RSS

既然提到了RSS（Really Simple Syndication），就顺便解释一下，我想还有一些人不知道这个如此厉害的网络技术。简单的来说，这项技术提供的便利，就像是送报纸的，每日准时把报纸送到你门口，而不需要你亲自出门去买。只要用阅读器（Reader）订阅了那个网站的RSS，每一次启动阅读器，你就会自动收到那个网站最新的更新文章或讯息，这样你就可以省下去每个网站查看的麻烦。如果你只有一个网站要留意，那就无所谓了，但要是你有一百个网站要游览，用RSS就可省却很多麻烦和节省很多时间了。

我一直以来都在用Google Reader，蛮不错的，但苦于不能分类收藏不同网站的文章，一直在找有这个功能的阅读器，后来试用Bloglines，才发觉它的剪贴功能（clipping service）正是我想要的。平心而言，除了缺少这个剪贴功能以外，其他方面Google Reader都比Bloglines好，但这个功能却正好是我最需要的，看来世上真的没有完美的东西，只好麻烦一点，用两个阅读器了。

[后记@2009-08-21：发现Google Reader可以再加Tag来分类收藏，于是又把Bloglines的RSS换回去用Google Reader订阅，绕了一大圈，才发觉原来之前的原来错了。]

Since I have mentioned about RSS (Really Simple Syndication), let me continue to further explain its function, as some may still haven't heard of it. To put it simply, it's like a free newspaper delivery service that automatically delivers the newest updates, be it news or blog articles, from the sites that you wish to follow, once you have subscribed to their RSS through a reader. The simple and yet powerful tool really reduces redundancy to frequently check websites for updates and save up a lot of time. Imagine you have hundreds of websites to follow and you do not have this service. What a pain in the ass!

I have been using Google Reader and find it very user-friendly, except for the lacking of customized articles classification which I need the most to collect and categorize articles from different sites. Until I try using Bloglines then I realize its clipping service is exactly what I seek for so long. IMHO, besides this, Google Reader is more superior than Bloglines. Perhaps it's true that nothing can be best at everything, and without choice, I have to use both together.

[P/S @ 2009-08-21: Having discovered that I can add tags to further classify articles, I re-subscribe all RSS with Google Reader and now I only use one reader. So there actually can be thing that works best for everything.]

How do you keep internet bookmarks?

For netizens who can't live without internet for at most 24 hours and google everything online, of which most of us are, it is always painful to organize the ever-growing bookmarks of sites that we want to keep, or it will be more painful and time-wasting to scroll down long array of links.

This becomes more troublesome when you are going to change default browser or computer, where it involves export and import of bookmarks, sometimes it may just turn messy and you would have to drag and drag and drag again...

I had wondered if I could classifying these links in a web blog but then it seems stupid if that blog couldn't be accessed when I need to. Then I thought of using a separate document to keep these links and upload the document to internet or store in my pen drive.

So, after a while, I start using Excel spreadsheet to help me keep the huge list instead. Though it is less convenient than using browser's bookmarks, it is more customized, effective and accessible in any browser or computer, as long as I am connected. [Do I still need internet bookmarks if I am not connected? :)]

Wireless @ SG

Has heard of this service for a while but did not bother to register. It was launched in roughly 2007 and the free service supposed to end at 2009 but it was extended to 2013. It is covered by 3 operators: iCell, QMax and Sintel depends on the area, you can choose to register with anyone of them.

http://www.infocomm123.sg/view.123?page=wirelessmain

Top Gamer

I bet you have never seen such gamer in MRT. Incredible.

Malaysian Passport Renewal in Singapore

Where: Malaysian High Commission @ 301 Jervois Road
When: 8am -1130am (Submission) || 2:30pm - 4:15pm (Collection)
How: Read caibin's comment at worm's perspective (Thanks Kap Lam for finding me this info before we went. :) )
Efficiency: High, one day

We went at Tuesday by taking the earliest 199 bus, reached there around late 7. I got the pass number of I-15, finished the application by 9am, came back to take at late 2, got it at 3 plus. So few additional hints are:

1. The electronic form of IM.42 can be obtained at this site.

2. Go there early, with 3 serving counters and efficiency of 5 minutes per application, the high commission can process about 100 application per day. That's the reason why the pass in guard house is limited.

3. Bring along PR/employment pass/student pass. We didn't know this but luckily we always bring along with us.

4. There's a photo taking and photocopy machine.

5. After submission, you can collect at another day.

Officers there are very friendly, one officer even started the conversation with me.

Officer: Emak kamu Chinese? (Are your mother Chinese?)
Me: Ya.
Officer: Bapa juga? (Your father also?)
Me: Ya.
Officer: Jadi mengapa rambut kamu kerinting? (Then why your hair is curly?)
... @.@ +.+ -_-
（FYI, curly hair is the dominant gene)

I finally understood why my US visa application needs longer time to process.

Charging voltage

I didn't know that there are different charging voltages for the cell phone charger since they have the same ports, if not for BK's reminder.

It would be dangerous to charge my 3.7V cell phone battery with say 5V charger, as it may result in explosion. Lesson learnt.

P/S: Btw, don't tell others that I graduated from NTU School of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, and my FYP project was DC-DC converter.

Rental cost

Let's apply a bit of mathematics in part and parcels of life: house renting.

Assuming 5 peoples want to rent a unit of house for $1800, 2 of them take the master room and pay $900 in total (which means $450 each); the rest take the common room and pay also $900 (which means $300 each). And the group of three ask:"Hey, it's unfair, by paying the same amount, we could have a master room!"

So you think "Aha, they got their point", that's another perspective looking into this matter. But if you think carefully, this argument is not sound. Because they do not only rent the room, but also rent the areas like living room and kitchen that are shared by all. Hence the cost cannot be calculated just based on room, but also based on head count.

It would be clearer with the following estimated cost break down:
Master room : $700
Common room: $600
Common areas: $500 ( = $100 per person for 5 persons)

If the group of three want to switch to master room, they have to pay $1000, but not $900. So now does the suggestion of switching still sound logical? :)

House Shifting - Min Chunn & co's

Few days ago me, Kok Heng and Kap Lam helped Min Chunn and Bei Bei to shift their house from Bukit Batok to Seng Kang. Guess how many stuffs they have for 5 persons?

About 30% of total stuffs

About 60% of total stuffs

Nothing was really heavy but then the amount itself was a bit amazing. Luckily they have found us, if not it's going to be a long long day. Because we are very strong.

New template ^^

Wanted to change to this template few days ago, but weird coding errors occurred... The template that works for others simply don't work for me, and I kept getting the frustrating coding error screen. Different coding error at different times, like buying lottery number. @.@ Got help from friend but problem remained. That's why these few days my blog were so merry, got flower la, got butterfly la, got coffee la and got default blogger plain template of course.

Now that I solved my problem, I think different widgets are the main culprit of coding errors.

- Templates that so many people are using by right should work. The common difference is the use of different widgets.

- Some widgets have spirit (perhaps because of staying in the blog long enough to develop it) and refuse to be deleted. When you try to delete it, they call for code bug to help.

- One of these ghostly widget is icon bar that contains "stumble" and other popular sites, usually put at the end of the post.

- If you don't expand widgets in the editing "html" page, and just upload new XML, this widget will follow the new master. Even if the new XML is blogger default. So you can see how strong can this spirit actually can be.

- But if you opt to delete the html codes and paste the new codes manually, the problem could be solved. Because you intervene and choose not to let computer do all the things for you on your behalf, like allowing such spirit to continue staying. '

Moral of this mystic story is that next time when you got errors in changing template, check out previous widgets first.

Chinese input methods - Cantonese

Found a website that can input Cantonese words
http://www.cantoneseinput.com/ .

Also found a java applet that allows you to input Cantonese words in your computer from this website
http://home.comcast.net/~jbmbweb/cantoinput/index.html

Both of them using jyutping (粤拼) input method.

Just in the case of you need to type some Cantonese words, without going through troubles of learning 仓颉 or 五笔（简体输入，繁体输出）.

Chinese Input methods - Mandarin

Don't know how long ago Chinese language and other languages were in jeopardy being marginalised and eliminated when it couldn't be typed into computer. But now almost every language has its own non-Unicode input methods.

I still remembered at first a software was needed to store the database for all the characters and to allow user inputs it. There were 2 popular soft wares serving this purpose, namely Chinese Star and NJ Star. When I first arrived at NTU I wasn't able to type in Mandarin as I couldn't find Chinese Star, without knowing that that was actually outdated and replaced by others like 紫光，陈桥, and ec-cetera.

But sooner or later I felt a bit lazy to reinstall these soft wares whenever I need to format my computer. Also it's not available in public computer. So I've decided to use Microsoft IME Pinyin 3.0, although not so willingly. To be more lazy lazier, I decided to use 双拼 instead of 单拼.

My opinion is that this default key map is very dumb. No clear link in between keys. It's just like any other Microsoft products that drive you crazy. It's not the question of "can you be smarter", but "can you be that stupid?".

A quick re-configuration of the key map becomes like that. Since I made this of course I need to say this is much better, LOL. At least, vowels are linked together in some way that make senses. Does that apply to you? I don't know. You tell me, if you try out.

Photos photos - Funny things in NTU

I has been busy organizing all my photos for almost whole day, with most of the time spent on naming and classifying photos taken in the past six months. The harder part is to organize photos taken by cell phone, because it's taken randomly; whereas photos taken by camera are mainly for certain events. 4 years of photos, excluding my exchange photos to CUHK, are about 10GB.

And so I've found two photos with interesting background.

You know how wide it is the main crossroad of NTU? And yet the car hit the road embankment. It was at day so the driver couldn't be drunken. So the driver wanted to turn right but estimated the distance wrongly. And it was at holiday where there was almost no traffic. How lousy? I am sure 3 years old kid won't bang like that. Such beautiful car, such lousy driver. The driver's license must be "kayu" one. >.< And for all Singtel's phone line subscribers, do you know how much can you owe before they cut your line? The amount is SGD352.54, which is almost equals to one whole year of bills. You may wonder why the heck in this world someone would wanna try it out, but for the sake of your pleasure, here you go. ^^

Google Reader

There are so many new and good stuffs in the WWW that you need to spend a little bit of effort to avoid getting a little bit behind the times.

It wasn't until a friend of mine in China told me about Google Reader that I realized the the link between "Reader" and "RSS".

So now I don't need to keep bookmarks of blogs, and can even get the latest updates of blogs that I subscribe to. Great stuff.

This would mean I got at least few updates of gunners blog entries to check daily, not to mention updates from friends' blogs. @.@

GOOGLE really provides a lot of applications and comes close to become one-stop web portal. Is it good or bad? Heaven knows.

Conversion of Driving License

Today went to Bukit Batok Driving Centre to book a place for basic theory test. Due to CCC's smart analysis of following L-license cars would lead to the destination, we took an unnecessary big U-turn and backed to where we were. ... I would say since earth is round, no matter travel to the east or travel to the west will lead me to my destination. @.@


You know what kind of cars are used for training? Brand new Honda civics. Can I say dxmx? Why I used kancil zai only? @.@