one of the issues that was raised was about the civilian deaths after Iraqi Freedom. The figure was significantly higher (in orders of magnitude) compared with the civilian deaths during Saddam's reign. Not to defend him, but simply the figures and statistics indicate that, and no one seems to find a good and clear argument against that fact. At the end of the day, there was one statement that really hit me.

"You can't a price on Freedom"

After thinking about that statement over and over, I do agree that after all the figures, the statistics, and all the logical argument, at the end, it ends up with something that seems so impractical, but at the same time so profound. It is this freedom that caused many defining moments in human history.

When coming back to the topic, is it this freedom that the Iraqis want? As being an outsider, I do not know, and I do not dare speculate on things that I have no way of figuring out. However it does raise new issues. It does sum up everything nicely about human rationale, except if you value your life or stability more than freedom

I couldn't resist the urge

I couldn't resist the urge... If you noticed, that is a superhero impersonation :P

Start of the Holidays which is Basically Nearly the Same Thing as Before

Starting this week, I'm on an extended holiday until June. As being a lecturer, one of the major perks is that we are allowed an extended summer vacation until the next semester starts. How each lecturer spends the break depends on them. A number of lecturers would teach right through the summer. A number of them would be engaged in contract/external work. Some of them would be doing research. A number of them would go on extended holiday. To round up, a number of lecturers prepare for the next semester's course.

On my side of the story, during the summer semester, I am planning to spend most of my time brushing up my programming skills in the computer graphics field. Though many people complement me as being leading developer, I do find that complement rings hallow, and I have much to learn. So far I've been working on extending a game engine that I've used to include shader graphics. Right now, its looking quite good having adding a bloom filter, a flexible image filter system, and additional water based effects. What I usually like to say about it is that I managed to make a $150 dollar game engine look comparable with a $100k game engine LOL. Anyway, I've finished the first step of the project and I'm giving this core to my collegue to use it to create new games.

After that, I plan to take a dabbling on Physical Based Rendering systems which is an area of computer graphics. At this moment, I am quite intriqued by that concept, and I plan to spend most of the holidays to review and going deeper in that concept. Though Physical Based Rendering is usually ill-suited for game development due to its excessive calculation and slow speed, I am intriqued about exploring various optimization techniques that in hope in the future it might be feasible for real-time graphics. I don't think it would be a reality some time soon, but it is indeed a topic of challenge. As I'm planning to start my PhD somewhere the next semester, I reckon that if I had a head start on developing a core area for my future thesis it certainly would be beneficial.

Coupled with 3 other conferences to join during this period, I have to reckon that it is quite certain that this summer break would be busy just like any other typical day in my life :P

My Random Review and Thoughts on the WII

I've just got myself a Nintendo Wii a few days back. If you don't know what it is, the Wii is the newest game console from Nintendo, which features this revolutionary control system called the Wii Remote which is basically similar to a TV remote and the primary input is the act of swinging the remote around as opposed to the typical input system that consists of a direction pad and multiple buttons.

As a game player over the last 2 decades, I have to admit that I'm quite intrigued by the new design, as I have dampened my enthusiasm for games of the late. As many of the newer games in the market lack the innovation and the new factor due to many of them being rehashes of existing games, I'm finding it less and less fun to play the existing crop of games, and that is why I decided to buy the Wii.

Though I've bought a few games, I'll just keep my discussion short on one of the games that made most of the impression. The first game that really demonstrated the capability of the Wii was this game called Wii Sports. Wii Sports is a package of Tennis, Boxing, Golf, Baseball, and Bowling. Contrary to most other sports games on the market, all of the games were virtually simplify to the point of its essence. A good example would be like tennis. Instead of controlling the player avatar directly, the computer now moves the player avatar, and you as the player is only responsible for hitting the balls. In golf, they took out the 14 club bag, and left with it with 4. Though surprising at first, it all made sense when I've started to use the Wii remote to play those sports games. Tennis is extremely simple, as you basically have to swing your remote like a virtual racket. Timing, angle, and direction of the remote will ultimately decide where the ball would end up. Without having to control the player, the game play was simple but extremely effective. It ended up being a great design decision as making games simple will allow people who typically not play games find games less of a challenge. People who never played video games who came to my home found games like bowling and tennis fun. Easy to pick up, and immediately playable, it turns out the Wii really shines when it becomes the center of a community based entertainment center.

When having guests over at my home, if of different disposition, at the first the movies is the most suitable form of entertainment. Now, it seems that the Wii is going to give the TV and the DVD player a run for its money.

In simple, I call the Wii a console for the masses. It won't win over many of the power players due to its limited processing power, but the idea behind it would probably win over lots of other players, most of them who I assume never considered playing games before.

Busy Busy Busy

Been busy for the last few months with work work and work. One of the strange things is that work keeps you occupied. Once you run out of it, there is this feeling that something is missing in life. Strange...

I can't really pick up what is missing, but anyway, I know I've deserted this blog way too long. Anyway, just for a short starter, one of my latest project is now featured in the Menu Magazine Edition 63. You can find my game in the cover. The bad part is that since it is an animation magazine, there is nothing about me in the magazine. Its not that bad considering that the team leader, me and my assistant aren't in the picture either. As you know, that is quite a huge number of people missing during the interview LOL