Racing

The Race of Life.



There is only one race in life that matters.

How are you running yours?

My so-called second life

One of the drawbacks of having a previous-generation graphics card...



can't play second life...argh!

and getting a dedicated 3D card just for this is not within my current budget...

can't even get sh*tty DOTA to run

In memoriam

Joe Rosenthal died two years and two days ago. There was nothing in the media marking this anniversary.

Joe who?

Think this photo...

More updates on alternate choices

So region-coding sucks and you're restricted to 5 changes of region codes on your PC DVD player.



I cannot play DVDs from any region on my Ubuntu PC.

Libdvdcss2 rocks!

Ha!

What a Bolt!

And what a sprint.


Xinhua


19.30 seconds over 200 metres. Nobody thought that Michael Johnson's 1996 record could ever be breached.

Torch relay saboteurs
Phelps
Team Redeem
China winning both table-tennis women's *team* gold & silver

This is the most thrilling Olympics ever. Not even Sydney 2000 could top this.

Taking the red pill

And so I wiped Windows off the HDD and installed Ubuntu.



Being a strict non-geek, I hadn't expected to do anything useful beyond stare at the pretty start-up screen. So I was pleasantly surprised to find myself surfing wirelessly, watching DVDs, creating documents and blogging.

All this painlessly and quickly, too, on a Pentium-M 1.3GHz, which was anaemic running Windows.

So how much does it cost to get Ubuntu, the office software (word processor, spreadsheet + presentation), media players, browser etc?

$0/-

It's a free 700MB download from www.ubuntu.com

Go ahead, do something different today.

Of poetry, song and music

Mankind expresses its hopes and dreams through art, music, song, poetry.

The citizens of 1984-ville mark 43 years of independence this Saturday. Fighting off cynicism about the country's future, I went around looking at national anthems. It's clear that people all around the world wish for peace, happiness and we celebrate bravery.

It's ironic that I cried buckets after listening to this girl sing The Star-Spangled Banner. Ironic because the anthem of an alien country with an alien culture touches me more than my own.

Words have as much meaning as we are willing to give.

Freedom, happiness and bravery.

I sincerely wish for a better place here in 1984-ville and that we get a chance to put right all the things that have gone awry.

When you hear the National Anthem or the National Pledge the next time, ponder on the meanings.

Peace to you.

And do not let anyone or anything crush your spirit.

Good morning yesterday

So Paul Anka is visiting Singapore for a concert.
This song is one of my favourites.



By the way, there's a blog by someone from my mum's generation and it's right at the top of Google search for "good morning yesterday". It's a pretty interesting blog for anyone who enjoys reading about the older, better days of life in Singapore. No really, I did enjoy the 1970s and early 80s, when beaches were less artificial and you didn't have to smell the sun cream on the guy next to you.

I had an epiphany while reminiscing about yester-years. Now I'm beginning to understand why people resist change and why it's so difficult to abandon mindsets and overturn established authority (think the authority of an eternal yesterday as defined by Max Weber).

We hanker for a form of continuity as a sense of security. For mortals, it is a connection to immortality. That is the reason why it's so tough trying to educate people.

For now, I'll stick to having the same lunch everyday...