KetamGuys Reunited

Something tells me I'm gonna end this year with a happy note after all.

I hope you enjoyed 2010 as much as I did.

A very happy new year to everyone.

The Run

There was this one time at Kuala Lumpur KTM station.

I bought a ticket to Klang from the counter, which I fed into the ticket barrier. Upon retrieving the ticket spat out from the barrier, I noticed a blue train with yellow ends pulling towards the platform, a red sign reading "PEL. KLANG" behind its windscreen.

That's my train! I thought, and my feet immediately started moving.

I squeezed past the crowd on the escalator, taking two steps at a time, cursing the uncilivised Malaysians who took up the entire width of the escalator stairs.

"Excuse me!" I snapped at a fat lady blocking my way and she jumped aside. She must've been annoyed by me, but I paid no attention to her after shooting past her humungous body.

Jumping the last three steps of the escalator and landing with a crash, I quickly picked myself up again and got into a full-speed sprint, as the train pulled to a stop some 150 metres ahead of me.

Bloody hell, that was a long platform! Well not surprising, considering the KL station was used as a intercity railway station until relatively recently, and those KL-Singapore trains were darn long, often amounting to 25 individual cars or so.

So I ran. And I ran. I dashed so fast the contents of my bags were ratting within their containers. I'm sure if I strained my ear, I could hear water splashing in my bottle. Wind rushed through my face, brushing my forehead in a fruitless attempt to dry up newly formed drops of sweat before moving on to my (unfortunately) short hair. My old, faded jeans were complaining at their seams, but I paid no attention.

I could even imagine a video of me running in slow motion. My eyes wide open, staring straight at the doors of the train, hands clawing the air as if swimming. Every couple of second saw my feet stretched out before falling to the ground in turn to the beats of Chariots of Fire playing in the background. Pushing a man dressed in blue aside with a quick, rather insincere apology, I was gliding -- flying through the crowd in the heart of the railway station towards my goal, sweat and smoke trailing behind me, and nothing was going to stop me.

Just a few more steps, it's so close now...

But the door snapped shut before my very eyes.

Fuming with disappointment and rage, I jabbed at the "Open" button, hoping it'd work. This is it, I thought, I'm doomed! The giant lady and the guy in blue suit are all gonna get me, all because of this lousily maintained train with buttons that don't work! I stabbed the button again, breathing fast, blood pounding against my temple.

Suddenly, to my utter amazement, the doors slid open in one smooth action.

I squeezed in quickly, and the doors fell close again a couple of seconds later. As the train left the station, I pulled a face to the blue-guy and waved farewell.

Selling Myself

So this is a bid for me to sell myself. You know, after graduating I'll have to try to increase my personal value. So...

I Have an Android Device!!!

Yes, you heard right. I have an Android device.

Android's boot up screen!

Without spending a single penny. Literally.

Android 2.2 Froyo's locked screen.

Did I get lucky? Well, no, not really. It's actually a simulated Android device that runs in my computer, under Ubuntu. And it's actually part of my Final Year Project.

Android 1.6 Donut homescreen.

Cool, eh! Aw come on, a Linux device running in another Linux device, that's cool!

Ah well. I DO have another Android device.

Oh it's real, with hardware and all. Wait and see.

JavaScript at Owl-Order!!!

Since March, I've been adding bits of JavaScript code to my blogs. These codes really make this blog a true dynamic website.

Some features you may (or may not) have noticed include
1. Random background image on load. Refresh the page to randomly load a new image!
2. Time-based background colour. Bluish in the middle of the day, and dark gray at midnight. Changes automatically at the tick of the hour -- no reloading required!
3. A certain surprise for an hour every day...
4. A digital clock, at the top of the page. My very first piece of JavaScript code! (Though it was refined and updated some time later.)
5. Blogpost images with silver frames that glow when you hover your cursor on them! On some browsers, this happens with a smooth dark-to-light animation.
6. Also with animation (on some browsers), "Hi-Res on Flickr" tags overlay images with high resolution copies over at Flickr upon mouse-over. Clicking on these images open their Flickr pages in a new tab.

Unfortunately, some of these features don't work on all browsers.

Feature	Mozilla Firefox 4	Google Chrome	Mozilla Firefox 3.x	Apple Safari	Opera	Internet Explorer 9	Internet Explorer 8
Random Background	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Time-based Background Colour	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Midnight Event	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Digital Clock	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Glowing Image Frame	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Buggy	Yes	No
Image frame with Animation	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Buggy	No	No
Hi-Res Tag	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No
Hi-Res Tag with Animation	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	No
Feature	Mozilla Firefox 4	Google Chrome	Mozilla Firefox 3.x	Apple Safari	Opera	Internet Explorer 9	Internet Explorer 8

For this reason, I heavily recommend Mozilla Firefox 4, Google Chrome or Apple Safari to unleash all features at my blog.

Download them here:
Mozilla Firefox 4 Beta
Google Chrome
Apple Safari

Have fun!

Qn: Am I Geeky Enough?

Never once in my entire life do I have to ask myself this question.

Or did -- I immediately questioned my geekiness once I heard about the search for the World's Coolest Intern over at http://breeze.standardchartered.com/blog.

You see, Standard Chartered is looking for the World's Coolest Intern, who has a particularly strong online presence, is a strong communicator and someone who "knows how to build and engage with online communities".

Many of my closer friends may think I have the shot, but I was still rather paranoid. Standard Chartered's Breeze team may have extremely high requirements and expect no one to perform any worse than Barack Obama.

Besides, I have reasons for my doubt. Born into a family of visual artists, I was in no way born nor made the next Mark Zuckerberg (nor will his successor arrive that soon, but that's another story). Sure, no one's surprised when they discover my passion for music.

People naturally expect me to inherit some of my parents' skills in fine arts. Well I do... to a limited extent, barely enough to give me the courage to embarrass myself by putting my pictures up at my blog.

Having practiced Chinese calligraphy since the tender age of 9, I am also very adapt when it comes to typography and visual designs.

Those, coupled with my love for photography really should have defined me as an "arts" person.

To make things even more confusing, despite my parents owning a private art business, I knew from a young age that I would not take art as my full-time job in the future. At least not directly. Instead, I favour science, especially Physics, and chose to get a Master's Degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering instead. And I think I'm doing quite OK as an engineering student.

But then again, my CV is telling a totally opposite story.

Of course, I am one of the people who have so many online accounts they have trouble remembering their passwords. Facebook, Yahoo!, Google, Flickr, Youtube, Twitter, I have them all, but well, that's of course -- I haven't been living in Mars for the past 10 years.

The thing is, unlike a big majority of the people I know, I have three Operating Systems installed my computer -- Ubuntu and Windows 7 are in dual-boot configuration and Windows XP runs virtually in Ubuntu. My 640GB hard disk is split into so many partitions if my laptop could talk, it would complain.

I also happen to have a large number of browsers installed -- two versions of IE, three of Firefox, three of Google Chrome, and one each of Opera and Safari. And I haven't even started on my mobile phone's yet. A sure symptom of the web-programming addiction I've been developing for the past few months.

And while I'm not the fastest, I can type at over 110 words per minute, easily placing me among the geekier ones out there.

Think I'm geeky? Not so fast, Tiger, I'm not done.

I'm probably one of the very, very few people you know who does programming as a hobby. Yes. Some people sleep after their exams. Some people get drunk to de-stress. Some people game for hours non-stop after their final paper. Me? I'd just sit down in front of my computer after the conclusion of a good semester. I'd be there, typing JavaScript programs away, for so long I'd miss dinner and the sun comes up before I turn in.

Yes. Never have I found a game or drug even more addictive than programming. I'm so addicted I'm prepared to learn even more languages despite already knowing five.

I have to admit, I haven't owned a single iPhone (or any Apple devices, for that matter) so far. Nor have I queued for hours waiting to be the first Malaysian to own a PlayStation3. Nor do I own a prosumer DSLR, three high-end mobile phones, a desktop with Blu-Ray drive, a gaming laptop and a dual-core netbook. But I remain fully updated and informed about their specifications and features, thanks to the many gadget sites I follow on daily basis. And xkcd.com. Well that site's not exactly a gadget site, but it's so cool I just have to mention it.

"A geek without an iPhone?!" This you may utter in disbelief. In my defense, having one doesn't make you the king of the web, and I prefer open-source software to proprietary ones. Trust me -- you can rarely find someone who has so much to complain about Microsoft.

"Well I don't see you holding an Android device either!" Well yeah, I don't, but having an Android emulator running in a Linux-based operating system is THAT much cooler.

And I DO have that.

Oh wait. They said "World's Coolest Intern". And that's the exact opposite of "World's Geekiest Intern".

Argh. Got carried away with all the fun. Hit me with the right topics I talk non-stop. Yet another point in the Geek-o-meter for me.

Either that or I've succeeded in embarrassing myself yet again.

Yeah that makes sense too.

Sights of Nottingham: Spring at Wollaton Park

Note: High resolution images of all of the following photos are available. Click on the photos to view their higher resolution images.

[HiRes] Caught in University Park. These yellow flowers were among the first plants to blossom after the frosty winter. Note that the tree was still bare.

We don't get a lot of public holidays in UK, unlike Malaysia, where calendars are sprinkled with colourful boxes here and there. Instead, we get two month-long holidays -- Christmas and Easter Breaks. And of course the penultimate 3-month Summer.

[HiRes] Along the way to Wollaton Park.

Unlike Christmas, Easter had nice weather and many of my friends went travelling overseas, or at least out of Nottingham. While I didn't, I took the opportunity to visit Wollaton Park.

The pictures I have here aren't great, so I'll save talking about Wollaton Park until I publish better ones.

[HiRes] Flowers, captured in one of the gardens in Wollaton Park.


[HiRes] Country road. The sight of things like this sure makes anyone feel closer to nature.


[HiRes] Gate to Wollaton Park Golf Course.


[HiRes] And another.


[HiRes] Foursome sitting on a bench in front of Wollaton Hall. My favourite pic of this batch.

More on Wollaton Park to come. I have real awesome pics, I promise.

What I've Been Eating in UK

One thing about spending so many months away from Malaysia is how much I miss Malaysian cuisine.

Oh Nasi Lemak, how I crave for thy fragrant rice covered with spicy curry...

[HiRes] Nasi Lemak, sold during an event organised by Nottingham Malaysian Society (NMS). Imagine buying Malaysian food in UK price.

One would say it's a good opportunity to start trying some foreign stuff instead. I would totally agree, if not for the ridiculous price of things here. I ended up preparing practically every meal at home after failing to secure a part time job.

I have a feeling this post will answer mum's question of "what has my son been eating for the past 9 months" and save a lot of pointless worrying.

One of the dishes I serve most frequently is the classic fried rice.

One of my earlier fried rice. Doesn't look too bad, especially when you consider the fact that I've never ever cooked rice before stepping foot in UK.

Notice how the fried rice is in a food container? Well it was obviously one of my lunch packs. To save a few pounds (the currency, not the weight unit), I would wake up before 7am to prepare lunch if my lunch break wasn't long enough for me to travel back to cook. I kept this up for a whole year, which kind of amazed even myself. Perhaps that's why they say money is a good motivator.

Anyway, you can throw anything into fried rice so there's little chance of getting too fed up (pun?) eating the same thing over and over again.

A more Malay style fried rice, with Ikan Bilis (dried fish) and chilli. That wasn't a bad dish, actually, but I hated spending half my afternoon peeling Ikan Bilis one by one.

Congee (or rice porridge) is the easiest thing to do.

One of my earlier servings of rice porridge.

I used to hate porridge, but I've been eating it a few times every week for the past few months. It's the best when I'm busy. Just throw everything in and wait for 15 minutes. I don't even have to worry about burning it if I dozed off for a few minutes. And with Marmite (FYI, Marmite is English), it isn't actually that bad.

Another variant of my earlier porridges. I always use Marmite these few months.

Soup noodles ain't too hard either, but I don't like the idea of consuming artificially seasoned food regularly, and I'm just too lousy to make good soup noodles without seasoning.

And I've also made sandwiches/burgers!

Nope, not this one. These are from BK's.


My sandwich. It doesn't look good, but I assure you, its taste is far better than its looks.

Then there's sweet and sour chicken. Yum!

Learning to cook is perhaps one of the most significant accomplishments since my arrival in UK. The good thing about cooking is I get to control food portions. When my tummy was rumbling I'd probably subconsciously pour more rice into my measuring container. I'm also more confident with my food's hygiene than those prepared by grumpy strangers stuck in oven hot kitchens for hours a day. On average, a cooked-at-home meal costs about £1 to £2, at least twice as cheap as eating out. And most importantly, it's way healthier.

But no, I won't be cooking this regularly in Malaysia. What, haven't you seen a hypocrite before?

Web Gadgets: JavaScript Clock

See the little clock up there? Right above the big red seal? That's a little clock I wrote. Most blogs utilise Flash to implement clocks, but Flash is slow, resource hungry and doesn't work on mobile devices, including iPhones, iPods and iPads.

The clock I wrote, however, is pure JavaScript. Most browsers today have fast JavaScript engines, including mobile browsers, so it's guaranteed to run almost everywhere. It's actually very simple, a few lines of code do the trick.

<span id="clock"></span>
<script type="text/javascript">
update();
function update()
{
var now=new Date();
document.getElementById("clock").innerHTML=
twodigit(now.getHours())
+":"+twodigit(now.getMinutes())
+"_{:"+twodigit(now.getSeconds())+"}";
setTimeout("update()",1000-(now.valueOf()%1000));
}
function twodigit(ip)
{
if (ip<10)
return new String("0"+ip);
else
return ip;
}</script>

A little example. This example is hosted on a free webhost, so don't be surprised if it doesn't load. The one on top of this page always loads, though.

I sincerely urge users of Flash-based clock-gadgets to switch to a JavaScript-based one. Feel free to copy the code above and modify it, if you know basic HTML/JavaScript. Note that Blogspot blocks JavaScript codes unless they're in proper HTML/JavaScript gadgets.

Sights of Nottingham: Spring is Here

Every year before 2010, I celebrated Chinese New Year in Malaysia (or Singapore), supposedly marking the arrival of Spring.

This year, however, things were different. I didn't get to celebrate Chinese New Year. However, I did manage to witness the arrival of Spring for real.

While I personally enjoyed winter and the many photographic opportunities it has given me, many people don't like the frosty season (save for Christmas).

[HiRes] The gloomy weather of winter.

Daytime was ridiculously short. By 4pm it would be all dark. Like midnight. Even when it wasn't dark, the sky would be blanketed by gray, hazy clouds, making it hard (if possible at all) to locate the sun. The trees were bald, the shrubs had frosty white leaves and the colourful flowers no where to be seen.

[HiRes] Are these pinecones?

Come February, however, things changed. The earth thawed, leaves sprouted out of the bare branches and the grass became nature's colour palette.

[HiRes] Caught right in front of Nightingale Hall, University Park Campus.

It was simply amazing. It's like seeing life coming a full cycle. Heck, it IS life coming a full cycle.

[HiRes] Notice how the petals were scattered all over.

Herbs and flowers can now be found practically everwhere.

[HiRes] Near sunset, University Park campus. The way the light fell gently on the pale pink flowers was just plain magical.


[HiRes] Caught beside Sherwood Hall, University Park, where I spent my first two nights in Nottingham.


[HiRes] This is the only photo today not captured in any of the University of Nottingham campuses, I think. Probably the same specie as the one above, but definitely different location.

Even right beside the drain. In Malaysia, plants would rather die than absorb a single drop of liquid from the drains.

[HiRes] Even the drains see life flourish. This drain was even visited by the ducks occasionally.


[HiRes] One of Jubilee Campus's many Sails reflected on the surface.

Eventually, the bees came out. The bees here are huge. I've seen some bigger than my thumb. And my man-thumb isn't exactly small.

[HiRes] You have no idea how much effort was needed to take two mediocre pictures of the bees using my 5-year-old compact camera.


[HiRes] A bee stained with pollens.

Life. Amazing, isn't it?