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.