Thursday, December 11, 2008

This Blog is NOT abandoned.

I'm just too busy to blog. Now I have some time. Only a little though. Only a little.

It's been like half a year since I entered Multimedia University. Most of my course-mates are studying hard for quizzes, exams, and they're also doing assignments and tutorials given by the lecturers. As for me, I have been enjoying my life.

Within these six months, I got myself a new mobile phone, an Asus Eee PC 901, and most of all, I've gotten closer to my sweetie.

I've been in the university's DJ Club ever since I came here. The DJ on-air evaluation period was long over. Even though I didn't get to be an on-air DJ, I guess it's okay for me, since no one listens to RMMU anyway, even when I asked my "friends" to listen while I went on-air, no one would listen. Charlene passed the DJ on-air evaluation though. So, she's an official on-air DJ now, I'm an official off-air DJ. Not bad huh? Off-air, since I'm dumb, but I get to be her session manager.

But still, I think "session manager" is like it's just a little consolation to those who didn't get to be on-air. Maybe "session manager" is the brainchild of the slot manager or someone "manipulative" in our English slot.

I have no complaints, except that Charlene's DJ partner, whom I know can't speak that well, got to be on-air. Personally, I think that's unfair. Everything is quite political, actually. And another thing I don't quite understand is, one of the senior DJs is distancing herself from me and Charlene. DJ Phat isn't as friendly to us as before anymore. I don't know why. Maybe somebody back-stabbed us from behind or something to her. But that's alright I guess, since, like I said, everything is quite political.

By the way, I think that in this world, everything is unfair. If you want to be treated fairly, you need to put in lots of effort to earn it. Perhaps that's the case here.

Other things about the DJ Club include, it had its RMMU Carnival recently, and I was also busy with the RMMU website. Regarding the RMMU Carnival, there was a Photography & Logo Design Competition, held by the club's Creative Department, and directed by Charlene. It wasn't that popular though, and guess what? They even swapped the prizes for that competition with the old RMMU Day mugs. I have an incline to think that they were doing this on purpose because the prizes for the winners were all LABELED, and they're definitely not illiterate. Ha, what's with them? Rasuah? In the end, we managed to recover all but one of the prizes.

Let's put all the stuff about DJ Club to a halt here, and talk about something else.

I mentioned just now that I got myself an Asus Eee PC 901 right? It's a small laptop, extremely portable. So, I think it's more appropriate to call it a subnotebook, an ultra-portable laptop, or, the latest term for a laptop that's extremely small and meant for web-surfing, a netbook.

There are many attractive features of this netbook that made me wanted it so desperately and eventually got myself one from Low Yat Plaza. First, it's small, only about 9 inches, and its screen size is 8.9 inches only. Next, its processor is a 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270, which is quite appealing for me. This little jewel is also packed with a 1.3-megapixel webcam, four buttons above the keyboard, a multi-touch touchpad, a card reader, and most of all, its battery-life can be up to 8 hours!!!

My Eee PC 901 came with Windows XP Home pre-installed. As a Microsoft & Windows hater, of course I reinstalled the operating system, changed it to Ubuntu Hardy.

The Eee PC 901 is also quite rare here, I think. When I went to Low Yat Plaza with my sweetie in search of it, we had to seek everywhere. Most of the time the sellers would say "it's out of stock" or something similar, until we finally found it at a booth by the footpath.

Overall I'm quite satisfied with my Eee PC 901, except that the SSD capacity is quite limited and the keyboard isn't suitable for fat fingers. I also bought an SDHC card and an external hard disk along with it.

I have a cute little computer, and also a very cute girlfriend. Lol! We've been often out together on dates, and we're also having dinner together every single day. Lol! It's been 6 months since we got together and we're getting along quite well.

I've been into netbooks, and Charlene's been into something too, lolita dresses! And guess what? She's been cosplaying for Emina.

Charlene in red-and-black-striped bunny costume:



And Charlene in wa loli:



Awww SO SO SO SO CUTE!!! ARGHH CUTE!!! <3 Whadd'ya think? Feel like hugging her? (I'll kill you if you're a guy! :P)

Forgot to mention that Emina was another club that I've joined. I'm having a lot of fun with this club. From cosplaying, anime screening, to trips to events, everything is great about this club. Before the cosplays, MONTHS before the cosplays, we went on a trip to Bon Odori, before that we watched Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone. I think it was awesome, but I still almost fell asleep in the cinema because I was too tired. I did catch almost everything of the story though.

Then when we were on the way to Bon Odori in Shah Alam, Kurogane had a quiz with us, and the first question he asked was, "What was the ending theme of that anime we just watched? Who sang it?", I knew the answer, and that song is one of my favourite songs too. So I answered, "Utada Hikaru - Beautiful World", and he gave me an anime figurine. Then, after that he asked another question, "What's NERV's tagline?", I knew the answer too, and I shouted "God's in his heaven, all's rights with the world!", but he refused to give me the plushie. :( LOL! He told me to give other people their chances. But, really, that was kinda fun. Hehe. And, I gave the figurine to Charlene. <3 Rozen Maiden with my sweetie Charlene. Hehehehe... :D

Speaking of anime, recently I've watched Macross Frontier and it was AWESOME I tell ya! Every single episode! Just AWESOME! May'n, the seiyu of Sheryl Nome, one of the main characters in Macross Frontier, came to Singapore for AFA'08. I had a chance to go to that event, with Emina of course, but I didn't go, even after my girlfriend urged me to go, I still refused to go. I heard from people that May'n sang in a really super-awesome way, very very very enchanting. Now I've regretted it for not going. Lol. Sigh.

Anyway, the next big thing would be Comic Fiesta, and it's on December 20th and 21st. I'm not going to miss this. I've bought tickets with Charlene to Comic Fiesta.

And December 21st marks our 6th month together. Charlene and I. <3

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Saturday, July 12, 2008

One Small Leap Into the University, One Big Leap Into a New Life

It's been like, once upon a time, since I last published my blog post. And now, I'm posting again. Yaya, yippee!

For a typical Malaysian, what goes after a primary school life? Secondary school!!! Woo-hoo!!! Yeah!! But the difference between a primary school life and a secondary school life ain't that much. It's just that we grow up a little during the transitional phase, from a primary school kid to a secondary school teen. Then, after all those hectic schedules we normally had when we were at primary school and later, secondary school, and after the last government exams during the last moments of schooling, which for some it's SPM, while for others, it's STPM, everyone of us would be brought into an entirely new world. In this new world, it's one big leap ahead of a difference compared to a typical secondary school life.

For me, I was brought into a university in Cyberjaya. This university is Multimedia University. I chose to come here, I guess. Since, the electronics engineering programmes here look kinda interesting and tempting for me. And I picked "Electronics Engineering Majoring In Computers", but before I get to study that, right now, I'm studying for "Foundation In Engineering". Some of my friends from my previous school are here too.

Yeah, it's already into Week 4 and it's gonna end soon, this week, I mean. And I've been living here for that long. Not that long, but well, still kinda long, since I've never been seperated from my family for such a long time before. And, yeah, many things happened. Nice things. ^_^

Nice things! ^_^ V

During the orientation four weeks ago, we sang, we danced, we had fun, and we got to know more about the university. Some people briefed us about how to this and how to that. We also got to know some of our seniors who are in the Orientation Committee (OC).

We learned how to sing some songs, which included the song of MMU, Permata Dunia. We sang an oldie, Those Were the Days by Mary Hopkins, and there was another song that I like so much, We Will Get There by Stefanie Sun. Just take a look at its lyrics:

Remember the days we set out together with faith?

Remember the times, so fine

When we thought that nothing could stand in our way?

Then things weren't the same

The life that we knew had to change

We've struggled through the darkest storms

We thought we couldn't tame


Together we've tried

As we stood side by side

I knew we'd build a new world

A world of hope for ever after


Chorus

Deep in my heart I just know

Right from the start we will grow

Look where we are, we've come so far

And there's still a long, long way to go

With all of my heart I will care

I'll play my part, I will share

With family and friends, together we'll stand

And in the end, hand in hand

We will get there


So now we begin working together to win

Believe in trust, it must

Be possible to overcome anything

There's so much to do

There's so much we can contribute

By sharing just a little love

We will start again anew


So why don't we try?

If we stand side by side

I know we'll build a new world

A world of hope for ever after


Chorus twice

So meaningful!!! Since then, it has became one of my favourite songs that I would listen to over and over again. :)

Before the orientation, I registered myself as a student of the university and I met my friend, Brian there at the university's multipurpose hall, then we registered together at the hostel again. I knew that Ding, Wen Mei, Zi Liang, and Shuang Yaw are here too. And eventually I met all of them. Weee!!! And I'm hanging out with my friends! Finally!!! I get to hang out with my friends!!! LOL!!!



And also, I met the girl whom I helped to make a WordPress skin for her blog, Charlene, and her friend, Angela during the orientation week. I recognized Charlene for the first time when her name was called out by an orientation committee member. Then we met each other and talked a little about stuff and so on. Little did I know, later on, this girl became someone extremely important to me!

During the orientation week, we got to know about the university, and we also got to know some people among us, the newcomers, and many of us gained new friends. We were organized into 20 groups. Each group consisted of members from various faculties. We played games, did fun stuff together as teams during the orientation week, while we learned more and more about the university, its surroundings, and about the next chapter of life we're about to step into. It was extremely exhausting during that one week, but it was inevitable since every newcomer must participate in it.

After the orientation, I attended my first lecture, and it was Pre-Calculus for Engineering. And there were many lectures and tutorial sessions after that of course, and they were all quite fun and enjoyable (to me, at least). I also bought my stationaries, textbooks and stuff for my studies. And currently, I'm staying at the university's hostel.

I found myself hanging out a lot with Charlene and her friends. I had been lending her my laptop before her PC arrived. During the first few weeks we were often hanging out in front of the library, but later on, we stayed at one of the hostel canteens.

Upon mentioning the word "canteen", it reminds me of writing about the food here. Well, I don't know how to describe food, but I have photos of them. Here are the photos of some food I ate here:





Hehe. :-)

One of the first few weekends after I entered this university, I went to a shopping complex, Alamanda, in Putrajaya, with Charlene, her roommate, Ying Rou, and her course mate, Eddy. All three of them are from the Faculty of Creative Multimedia. When we were there, Charlene grabbed my arm when we were walking, then after that we watched Kungfu Panda at the cinema there, and she laid her head on my shoulder!!!

And so, eventually, that night after we got back to the university campus, we officially got into a relationship.



Yeah, we're so so deeply in love with each other. XP Note that Charlene was the one who made the first move. I took Brian's advice, and I accepted her. I told her before that I'm not very sociable, and I'm not a good companion and I won't make a good partner, basically I'm not a friendly or fun guy. But, instead of saying eeewww to me, repelling me away or trying to isolate me from society, she tried to change me. Hmm, I couldn't open up at first. I really couldn't. But, we hanged out a lot. Before we got into a relationship, she always asked me that she wanted to borrow my laptop. I guess that was an excuse for her to get close to me. And, she did. :P Without realizing it, I came to like her a lot. And I spent a lot of time hanging out with her after all my classes. Sometimes, I even brought her out on my minibike to nearby restaurants for dinners. I love her. >_< Okay, so enough about my private matters, let's talk about some other stuff.

Like clubbing.

I joined five clubs and societies altogether. FIVE! I hope I won't get too busy. On the club registration day, first, I joined the Engineering Society, then I joined EMINA Club, after that I followed Brian into Swim Club and Institute of Engineers of Malaysia (IEM). Later on, I followed Charlene into DJ Club. And this club, the DJ Club of MMU, is the club I choose to be the most active in. Why? Because I believe, it will change me towards the better, forever. I want to change my personality from a quiet, antisocial, dumb rat into a very talkative, sociable and hyperactive guy, and filled with lots of qualities and skills leaders have. I want to change my personality, I want to talk a lot, I want more friends, lots and lots and lots of friends, I want friends, and most of all I want to be a nice guy, I want to be liked by everybody, I don't want to be lonely anymore. And this time, I'm fscking serious about changing my life!

Our DJ Club here manages our very own radio station, RMMU, "Your Ultimate Multimedia Tunes". I joined the English slot, which airs on every Sunday and Monday. And I get to go on-air now, temporarily, together with Charlene, and my DJ name is DJ Squid, while hers is DJ Octopus. Hehe. :P We won't be talking on-air till three weeks from now though. The seniors are going to train us one-to-one, on-air. :P Oh, I'm so excited I'm spraying black ink all over the place. I get to learn how to talk better soon!!!

Before all this nice stuff happened to me, I always said that to myself that if the flow of my life could be plotted on to a two-dimensional graph, then it would be a straight line, like the line, y=1. But now, seems like there are some curves to my line. Yeah, I'm improving. A lot. :D Now I'm still learning how to be more open.

Life's starting to rock now, and you know what? I'll make it rock harder! Kekekekekekekekekekekeke!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Monday, May 5, 2008

My New Toy

Well, I don't really need it, and I don't really want it, but my parents insisted on buying a cellphone for me. So, recently, they bought me a Nokia 2600 classic, it's one of the latest cellphones. Here are the specs:

General
2G Network: GSM 900 / 1800
Announced: 2008, January
Status: Available. Released 2008, March

Size
Dimensions: 109.6 x 46.7 x 12 mm, 63.5 cc
Weight: 73.2 g

Display
Type: TFT, 65K colors
Size: 128 x 160 pixels
- 5-way navigation key

Ringtones
Type: Polyphonic, MP3
Customization: Download
Vibration: Yes

Memory
Phonebook: 1000 entries
Call records: 20 dialed, 20 received, 20 missed calls
Call slots: No
- 10 MB user memory

Data
GPRS: Yes
HSCSD: No
EDGE: Yes, Downlink only
3G: No
WLAN: No
Bluetooth: Yes, v2.0
Infrared port: No
USB: No

Features
Messaging: SMS, MMS, Email
Browser: WAP 2.0/xHTML
Games: Yes
Colours: Black, Orange, Blue, Beige
Camera: VGA, 640x480 pixels, video
- Java MIDP 2.0
- Stereo FM radio
- Calendar
- Calculator
- Voice memo
- Expense manager
- T9

Battery
Standard battery, Li-Ion 870 mAh (BL-5BT)
Stand-by: Up to 580 h
Talk time: Up to 6 h


Pretty basic right? 'Cause this is a budget phone. Hey, it's only RM340, what do you expect?



However, I think it's a pretty good phone. Cheap, but good. It doesn't have all the fancy features, it's not a 3G smartphone, and it's memory is not expandable. So what? I have a laptop, so the lack of some advanced features here don't really matter.

Oh well, I don't use cellphones that much, besides, who's gonna call me? I'm always lonely, and I don't have a luxury of friends.

Thanks anyway, to my parents, for getting me a cellphone.

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Undo by COOL JOKE (Fullmetal Alchemist Third Opening Theme)

Another great song from the greatest anime I ever watched.



Fullmetal Alchemist Third Opening Theme

Title: Undo
Artist: COOL JOKE

video

Lyrics:

Kanji:

遠く 遠く 想い果てなく
二人が 無邪気に笑ってた
あの頃に戻れるなら…

こなごなに砕けた
ガラス細工のような
思い出の破片(カケラ)を集めてる
大事なモノはいつだって
失くしてから気づくよ

君がいない世界は
まるでジグソーパズル
永遠に欠けたまま未完成
誰にも君の代わりなんて
なれるはずはないから

どうか どうか 時間を止めて
君の面影をこの胸に 刻んでくれ
もしも もしも 許されるなら
すべてを犠牲にしてもいい
あの笑顔をもう一度…

現実という鎖に
僕達は繋がれて
夢見ることさえも叶わずに
それでも探し続けてる
闇を照らす光を

遠く 遠く 想い果てなく
二人が 無邪気に笑ってたあの頃へ

どうか どうか 時間を止めて
君の面影をこの胸に 刻んでくれ
もしも もしも 許されるなら
すべてを犠牲にしてもいい
あの笑顔をもう一度…

もう一度…




Romaji:

Tooku Tooku Omoi hatenaku
Futari ga Mujaki ni waratteta
Ano koro ni modoreru nara...

Konagona ni kudaketa
garasu zaiku no you na
Omoide no kakera wo atsumeteru
Daiji na mono wa itsudatte
Nakushite kara kizuku yo

Kimi ga inai sekai wa
Maru de JIGSAW PUZZLE
Eien ni kaketa mama mikansei
Dare ni mo kimi no kawari nante
Nareru hazu wa nai kara

Dou ka Dou ka Jikan wo tomete
Kimi no omokage wo kono mune ni kizandekure
Moshi mo Moshi mo Yurusareru nara
Subete wo gisei ni shite mo ii
Ano egao wo mou ichido...

Genjitsu to iu kusari ni
Bokutachi wa tsunagarete
Yumemiru koto sae mo kanawazu ni
Soredemo sagashi-tsuzuketeru
Yami wo terasu hikari wo

Tooku Tooku Omoi hatenaku
Futari ga Mujaki ni waratteta ano koro e
Dou ka Dou ka Jikan wo tomete
Kimi no omokage wo kono mune ni kizandekure
Moshi mo Moshi mo Yurusareru nara
Subete wo gisei ni shite mo ii
Ano egao wo mou ichido...

Mou ichido...




English Translation:

My faraway, faraway thoughts are ceaseless
If I can go back to that time
When the two of us innocently laughed together…

I’m gathering up the fragments of my memory
That is broken into pieces
Like a work of glass
You always realize what is important to you
After you lose it

The world without you
Is just like a jigsaw puzzle
While it’s eternally missing pieces, it’s incomplete
Because it’s impossible
For anyone to be your replacement

Please, please stop the time
And carve your visage into my chest
If, if I’ll be forgiven
Then I’m willing to sacrifice everything
For that smiling face once more…

By the chain called ‘reality’
We are connected
We aren’t even granted to dream
Nevertheless, we keep on searching
For the light that illuminates darkness

My faraway, faraway thoughts are ceaseless
For that time when the two of us innocently laughed together
Please, please stop the time
And carve your visage into my chest
If, if I’ll be forgiven
I’m willing to sacrifice everything
For that smiling face once more…

Once more...



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Saturday, May 3, 2008

HTML Guide: 1.0 Getting Started

I'll get straight to the point. In this series of tutorials, you will be taught briefly on how to create web pages with HTML, and probably with some CSS and JavaScript. So, it means I won't be explaining in details about how HTML came about, or any other detailed info. This tutorial is just an attempt to get you started in creating web pages.

For more information on HTML see its Wikipedia article. Now, first things first, let's get started with the introduction.

1.0 Getting Started

HTML stands for HyperText Markup Language. It is the predominant markup language for Web pages.

It was created by Tim Berners-Lee at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland in 1991. It is now regulated by the World Wide Web Consortium.

We write HTML in the form of tags, surrounded by the "lesser than" symbol, < and the "greater than" symbol, >, or so-called angle brackets.

To create a page in HTML, we could use a simple text editor. Notepad is one. Since most people are using Windows, so I'll be assuming that you're using Windows too. If you use Windows, then go to Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> Notepad.

Now, you've opened Notepad, which is a type of program, called a text editor.

To start creating a simple web page, in Notepad, type this:

<html>
<head>
<title>
My first HTML page.
</title>
</head>
<body>
Hello world!! Yippe, I finally managed to create my own web page for the first time!!! Weee!!
</body>
</html>

Now, save the file with index.html as its filename. You'll see a new file with your web browser's icon on it. Double-click on that file to view it in your web browser. Now, if you want to view the source code again, in the menu go to View -> Page Source (or Source if you use Internet Explorer).

And, now, it's time for the explanation of the above code.

As you can see, like I mentioned above, we write HTML in the form of tags, surrounded by the "lesser than" symbol, < and the "greater than" symbol, >, or so-called angle brackets.

<html> is a tag. This tag signifies the beginning of a HTML document.

<head> is also a tag. This one marks the beginning of the head part.

For now, let's just know that in a HTML document, there are two parts, the head and the body.

<title> is a tag that resides in between the head tags.

So, now you noticed that there are tags like <html> and a similar </html> tag with an extra slash (' / ').

Both these tags are known as a starting tag (without the slash) and an ending tag (with the slash) respectively.

Anything between the <head> (starting) tag and the </head> (ending) tag constitutes the head part.

Anything between the <body> (starting) tag and the </body> (ending) tag constitutes the body part.

So, basically the starting and the ending tags serve to mark the beginning and the end of something. However, not all tags come in a pair. We'll find out more about this later.

And for the <title> tag mentioned above, it's ending tag is of course, a copy of itself with an extra slash (' / '), /<title>.

If anything between <html> and </html> is the HTML part, which is technically a HTML document, if anything between <head> and </head> is the head part, and if anything between <body> and </body> constitutes the body part, then:

Anything between the pair of tags, <title> and </title>, must have been the title part of a HTML document. Now, anything typed between this title part will be shown on the title bar of your web browser after your saved your code and opened it.

So if you typed the code that I included above, correctly saved and opened the HTML document, your title bar should display "My first HTML page. - Mozilla Firefox", or "My first HTML page. - Microsoft Internet Explorer" if you use MSIE.

So, undoubtedly, you'll also see the line:

Hello world!! Yippe, I finally managed to create my own web page for the first time!!! Weee!!

on a blank background, since it is in between the pair of body tags.

Okay, so at this point, you already know some HTML.

To be continued...

Read more...

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Switched to Linux, Not Looking Back, Forever...

I was pretty busy this month, so, apparently, I did not manage to spend even some time on blogging. But hey, don't get me wrong, I'm not abandoning this blog!!!

So, what was I so busy about lately? Well, since I'm going to MMU later, I thought that it would be great if I could get my laptop doing everything that I need, comfortably, and also make sure that it doesn't get in my way during my university life. And at that time, my laptop was running Windows XP Professional SP2.

I felt that I had been using too much Windows up till now. And as time passed by, eventually I got pretty fed up with Windows XP. I had been using Windows XP since it was first released back in 2001.

So I switched to Linux.

Actually this isn't the first time of me using a Linux operating system. I did use Linux operating systems before, in the years that gone by, the first was Fedora, then Ubuntu, Mandriva, SUSE, etc. But every time I made an attempt to switch to Linux permanently, I always had to go back to using Windows. Why?

Simply because I need to use Microsoft Office, and although files like Word documents, Excel documents, and even PowerPoint documents could be opened using the free OpenOffice.org that comes with almost every Linux distro, Microsoft Office documents may seem broken when opened in OpenOffice.org.

So, basically, OpenOffice.org is not 100% compatible with Microsoft Office. Yeah, yeah, I know some geeks might say why didn't I use CrossOver Office, or some virtual machine like VMWare. That's because:

  1. CrossOver Office needs $$$, I'm not working yet, so I can't spend more of my parents' $$$.
  2. I am not a Linux expert, I don't know how to use VMWare on Linux.
  3. I'm lazier than a pig.

But today, I switched to Linux. And I chose Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon as the operating system running my laptop. And guess what? I could still use Microsoft Office on Ubuntu, without having to go through any much trouble.

Many thanks to those guys at Innotek (now acquired by Sun Microsystems), who created VirtualBox, and also thanks to the people at Ubuntu who put up a guide on how to get VirtualBox up and running on the system.

A lazy pig like me would never be willing to go through all the trouble to research on how to get a specific program running perfectly. So all I did was follow their guide, and eventually, I managed to run VirtualBox on my Ubuntu laptop.

Then I installed Windows XP as a guest OS, which runs virtually, using VirtualBox, on top of the host OS, my Ubuntu Gutsy.

It was awesome. It was perfect. It was godly.

Not much guessing about what I had done next here. I installed Microsoft Office in Windows XP running virtually, using VirtualBox, on top of its host, the great Ubuntu Gutsy.

Why am I so into Linux? Because...

In my humble opinion, all Windows systems are evil.
  1. Windows is dangerous. It's like it's attracting viruses, trojans, and all kinds of malware when it runs, even with an antivirus, or antispyware installed and running. So I've been wasting a great deal of time trying to clear of those garbage, and in many cases, reinstalling my Windows whenever it gets beyond repairable.
  2. Windows has BSoD. I hate the BSoD. By simply knowing that this masterpiece of Microsoft exists in Windows, I'll have no mood for computing if the computer runs Windows.
  3. Windows is expensive. I don't mind donating some of my parents' money, they never mind too, but I hate to donate money to the rich, and the big fat bullies.
  4. Now, I have a copy of Windows. But, if I burn my copy into many CDs or DVDs, and distribute to my friends and relatives, people would call me a software pirate. I really don't like that.
  5. You know, whenever I use Windows, I feel like I was born with a silver spoon in my mouth. Everything in Windows is so damn easy to achieve. For example, I wanted to use Microsoft Office, but it's not there in my Windows yet. So I'm gonna install it. And all I have to do is to put the CD in, and click "Next", "Next" and "Next" and at last, "Finish". And all would be done within a single GUI!!! So damn easy. Way too easy. WTH, man? I'm gonna be a spoiled brat.
  6. Now for those who bought Windows Vista, whatever edition, how many of you guys managed to run its "Aero", the glassy looking interface with 3D effects of Windows Vista? Did you know that you paid for more than what you got? Those 3D effects called "Aero" in Windows Vista could be achieved without, or almost without, paying anything at all in Linux with a software package called "Compiz-Fusion". Moreover, if you want Windows Vista to run properly on your computer, you're gonna need some pretty fancy hardware and stuff. That again requires a significant amount of money. But don't you know that you could achieve more in Linux with a relatively much much lower hardware requirement, at a much much lower cost, and in many cases, close to nothing at all?
  7. Google for yourselves why Windows is evil.
So now, let's talk about some nice things about Windows. Well, I don't know you guys, but in my humble opinion, I think that the only good thing about Windows is that, you get to play many kinds of games on it. All those great games, they run the best on Windows. Other than that, Windows is kinda weak in its various fields it was thought to be meant for.

So, Windows is evil, what good does Linux have then? Google it yourself. I can't possibly list them all out, even the major facts, about why Linux is always, I mean ALWAYS, better than Windows, and will be even more so, even in a thousand, million, billion, trillion........etc....years to come. There are just simply too many facts. And also facts about why you should stop using Windows if you don't play games, and switch to Linux forever without looking back.

By using Linux, you also get to be involved in the open source community. In a world without walls, who needs Windows?

To end this post, I include a screenshot of the evil Windows running on my Ubuntu just because I need to use Microsoft Office:



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Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Learning a Computer Algebra System (Maxima)

Calculations, calculations, and more calculations. Yeah, that's what a large portion of engineering is all about. And since I'm going to take up engineering in this coming June, my maths suck, so I will have to brush up my mathematics, if I don't want trouble.

However nothing could give me enough motivation to practice maths. What I did all day long was, as usual, loafing around the Web, searching for some software goodies.

Then I bumped into Maxima for the 1000th time, an open source computer algebra system (CAS). As usual, it didn't look that interesting. But somehow, I downloaded it for no damn reason, out of my boredom, then I even installed it on my laptop.

I wonder what was driving me to play with a toy that I never felt like playing before this. Maybe I was thinkin', hey, it's a CAS, cool, if I learn how to use it now, and even master it, then when I go to university later, I'll make it do my assignments. Muahahahhahaha!!!! >_<

For those of you who wonder what a CAS is, here's an excerpt from Wikipedia:

A computer algebra system (CAS) is a software program that facilitates symbolic mathematics. The core functionality of a CAS is manipulation of mathematical expressions in symbolic form.


So, basically, it's a software program that helps us do maths, especially algebra and calculus. All we need to do is to do the input. It'll do the calculation, then it'll give us the answers. Kinda handy huh? And we can even plot 2D and 3D graphs with it, and even do a little programming.

Oh my, I'm getting excited with my new toy. Anyway, I'm still new to a CAS like Maxima. So, I can't write much about it here, but I'll explore it, and hey, I'm still learning! :P
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