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Saturday, June 21, 2008 - 04:11 SGT
Posted By: Gilbert

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Free Awesomeness

"I have only one project: to marry Estelle, which is what I'm asking her today. I know it's difficult, but it's at moments like this that you need everyone and I need her."
- French coach Raymond Domenech's stereotypically French response after his side's elimination from Euro 2008. Shankly turns in his grave.


changelog v1.08b
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* GlobeTrackr site traffic widget added in site statistics tab. Review on whether blog can and should continually accumulate such widgets kept in view.

Firefox 3 is out, if you haven't heard. I don't use Firefox myself, but here's to piling on the hype.

Lift Upgrading Project


Lift A being upgraded on left, upgraded Lift B on right

Not that many years after the elevators in my block were upgraded to ones with windows and the lobbies tiled more tastefully, the recent upgrading has left me with - gasp - an elevator landing metres from my doorstep. It felt incredibly strange after two decades of walking down four flights of stairs to access the elevator, and the same to get home. These four floors will be seldom encountered now, I suppose. As will the exercise I got by walking up fourteen floors each time I got frustrated waiting for the single elevator when construction work was in progress. Trivia: The passenger elevator photo used in Wikipedia currently seems to be this very model.

This will probably make life quite a bit easier for the elderly, disabled and deliverymen, but one can't help but be reminded about the fairness involved for those whom fit in none of these categories and yet are forced into paying if 75% of their neighbours vote for it (no, not me). Then again, those fortunate (or clever) enough to have been allocated a flat on a floor with an elevator lobby are not only exempted but have also enjoyed this convenience for long enough, so I suppose a completely equitable policy eludes us in this instance.

YA4OO (Yet Another 4O Outing)


Everybody was Kung Fu Fighting...
(Movie poster from KungFuPanderTrailer.com)

Outing of the week so far was to Bugis Junction to watch Kung Fu Panda, which was well worth the six bucks. "There is no charge for awesomeness" must be the movie quote of the year for me.

Before that, I attempted to nip down to the Kinokuniya main store at Ngee Ann City to get rid of the vouchers that have been burning a hole in my pocket, but didn't make it due to lack of time. I overlooked the fact that there was another branch right downstairs from the cinema, and ended up topping up with my own cash to buy two books. Vouchers are sneaky that way.

After snagging Christopher Hitchens' God Is Not Great, which I had my eye on for some time (along with Sam Harris' The End of Faith, among others), I felt strangely compelled to give the view in opposition an airing in the form of C.S. Lewis' Mere Christianity, for getting both sides of an argument is a principle I believe in, and moreover I can usually appreciate good prose independent of any deficiencies in logic; And then I remembered that Lewis lived and wrote a long time ago, and his works should properly be freely available online, which indeed they are.

Figuring that the living Hitchens likely would have more use for my money than the estate of the deceased Lewis in the best traditions of utilitarianism, I then roved my eye and caught The Pig that Wants to be Eaten by Julian Baggini, which was rather a disappointment though little fault of Baggini. It was more that I had encounted many of the thought experiments within already, and so gained relatively little there. If only I had the time to browse more thoroughly...

Euros

The French are down and out and probably deservedly so as mentioned above, and so are the Portuguese after their fragile defence committed set-piece suicide against the ever-efficient Germans. To think I had called them to win it all before the start of the tournament, but Player Of The Year elect Ronaldo struggled to stamp his influence, and with all the Madrid hoopla I can't much sympathize with him. Well, as Gary Lineker famously said, "Football is a simple game - you play for 120 minutes and then the Germans win."

There may be a simple solution to the football price-gouging that is beginning to take off, and that's P2PTV, perhaps more popularly known as live streaming. The concept is much the same as file sharing, with a television channel being bounced between many clients. Yes, this means that the stream will have to be late (usually by a couple of minutes), and the quality won't be the best, but it is smooth enough and a zero dollar plan. Sites like MyP2P.eu publicize links to the channels, which require only the installation of viewing software like SopCast. What's not to like?

The first question is, of course, is it legal? Preliminary research has not yielded a definite answer, and the most detailed piece on the issue I could find was from NUS alumni James Seng's blog (and posted close to three years ago). Even there, the verdict is cloudy. I guess there are parallels with the time-honoured solution of catching free-to-air football on Malaysian and Indonesian channels. Let me consult The Pig that Wants to be Eaten... Yes, this is sort of covered under Thought Experiment 82 (The Freeloader), and guess what, there is no straight answer. Well, until another Odex saga comes to pass and the boundaries drawn, indulge at your own risk.

Random Euro Fact: The music played after a goal is scored is Bellini's Samba de Janeiro.

Not-So-Random Man Utd Fact: Against all my expectations the leaked 08/09 United away shirt is the real deal. Sure, it looks okay-ish on the players now I see them, but the colours are a tad too American for me. Then again, they could wear sackcloth for all I care if they win.

Completely Random Fifa 97 Email: Out of the blue, I received an email inquiring on a "fifa 97 intro". This didn't seem like run-of-the-mill spam, and after a bit of head-scratching I was reminded of a website I had set up a full decade ago on Fifa 97. Now, I guess it is a useful if slightly embarrassing template for what not to do in website design.

Guitar Hero III

Got my first taste of this game after watching my cousin tap his controller furiously on his Playstation. Easy in theory, but those multiple-button presses can be very confusing.


BLARDLAST

Out of nowhere I began to wonder which manga characters would go well together into a rock band, and after some thought came up with this ensemble, which I hastily sketched:

Each qualified by being sufficiently badass in their own way.

Ending with the "most difficult" Guitar Hero III song, Through the Fire and Flames by DragonForce. Amusingly the original guitarist supposedly only managed to get through 2% of it in Guitar Hero III before failing :P




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