A bit tight with a little a page-full of limitations. It’s fine for all except for the obsessive-compulsive :) . But I just need that other one account too, pretty please?

Strike three !!

We’ve heard ISP’s limitting off bandwidth from paying users, effectively saying like, “Pay $2 for free flow of soft drink. Oh, btw, the paper cup is made of mahjong paper.” But how do you react when the service is initially free?

Twitter started to grow brains after realizing that they has just become the biggest ircop ever and like the their predecessors before, keeping fludderz at bay is really a PITA. API calls cap is reduced, and was done at the best of all times, the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Timeline flows as loud as the vuvuzelas. Truthfully, this is the best time to fine tune the transaction loads and determine the optimum upper limit count of the Twitter API call. See, fludderz are OK, and you can basicly /ignore them, but traffic is still traffic.

But its free, so why rant about it?

Exactly. You shouldn’t. Nor should I. Its when you become attached to it and start to have a false sense of belonging to the site, you will start to think that the site also owes you. But among these SNS’s, be aware. Facebook really OWNS you! LOL. No, seriously… Bwahahahahaha.

OK, let shut my mouth for a minute and put on my thinking cap. Actually its a good move by Twitter to actually implement a real floating limit (not a bogus limit where it is high enough where 95% of the users will never reach), since it enforces Twitter clients to be more remindful of their calls. This in turn reduces traffic and to an extent, battery life of your mobiles or yuiPhones. For desktop users, use Tweetdeck‘s sliders to balance the intervals between the different API calls (although I don’t use it due to the no Air/.NET policy on my PC). I wish Twit and Seesmic follows. One minute is up.

And so. In the spirit of Let this be a moment in cyberspace, where I name this twitter-api-limit-verb, “twottling”. Use it at your own discretion. And never on an excretion.

I’m a bit jolly tonight due to cough pills. On that bombshell, I wish you good night!!

To all my loyal fans, fear not! I am still alive!

Compiling random pics of whatever around me and will post it over the weekend. 8C (for consumption out of Facebook), figures, food etc.

Was a bit lost at where to start. Got a new mobile to accompany my travel to the workplace; Still without a TV; Still without a sofa; Still on-call on some weekends; Not much good things lately. Come to think of it, minus the teh tarik sessions and the random drives, life is not that different than it was in KL. A good friend went back to Malaysia, and lesser time hanging out for me.

Even the blokes in KL are having more fun meeting Chihara Minori at Daicon. ( See the review at kusakabemisao.com ) Am not that of a hardcore ani-wota but its enough to get me burn with jealousy.

Maybe I burnt more fuel than I should a few months back, so maybe its time to slow down, take a breather and gather momentum. Have to learn how to relax properly, efficiently. Any tips would be greatly appreciated. Lot of catching up with work too though.

That is life I guess. Change is due. 頑張れ俺！！ﾌｧｲﾄｫ*:.｡..｡.:*･ﾟ(n‘∀‘)ηﾟ･*:.｡..｡.:*!!!☆

Passenger seat still vacant. –sigh–

No lottery won. No strings attached. No fine prints. Just some happy bellies.

And some crackling fireworks after the feast.

They all went back inside for blackjack, betting on C4′s sirap-oren.

More pics here by our official photographer.

Some 20plus hungry vultures gathered at Azzad’s on Saturday, sharing their catch of the day. Har har har. Give any hotel/restaurant buffet and they can never match the variety and volume that we had that day. Grilled mutton, BBQ chicken, great pizza, birthday cake, puddings, tofu and crab meat soup, kerang bakar, jagung bakar, macaroni, roti john, murtabak, list just goes on. Great hosts, jolly crowd, (Zaha lain kali bawak Sony α, sian Munzir sorang).

Last week was tiring, with 4 buka puasa gatherings in a row. I realized I could not eat as much as before. Partly because of self-imposed meal limit of 2 dishes and very minimal kuih and in-betweens. Lost some weight too. I wish I can maintain the pace after Ramadhan.

Come Wednesday and this will be the last week fasting. Time flies so fast lah these days. But it just doesn’t apply during the period when you are in training from 9am to 6pm :) … Well, at least my attention span is getting better.

Happy fasting!

And don’t buy food when you’re hungry. Very dangerous for the world economy.

Do successful people rush things? Is rushing a factor in success?

They say that good things are to be rushed. Why?

In a zero-sum game, you may guess what the other player (the world) is about to play when you get the equillibrium for the set. From here you mark which steps that gives you the highest probability of getting a bigger dough.

Back to the definition of a good thing. A good thing to a player is when you have a set of the variables that can be used against the other player, forcing the probability for them to move at your favor to be high.

But again, don’t forget about they are NOT BOUND to move for that very spot that you wanted. They may opt for a second less rewarding to them and pick to loose the battle for a lesser win or lose.

Let’s go to reality. You are not able to precisely quantatize the variable, but you may estimate. You are not able to calculate with all variables, but you may have a rough set that could describe the game you’re playing. You can get a good idea of the gains/losts when you make your move, but a vague idea what gains/losts to the other player for the moves.

So what actually happened when you think you know the game, and you have confident that your move will hit the jackpot … but you still lose. Going back for root cause analysis will give you these:

1. you picked the wrong variable set to observe, or missing some variables in the mix
2. you estimated wrongly on how the other player will gain/lose by your choice of actions
3. plain out of luck

For my case, it’s 1 and 2. Well, when you had cause 1, cause 2 are in the package. Let’s just say the other player has a joker, and I SHOULD know that he has a joker. The equillibrium on my sheet is not valid. Rest is history.

How’s that for a different view on life? It’s a complicated way of saying, I was unwise and just screwed up. Thank God nothing is lost, except time, and I am still in the game.

But time is something I hate to lose. Hence the rushing. Can somebody give me an answer for the first 2 questions?

(Noticed how I avoided to use the word “opponent”, in place of “the other player”?)

Surprised myself with the number of things done in between the mandatory long weekend sleeps.

Flashed router with custom firmware

After the Linksys modem gave up, I hooked up my old problematic wifi router (a D-Link G604T) as a modem. The problem with the router was that it won’t save any new settings, at least 90% of the time. Previously it was even worst, with the router factory-resets itself every other day, and I would need to reupload the settings to make it work again. And hell yes I did all the troubleshooting, firmware upgrade, etc etc.

It became worse when it won’t remember the wireless settings after a factory reset. I didn’t notice it for a day, and I saw a leecher was free-riding on my bandwidth. Shut off the wireless since.

Since the router is already half dead, and I am quite sure it is firmware and/or bootloader related, I was on the look out for an alternative solution. I was aware since the day I bought this router that OpenWRT would not work on this thing, but in good hope, I just checked again.

Nope. Still unsupported.

So I asked my best friend Google, and was pointed to RouterTech. These guys makes customized firmware for some of the more common (and cheap) routers. Mine included. I tried their latest firmware (2.6 at writing time) using the “official” way by uploading using the (then) current web interface, but was met with an “Upgrade Failed” message. I was a bit adventurous, so I opted to flash it directly by using the recovery tool (PC-tool 2.3) on the site. Uploading progress was around 50% as said in the tool, when the GUI freezed.

I bricked my router.

Tried again, but got the same results. As expected, my router didn’t boot up correctly, with the lights only for the connected LAN ports are up.

Network downtime at my home is a BIG issue. Its critical. Severity 1. Severity 0 if there is such thing. (LOL)

So I just act newbie as I was, and asked bluntly at the forum. The author of the firmware politely pointed out that the latest tool cannot be used against my router, and he asked me to try again with an older version.

I got back home, tried again with an older version of the tool (PC-Tool 2.1), lo and behold. IT’S ALIVE! My router booted back with a new firmware welcoming me. Sent a thank you message to the nice author. Configured it to fit Streamyx, and first connection was established. And I am a happy surfer again.

Filed 0.25mm off the guitar saddle

Lost the 1st string on my brother’s acoustic guitar, so I got myself an Ernie Ball Earthwood Light. I liked the fatter strings on an acoustic. Fitted it in, with guidance from a Youtube vid, I am a happy swinger again.

Errm … OK. That’s not DIYish enough.

Actually was a bit unhappy with the action (gap between string and fret). My brother tried adjusting the truss rods before, but it didn’t change that much. So again, I consulted my friend Google. After a bit reading on some sites, I found a quite helpful, plain Anglais site that might help. The action are directly affected by the saddle height, so I loosen up the strings, took out the saddle and started filing it.

Even 15mins of filing with an old filer didn’t get me 0.5mm, and I quit just there. Fitted it back in and retuned the guitar. Not much difference of course. Pre-filing action was at around 3.75mm at 12th fret, and post-filing the difference was almost negligable. I got to find a better filer to reach 2.5mm. At least it’s a start.

Created a WordPress theme from scratch

Here I was again with the WordPress theme. If any of you still remember niji.sytes.net, it was a minimalist theme, high on CSS dope. And I lost the theme.

Currently doing a minimalist, single column, fixed width, widget enabled, dual sidebar theme (take a breath). During niji.sytes.net days, the blog was hosted on my PC, so there was no network lag to test it on a real site, but currently this site is running on a hosting somewhere in Gotham City. To test it on a real WordPress installation, I installed Xampplite and have WordPress running on my thumb drive in no time. It is quite handy as well, since I can just plug in anywhere and continue working on the theme.

Getting the main post view was a breeze, and I got the sidebar widgetized in no time. But most of my time was taken on trying to find a graceful way of implementing an equal-width 3 column layout using CSS. Any CSS zen artist would be well versed with my problem. Things like, should I use floats for the left and right, and let an inline box just flow in the middle? Or should I use absolute positioning and just stack from the left side?

Gave up and resorted to a 2 column design for the sidebar. Widgetized.

Color theming should be near to the current theme, with white canvas on dark grey background, and red links.

Still a work in progress.

日本語忘れかけてるような気がしますんで、
たまには日本語で書かせて頂きます

知りませんでしたぁ、、、ハイカラのマーキーが、
ドリカムのマサと6月に結婚されてるんですよ！

MP3を整理してて、アルバムのリリース順を調べるため、
ハイカラ(HIGH and MIGHTY COLORですね)のwikipediaを
訪ねたときに知ったことです。

芸能ニュースはいつも芸スポから補給するんですが、
最近２ちゃん見ていないんだよね、、
一般ニュースはGoogle Newsでほぼ毎日済ませます、、
、、って言ってもフロントを目を通すだけだけどねｗ、、
気になるニュースだけ詳しく、、だめですね、、、

そんな今の毎日です。

一ヶ月間車でアニソン(となぜかGLAY)のみ流してて
聞き飽きましたので、ちょっと新しい曲集を焼いてみました
「星間飛行」と「愛・おぼえていますか -デカルチャーエディションsize-」だけは
生き残りましたけどｗｗ

金曜日まで頑張るぞー
　　　　　ﾌｧｲﾄｫ*:.｡..｡.:*･ﾟ（n‘∀‘)ηﾟ･*:.｡..｡.:*!!!☆

(土日も出勤だから、来週の金曜日までって意味です；；)

Opened up the comments, since I am not keen to be emailed for each comment nor do I frequent the admin page for this site.

Another one-up; I will start commenting on the comics post itself. And to all who are ‘pancing’ed by the comic posts, yes, it is a direct automatic cross post from the respective sites: XKCD and OSNews Comics.

Mitsubishi Electric. Hahaha. The commercial really caught me.

Things are really changing over here. Office is expanding, I got on Facebook (and Mixi), another budak koleq just got elected as an MP. I am not a shirt and tie guy, so its a polo T-shirt with the quad-colours as any Wednesdays, but last Wednesday it was worn with added pride. I am not sure the coming political change (if there is to be any) will be for the better, or did we just chose a better evil.

Politicians are not to be trusted. Politics itself is a concerted effort of (mis)leading people to bend their rationale to favor one side. Instead, judge them on their actions in the capacity as a lawmaker. Are they promoting laws that will benefit the people, and future of the nation? Are they debating with facts and research, instead of just trying to make an argument and riding on sentiment?

I think we have had enough of politics, in the expense of the people, their money(!!) and country. Where are the lawmakers that cared about the country, and took selfless effort to deliver the best? I do believe we have enough smart people in the country, when pooled together can outbest any other nation in many ways. Why are those people not being pushed to be a lawmaker? Nor does the lawmakers try to pull them into their circles. We are being managed by incompetent beings. Sigh.

This nation is going through the dirtiest political scene ever. The people should start learning to pick their leaders more wisely and stop pushing the bad apples.

People, change!

This lonely frustrated geek has spoken.

WordPress 2.6.1 is out for some time now, but internet is congested at home (consequently my modem blew up), due to school breaks. Will upgrade soon. Still haven’t straightened up WordPress’ directory permissions, that is on the TODO-list too. Won’t be able to post pictures till then.

Rejoined Mixi on a real name again. Mixi starts to serve OpenID about the same time, prompting me to use OpenID too? Soon MyMixi and MCKK9498 folks can comment without creating a new login here.

Fixed my Lumix’s lense cover problem and my brother’s fetching it from the service center. Thanks.

I just love thursdays. Was born on one.

I have to keep up. At least a post for every other comic post. Ganbare ore.

Running out of lunch budget for the month. Almost a week of lunch on slightly bourgeois lunch. My norm would be under RM5.

But today, I had a well spent RM6.50 of the month. BBQ Chicken Rice + Nasi tambah, at Chow Food Court, The Weld.

First of all, the juicy and well-marinated sweet BBQ chicken is simply delicious. I have very little vocabulary for gourmet. The rice by itself is already a meal on its own. Multiplied by two. The chicken lasted the whole two bowls of rice, with one piece saved for the last bite. The nasi tambah was actually more than the “original” rice, and costs RM1 more, hence the RM6.50 price tag.

People who takes more rice on lunches have to try this one. It will make your day.

Productive employees Robots have three laws.

Three Laws of Robotics

1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm
2. A robot must obey orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law

* replace “human beings” with managers.

And for the rest of us normal humans, we have more laws.

Dilbert’s Laws of Work

• If you can’t get your work done in the first 24 hours, work nights.
• A pat on the back is only a few centimeters from a kick in the butt.
• Don’t be irreplaceable; if you can’t be replaced, you can’t be promoted.
• It doesn’t matter what you do, it only matters what you say you’ve done and what you’re going to do.
• After any salary raise, you will have less money at the end of the month than you did before.
• The more crap you put up with, the more crap you are going to get.
• You can go anywhere you want if you look serious and carry a clipboard.
• Eat one live toad the first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.
• When the bosses talk about improving productivity, they are never talking about themselves.
• If at first you don’t succeed, try again. Then quit. No use being a damn fool about it.
• There will always be beer cans rolling on the floor of your car when the boss asks for a ride home from the office.
• Keep your boss’s boss off your boss’s back.
• Everything can be filed under “miscellaneous.”
• Never delay the ending of a meeting or the beginning of a cocktail hour.
• To error is human, to forgive is not our policy.
• Anyone can do any amount of work provided it isn’t the work he/she is supposed to be doing.
• Important letters that contain no errors will develop errors in the mail.
• If you are good, you will be assigned all the work. If you are really good, you will get out of it.
• You are always doing something marginal when the boss drops by your desk.
• People who go to conferences are the ones who shouldn’t.
• If it wasn’t for the last minute, nothing would get done.
• At work, the authority of a person is inversely proportional to the number of pens that person is carrying.
• When you don’t know what to do, walk fast and look worried.
• Following the rules will not get the job done.
• Getting the job done is no excuse for not following the rules.
• When confronted by a difficult problem you can solve it more easily by reducing it to the question, “How would the Lone Ranger handle this?”
• No matter how much you do, you never do enough.
• The last person that quit or was fired will be held responsible for everything that goes wrong.
• And lastly, ‘responsible management’ and “hands-on management’ are both oxymorons

So, it’s actually harder *not* to be productive. Really.