Snapshot

Here is a random snapshot of what I'm feeling today.

Mood: Hungry, Hot, and Indifferent
Wants: Delicious Food!
Needs: To get back in the mood.
Biggest Happiness: Home sweet home!
Biggest Concern: The crazy weather (insanely hot)
Health Concerns: Slightly Injured Finger from Jarring my finger at a basketball
Learning: Cg Programming
Vices: Playing Computer Games
Productivity: 2/10
Happy: 5/10
Plans: Get back to working mood soon, and clear some of the back logs. Go to the bank and transfer some money between my different accts. Go eat some really good food.

Messing around with Mambo

Two weeks ago I was asked to come up with the website of the Faculty of Science and Technology Alumni Party (TelnetSci 2006). One of the requirements I was asked to work on was to make a registration page so that alumnis can register if they wanted to join the party and one of the staff would contact back. Since I was a little lazy to create the site completely from stratch, I've decided to work with modContent Management Systems (CMS). Some of the requirements I had to fulfill was that the registration system must be relatively flexbile as the fields for every user was not fixed yet. Another important info is that the site must be able to list all the registered members sorted by the ID. The last part is that it should relatively easy for the administrator to change or edit the site.

What I used was Mambo and the Community Builder modification. I kind of liked the Mambo CMS because of its simplicity and ease of design. Initially I had some minor difficulties to set up Mambo on my test server, but as usual the subtle difference between MySQL 4.0 and MySQL5.0 does cause some strange errors from place to place so its alittle irritating on the first go. Anyway, the site is nearly up, just waiting for final approval on the workflow and later on to mod the template just a little bit more.

Anyway, haven't been doing websites for a long time. Its such a long time, I have to admit that its easy to be rusty without constant practice :)

Dictionary of Programming Languages

I just found an intereating site called Dictionary of Programming Languages while browsing the net. This site lists the major programming languages and a short description that includes the language origins and also some coding sample. If you are a computer science student, I'm sure you'll appreciate it :)

Rant about Lords of the Ring - Battle for Middle-Earth II

I just bought myself a new game. The game I got was Lords of the Ring - Battle for Middle-Earth II. That game was an awesome RTS game (graphical-wise). On the hindsight, I finished all the single player campaign in about a day and the game kept on crashing. Now I wonder why should they rush the game out if it proves to be so unstable I have to save at every 20 minute interval so that I don't have to replay the stage over again.

In a hindsight it does remind me that the autosave feature is one feature that is indeed very useful and a great fallback to have.

Fashion Statement at the Local Election

During election time, I usually come back with a few strange observations from the voting booth. In today's Senate election, I found one of the volunteers with a strange T-Shirt which seem to have some white tape covering a huge part of the shirt. Initially I thought it was some sort of new and weird fashion, but after a short deliberation, I finally figured that the shirt actually had a number on it, and election committees are not supposed to suggest any candidates directly or indirectly. In other words, the shirt she wore was illegal technically, so the tape was there just to cover up the shirt.

On a strange note, I was wearing a sports shorts to the election, and my pants had a number on it. Is this violating any election laws? Thinking about it, I did. Now that is one fashion that I'm not planning to wear the next time to the elections.

RGB Loading Screen

Try looking at the following flash animation. This reminds me of the games played on some old computers/consoles. During the loading time, we would see a random RGB animation much like the flash piece linked below. If you wonder how long it took, a single game takes between 2-5 minutes to load in those ancient computers! Talking about it, that was such a long time ago LOL

http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/rgb.php

Top's Car Basketball Team Report

For the last few months or so, I've been playing basketball at my old highschool, EIS (Ekamai International School), with a group of old friends and alumni members during Monday nights. After many months of casual basketball playing, many of the members wanted to have a competition between the 4 major groups in the court, which is divided into the Jek team (consisting mostly of old EIS school basketball team members who happen to be all of Chinese origin), Top's Car (our team, with an assortment of people from all backgrounds, including the only team that has a crippled player), Proflex (incidentally their team leaders are excellent sportsmen who happen to sell the muscle building supplement - proflex), and the Sundae team (a group of Thai Sikh players). After the division, we had a quick laugh that this was similarly to the old International School Alumni Basketball tournament :P

In the course of the last 6 weeks, our team finished a respectable 2nd place, giving the champs a run for their money. Not that the finishing position is important, but the most important thing was that we had a fun time, and it was a great excuse for us to socialize.



The photograph above is the picture of the team I'm in. We call ourselves the Top's Car team, in a short tribute for Top who happens to drive the majority of the members to court. From the top row, me, Bob, Eak, and Top. The bottom rows, Joke, Pong, Nek.

True or False?

Do you think the following conversions are true or false?

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Customer: "I've been ringing 0700 2300 for two days and can't get through to
enquiries, can you help?".
Operator: "Where did you get that number from, sir?".
Customer: "It was on the door to the Travel Centre".
Operator: "Sir, they are our opening hours".
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Samsung Electronics
Caller: "Can you give me the telephone number for Jack?"
Operator: "I'm sorry, sir, I don't understand who you are talking about".
Caller: "On page 1, section 5, of the user guide it clearly states that I
need to unplug the fax machine from the AC wall socket and telephone Jack
before cleaning. Now, can you give me the number for Jack?"
Operator: "I think you mean the telephone point on the wall".
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Tech Support: "I need you to right-click on the Open Desktop".
Customer: "OK".
Tech Support: "Did you get a pop-up menu?".
Customer: "No".
Tech Support: "OK. Right-Click again. Do you see a pop-up menu?"
Customer: "No".
Tech Support: "OK, sir. Can you tell me what you have done up until his
point?"
Customer: "Sure. You told me to write 'click' and I wrote 'click'".
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Caller: "I deleted a file from my PC last week and I have just realised that
I need it. If I turn my system clock back two weeks will I have my file back
again?".
----------------------------------------------------------------------
This has got to be one of the funniest. I think this guy should have been
promoted, not fired. This is a true story from the Word Perfect Helpline,
which was transcribed from a recording monitoring the customer care
department.

Operator: "Ridge Hall, computer assistance; May I help you?"
Caller: "Yes, well, I'm having trouble with WordPerfect."
Operator: "What sort of trouble??"
Caller: "Well, I was just typing along, and all of a sudden the words went
away."
Operator: "Went away?"
Caller: "They disappeared."
Operator: "Hmm. So what does your screen look like now?"
Caller: "Nothing."
Operator: "Nothing??"
Caller: "It's blank; it won't accept anything when I type."
Operator: "Are you still in WordPerfect, or did you get out??"
Caller: "How do I tell?"
Operator: "Can you see the C: prompt on the screen??"
Caller: "What's a sea-prompt?"
Operator: "Never mind, can you move your cursor around the screen?"
Caller: "There isn't any cursor: I told you, it won't accept anything I
type."
Operator: "Does your monitor have a power indicator??"
Caller: "What's a monitor?"
Operator: "It's the thing with the screen on it that looks like a TV.
Does it have a little light that tells you when it's on??"
Caller: "I don't know."
Operator: "Well, then look on the back of the monitor and find where the
power cord goes into it. Can you see that??"
Caller: "Yes, I think so."
Operator: "Great. Follow the cord to the plug, and tell me if it's plugged
into the wall.
Caller: "Yes, it is."
Operator: "When you were behind the monitor, did you notice that there were
two cables plugged into the back of it, not just one??"
Caller: "No."
Operator: "Well, there are. I need you to look back there again and find the
other cable."
Caller: "Okay, here it is."
Operator: "Follow it for me, and tell me if it's plugged securely into the
back of your computer."
Caller: "I can't reach."
Operator: "Uh huh. Well, can you see if it is??"
Caller: "No."
Operator: "Even if you maybe put your knee on something and lean way over??"
Caller: "Oh, it's not because I don't have the right angle - it's because
it's dark."
Operator: "Dark??"
Caller : "Yes - the office light is off, and the only light I have is coming
in from the window."
Operator: "Well, turn on the office light then."
Caller: "I can't."
Operator: "No? Why not??"
Caller: "Because there's a power failure."
Operator : "A power...................................... A power failure?
Aha, Okay, we've got it licked now. Do you still have the boxes and anuals
and packing stuff your computer came in??"
Caller: "Well, yes, I keep them in the closet."
Operator: "Good. Go get them, and unplug your system and pack it up just
like it was when you got it. Then take it back to the store you bought it
from."
Caller: "Really? Is it that bad?"
Operator: "Yes, I'm afraid it is."
Caller: "Well, all right then, I suppose. What do I tell them??"
Operator: "Tell them you're too stupid to own a computer".

You might be surprised, but all the conversions are true.

Blessings For Our Father

http://www.thaiking.org/

Plans for Today

- Go to the Elections wearing all black to protest at the current state of Thai Democracy.
- Bring along a pen and vote my usual No-Vote category in the parlimentary election that I've done in every occasion for nearly the last decade.

On a side note, during the last month, I've been completely irked by the state of democracy in Thailand. There are a few major points that I want to highlight:
1) You MUST VOTE in the Election - the quote before here is what is being played on the radio. I find that vote to be extremely ignorant. In a democratic society, you SHOULD NOT BE FORCED TO VOTE, though I find it ironic that many people choose not to go to vote, when they can. If people can't stand politicians like I do, then the best way in a democratic society is not to abstain but to vote for no-one. This gives a clear message that you don't trust politicians enough with our tax money.
2) Buses opening the radio in extremely high volume - As we know, the BMTA has received a huge handout from the PM. Due to that reason, it seems most of the BMTA is pro-Thaksin. What I hate the most about them is that lately they have resorted to turning up the radio (especially the pro PM FM94) in the bus to an abnormally high volume. The reason is that they wanted to shove the rants of many of the Pro-PM DJs there. Though I admit there are a number of interesting points, I had the urge to junk the Radio when I heard the following phrase:

"The academia are hopeless people. They are people in the Ivory coast and they want to force their ideals on the people. They say Thaksin is bad and poor people stupid. Now I want to tell us that these academia are ridiculing us, and they don't know what is best for the country. They don't know what the people want, like what we people want. What is wrong with Thaksin? I'm not closing my ears to the academia, but these people are so aloof, that they can't even explain me what Thaksin did wrong with the Temasak deal in a way normal people can understand, then I will not change my stance."

Hmm... No point arguing with stupid people because they will drag you down to their level and they will beat you with their experience in stupidity.

3) Business Books - Here is a few things I learnt from most business books in a bullet point:
1) Business is the art of maximizing profit (at the expense of others)
2) Increase shareholder value (at the expense of others)
3) Reengineering is a good way to turn the company around (and an excuse to fire workers to increase shareholder value)
4) Workers are just resources (does this ring of slavery?)
5) Managers should keep raises low (so that they can get a high raise by minizing cost)
My opinion? Read the Dilbert's Principle by Scott Adams. This book summarizes what business books are teaching today without all the water.

4) Democracy is Overrated - Democracy is just a system of governing. Its way overated especially when you have a country that is uneducated, uninterested, and divided through key issues. In these cases, Dictatorship might be a better option isn't it? Though in most cases Dictatorship are corrupt, at least we can save money from not having to arrange elections and also don't have to live with the irony of a dictator in the guise of a democratic elected leader.

5) Freedom of Speech is Simply a Mirage - The freedom of speech is stupid. Let me just say it straight that Freedom of Speech is desirable if you aren't on the receiving end of it. What I would suggest we should use is called Decency of Speech. Instead of warranting full freedom of speech, we should put in a fine-letter explaining the limits of what is allowed. Let me point out that there is no real freedom of speech. If I was to say if I was the moderator, I would point out that there is no Freedom of Speech, and as the moderator, I dictate what is the limit of the discussion. End of Story.

6) Who is the Villian in causing the Mob mentality? - Today, there are numerous discussions on who is the major cause of political impassie in Thailand. Many of the people blame Thaksin. Many on the other side blame Sondhi and Chamlong. Me? I blame all politicians, and I want to especially point out Chamlong as the huge curlpit. Why do I say that? Let me just say that Chamlong started the mob mentality. He did that in 1992. After that a while, he got Thaksin into politics. Thaksin is related with Sondhi as they were business associates back. Sudarat is one of Chamlong's protege, and she taught Thaksin about the art of appearing good in public without the requirement of substance. Later Chamlong revived his forte in mobilizing the mob by joining up with Sondhi. Soon afterwards Thaksin, Chamlong's heir, used the same art to mobilize his mob.

7) How to Solve the Political Situation in Thailand? - I would suggest creating a military dictatorship, declare martial law, and crush both the Pro-Thaksin and Anti-Thaksin factions. This blickering has gone far enough and also is extremely dementrial to our country. I do not believe we can no longer trust politicans to do good for the country. I do not believe that Thai people in general know what is best for their country. Democracy and Freedom of speech is overated. All we need is a strong, ethical, and morally sound leader to turn things around, and based on my rambling rant today, you know that I'm planning to arrange a coup and take over the country.

Regarding the above post, I'll let you decide if I was serious, or not :P