dnr3
dnr2
hmm
on second thought, that theme didn’t really fit the style of the blog, was more for tweet-like posts considering how much emphasis it gave to the bottom bar.
mood
ooh finally a nice theme with a catchy design, I’m impressed! Now if only every post didn’t need a title..
I’m in the mood for doing some late-night xhtml/css design work, what a bad time. I still have two more exams to study for. And I’m already feeling that familiar sense of nonchalance and apathy for the stuff that’s going on around me..
So much has happened since the last post though, (New record! 6 months!) suffice to say I got my 450D, won myself a umacbook, sold snowy off (sorry snowy), and finally got a new keyboard after using that grimy IBM one for the past 8 years. Ick. That’s basically 6 months worth of notable happenings compressed into a single paragraph 
No I shall not be talking about my emotional rollercoaster. -_-
dnr1
allegra
As usual I’ve procrastinated posting again, but I’m just going to pretend it’s the 24th of December today. Just came back from a cruise on board the MS Costa Allegra, and its really a mixed bag of feelings I have. On one hand the initial seasickness was really troublesome, and on the other hand I got to see some really unfamiliar places and meet some really cool people, as well as getting gourmet food and free pizza every day haha.
I think I’ve uploaded some of the photos I took on facebook though I’ve left out most of those with people in them for privacy reasons.
Vietnam was an experience, especially Ho Chi Minh city, which is still sorely underdeveloped and lacking in budget despite being named after the man himself. I also found out that you could use a motorcycle not just as a minivan, but also as a pickup truck, a lorry, a schoolbus and a family car. When you go to Vietnam and hire a taxi to bring you around, you will be faced with a sea of motorcycles and if you’re lucky, a lone traffic light now and then. In fact in most places they have opted to put a single traffic police officer at the junction instead of a traffic light, not that the motorists actually follow his orders. Going against the flow of traffic is a very common thing there. Then again, paved roads are hard to come across, and those that you are lucky to find probably have potholes the size of bomb craters filled with stagnant water.
It wasn’t all that bad though, while Ho Chi Minh city struck me as being economically undeveloped, Da Nang didn’t fare as badly. This time the container port actually had containers in it, and in the background one could see a ambitious bridge in construction. Not to mention in Da Nang, there are actually traffic lights.
Sanya wasn’t too much of a new experience since most of China’s cities are monolithic, so it looked like Hangzhou and Suzhou, which I’ve been to before, complete with the mindblowing cheap prices of most things there. Things that cost S$20 in Singapore cost like S$4 there.
Hong Kong was by far the best part of my trip, it strikes me as a very nice place to live in. That is, if you can speak Cantonese. Never have I been to an island with desktop wallpaper quality picturesque mountians all around. Those people who stay in high rise apartments in HK and are not blocked by other tall buildings probably have a treat every day when they look out of their window. That said, Hong Kong island itself is incredibly dense, it’s like a really tightly packed version of San Francisco. What with all the 2 lane roads that go up at like 60 degree angles and make walking uphill a really uphill task. =p The buildings are so packed together that when you walk around in the city you don’t get direct sunlight, unless it’s noon or smth. Shophouses and restraunts are also incredibly squeezy, and you’ll probaby get a seat like, at the very corner of the wall. Kowloon and the New Territories apparently don’t suffer from this space problem though, the HK government should look into expanding into that area instead of shoehorning like tens of thousands of people into an area twice the size of Jurong island. That said, Hong Kong while having alot in common with Singapore somehow has it’s own unique charm and is a really great place to go.
Starboard stern of MS Costa Allegra
expansive bargain
As in picture, I is get myself an Acer P244W during SITEX for $339.
yes, the OSD is touch sensitive
I’m still wondering how I got a 24″ monitor at 1920×1080 (true 1080p/16:9) with 2ms response at that kind of price, but hey I’m not complaining. =p Note to self: Always hoot IT shows hehe
There got one problem though, now everything also cannot play. My interim graphics card, a XFX 8600GT is having trouble generating most stuff at 1920×1080. Crysis is by far the worse hit, even at lowest settings it lags at 1920×1080, I have since lowered the resolution to 1280×720 for the time being. Oh well, $39 to a HD4850. Which will be the final upgrade before active funding for carbon will stop.
Speaking of Crysis, I have been trapped into the holiday game loop. (Most of you should be familiar with this as you’re also caught in it, or you are in a similar situation)
I have reread Little Brother by Cory Doctorow and chanced upon some events that I missed out while speedreading through it the first time. It is a really thought-provoking piece of literature that has led me to rethink some of my security policies. You should read it if you get the chance, especially since it has a CC license and therefore is free to download.
WordPress has just changed it’s admin page again, for better or for worse I do not know, though it seems to be veering towards for worse, since there are breakages here and there, the UI is not intuitive at all and the old saying holds true, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. I think I might be packing my files up and looking elsewhere soon, either that or I’ll host it myself.
Okay to cut to the chase, here’s the real reason for posting:
blacked5k
Just at a time when it couldn’t get more obsolete.
Need I say more?
The Hyper212 is finally being used, with great results. So efficient it is, that the fan is redundant, even at 3GHz.
There it is, the thing I've been looking for
I’ve brought it up to 3.2GHz with a slight volt bump, haven’t had time to push further yet.
One of the finer K8-era chips
Install me already
I don’t feel like typing much as holiday laziness has already set in.
vega
Just some things that have been happening, since its late I don’t want to spend too much time typing.
Our June camp has just ended with a more or less neutrally with some hiccups here and there. It’s probably the first camp in the organization’s history to be come close to reaching 100% slack efficiency.
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Err the above was a draft from a post 4 months ago so yeah you can see how much I procrastinate some times.
BTW, this is my 100th post.
Exams are over and I know that I didn’t do very well. I hope it isn’t too big a disaster, but I’ve decided to properly enjoy my 10 days before the results come out. I just hope I can go on to next year..
Started off with a class BBQ which err, looked like a screwup at the beginning but became slightly better later as more people turned up. There were some clashes here and there between classmates though, too bad I couldn’t stay over to watch the drama but I’m not too fond of chalets. Looking back, I should’ve brought something to while away my time. I ended up watching people play poker, learning how to use an XBOX controller (or any type of console controller for that matter), and err, watching people play FIFA.
Next, helped yet another person to build a rig, this time it was budget, so it was back to AMD territory for me, no more E8400s and hard to install intel coolers. Was planning to use his old case but to my dismay it was BTX.. never really thought of that possibility but then again it was a Dell during the Pentium 4 era.. complete with RDRAM. In the end I just assembled the rig bare, and now its sitting in a rather optimal position on his desk. He likes it that way so I think he’ll leave it bare, but how he’ll protect it from spills and EMI I’m not sure.
Grabbed a XFan120L and a Hyper212 while at SLS. The XFan despite being made in china actually comes with a rather competent packaging with proper english, proper specs and proper website. In terms of technicalities it pushes a very average amount of air for a 120mm, 44.71CFM as rated on the box. As an intake fan it’s alright though I would prefer a higher capacity fan. However, the shade of the blue LEDs that it sports is very, very attractive (something like a brilliant cobalt-azure blue) and it lights up the 5-1/4″ drive cage and bezel very well. I may consider getting a 80mm one to replace my HDD cage fan if there exists one. As for the Hyper212 I couldn’t really use it yet to my disappointment as most of the shops in SLS have stopped selling the AMD Athlon64 X2 5000+ Black Edition as it’s EOL-ed already. It was a really good processor though so now I have this half-hearted thread on VR trying to buy one though now I think I’ll wait for the K10 AM3 dual cores to arrive. The AM3 is backwards compatible to AM2 so it wouldn’t be a problem to both my motherboard and the Hyper212.
I’ve also gotten a pair of CrossRoads Mylarone Bijou 3 IEMs courtesy of ndoo. It hasn’t been fully burnt-in yet but I’ve been listening to it for a few hours and I’m very pleased with it. The sound has been gradually becoming tighter, very little overlap between the bass, mids and highs, clarity is good. I’m a bass freak so while it doesn’t have the same amount of bass as compared to the bundled iPod earphones, I find that it has a very controlled bass which is good because it’s there but it’s not overwhelming and stays within it’s boundary. I hope it becomes even better with burning-in. Build quality is also top notch and while they do look rather different from most IEMs they fit very comfortably in my ear. I’ve also realized that my nano fits perfectly into the semi-hard carrying case which is another plus point for me as the screen is rather delicate.
In other news I’ve finished Crysis: Warhead and it isn’t really much of an expansion per se. The main engine is fundamentally identical with the addition of the 20mm mounted autocannon, the APC with either minigun or 20mm autocannon, the dual-wield miniSMG with selective fire, the automatic self-loading grenade launcher and the PAX gun. While reviews say it’s supposed to be less taxing on the system, I find it to be even more taxing on my system. While on Mainstream settings at 1024×768 (which is the new name for “Medium”) my 9600GT only managed to pump out 31FPS average. With the original Crysis I’m able to reach 40FPS at points. In terms of story it has become even more drama and the immersiveness is there, I thoroughly enjoyed it though it is imperative that you play the original Crysis and know the story first or you won’t get what’s going on.
I’ve also managed to grab a ccfl kit for carbon which is mostly inactive now since there isn’t really much use for bright blue lights in my room at the moment though I think I’ll try sourcing out a supplier for the SunBeam Sound-Activated CCFL Controller Module which is extremely hard to find though from scouting the forums it looks like it’s around $13 making it a rather easy buy if I can come across it.
I have 656MB left of a 500GB drive. Go figure. I’m thinking of getting a 640GB drive soonish as I’ve sold my 80GB IDE drive.
I actually owe 2 memes from ndoo and cflee but I’ll hold off till another time to do them.
ire
I think you’re still wrong btw.
