"Candidates, you are reminded that you are not allowed to bring in any unauthorised materials: handphones, pagers, or any other electronic devices capable of storing and displaying visual and verbal information. You are warned that if any of these are found in your possession or on your desk, it will be deemed as a dishonest act. If you have any of these, please bring them to the front now."

Given that information technology has advanced so fast, I can't help but think whether the younger generation will be taking their examinations in front of a computer in the future. Like every table has a computer and they will type in all the answers into the computers, or draw onto the computers using styluses. Then they won't have to check for the correct number of pages. They just have to make sure that the internet connections are working. In that case...

"Candidates, you are reminded that you are not allowed to bring in any unauthorised materials: CD-ROMs, thumbdrives, hard disk drives..."

"Hello, I am a Mac..."
"... and I am a PC."

Out of the box:


It is really cool how Mac 'suan' PC through these advertisements.


Flashback:


The little boys really resemble their 'adult' version!


Security:


"You're coming to a sad realization. Cancel or Allow?"
"... allow."


Computer cart:


This is my favourite advertisement.
[PC] wmp.dll
[Mac] What?
[PC] I don't even know what that means. It just happens. Do you know it?
[Mac] No, no, Macs don't get those critical error messages. Are they sick too?
[PC] Oh yeah oh yeah, he's err... error 692, and syntax error down the end. Down here... (whispers) fatal error!
[PC] Yeah. Don't worry pal, you'll be up and running spreadsheets in no time. (shakes head and whispers) He's a goner...


Trust Mac:


I shall not post too many videos. But there are over 20 of these on Mac's website


------



I think I should not be so biased as to mention only the good sides of Mac. How about a 3-minute long video on why you should not choose Macintosh as your computer. Warning: Viewer discretion is advised. Contains offensive language.
Crash Different:


"The unnatural and ultimately useless interrupt keys..."

Chris Adamson, an editor at O'Reilly Books in California recommends thinking of devices as having a short life span, say three to four years.

"If it fails after that period, accept that you've gotten your value out of it and get something new"

- The Straits Times, Digital Life, 20/11/07 Page 12.


Maybe I should get a new computer or something. I am booting my computer in safe mode now, and now I think it's using 256 colours, which is worst than how I expected my computer to load this morning (also in safe mode).

It just feels like I am living in the late 20th century. Even the Windows 95 icons are much prettier than my current icons. Since when did you last see a cylinder icon as your recycle bin?! [Just a side note, I have two recycle bins - one of them is a fake.]

And I am really using Live Messenger (version 8.1). The icon at the notification area makes it as if I am using Windows Messenger which is some half a dozen years ago kinda thing.

The chances of a successful bootup of my computer is roughly 20% even if I try to boot in safe mode. There is nothing much I can do about it except to keep waiting and waiting... and waiting.

Does anyone have a boot disc for Windows XP (Home Edition)?

Okay this took me more than 3 years to notice, but I realised that all the school computers have a common server. Thing is, after I log in to my own username to a computer today during Mr Chew's lesson, I noticed that there are a few shortcuts to folders. One of them is "My Workspace", whereby each Victorian is given around 10 MB (I think) to store files, and we can view ALL the folders but not access them (so sad). But actually no point because I doubt anyone uses them.

What I did was towards the end of Mr Chew's lesson, I log in to the computer Jun Yuan was using, using my username. So as to say, Jun Yuan and I swopped computer. Then I put a blank file onto the "My Workspace" and that file got transferred instantaneously. So it's somelike like a server.

So as I was saying, I took very long to notice this.

Anyway, today our class had some cable skiing at the SKI360 (so-called "The Lagoon") during PE. I didn't sign up, so I was watching my classmates fall into the water, haha. They said that the water is "salty to the max"! Anyway it seems fun, but thing is...
1) 5 sessions, and it will get bored after a while. It's definitely very fun for the first time.
2) I still have to pay $60 if I want to join next week
3) It's still too expensive.

Okay so in the end I told Mr Tan I don't want.

Mrs Lee had her last lesson with us today. She told us at the end of the day and half the class was quite surprised. She said it may be good or bad news to us, haha. I think it's more of bad news lah. She's quite a good teacher even though she may be boring at times. I am not sure about Mrs Bala, our new teachers, because I haven't been taught by her before. But I heard that she's not really that good.

Mr Pang was very lame today. Okay in fact he is lame every day. Because the room next to us was Project Room, and Mr Thiru was using it for his history lesson, and because that sound can travel from their room to our room, our class could hear the video Mr Thiru was showing his class during Mr Pang's lesson. And accompanying it was the sound effects as well as the background music, music which so-called represent wars. And Mr Pang was teaching locus of points at that time...

Suddenly, he turned around and began "shooting" us using both his hands. Then he turned back to the screen and began to "violently" make hand gestures regarding the lines on the screen. It was really very very very lame. -.-

4.32am now. Very early I should say. My flight got delayed.

What happened was that my flight was supposed to be departing Hong Kong at 4pm, arriving at around 7.30pm here in Singapore. But they say that flight has no more space when we checked in. I think the business and first classes have no more space too, so I (was supposed to) took the 7.50pm flight. They compensated HK$500, plus a free upgrade to the next class (in which I used, so I took business class back) and a free visit to the Cathay Pacific Business Class Lounge.

The lounge was in the restricted area, and there were actually 2 lounges, both at 2 different ends. Went to "The Wing" which was opposite Gate 2. Not bad, I should say. There were many couches all over, there was a room with computers (and Internet connection supposingly, but cannot access), a games room, and a few places to eat! Haha, I ate quite a lot... and all the food and everything are all free of charge!

Yeah, went to play a bit at the games room. All PS2 games, played FIFA World Cup 2006 and Initial D. Then I was informed that my flight got delayed to 9.40pm. Not that worth it after all.. got home at 2am.

Last night, or rather on the 27th, I went out with my father to buy some stuffs. Went to temple street and walked around there. Well, better than staying at home anyway. Haha.

On the 26th my father, grandma, 2nd aunt, 4th aunt, her son (my cousin) and I went to Sai Kung to eat seafood. Very nice but cost a bomb.. HK$3000+. Sai Kung is a district near the sea whereby there are many seafood restaurants, and all of them said 10% discount. But in the end they claim they dun collect service charge... that is the 10% off...

27th afternoon I couldn't really access the Internet. Only place I can go was Yahoo!. Remembered vaguely during lunch that the news mentioned about some connection problems, but didn't care much about it. Went to check Yahoo! News and realised that an earthquake near Taiwan destroyed undersea cables. Late afternoon it was much better, can sign in MSN Messenger, and access most websites. Yahoo! Games was quite slow, but I guess it's because that I was using dial-up.

Anyway, now I am using my own computer, the Internet connection is way faster than the dial-up my father uses in Hong Kong. And the earthquake thing doesn't seem to affect me much... just when I got back to Singapore. Haha. Maybe they have fixed most of the cables already.. I dunno.


Class timetable is out. My Chemistry teacher changed from Mr Wong to Ms Yeo, Biology teacher changed from Mr Gabriel to Mdm Nabilah. I dunno why both Mr Wong and Mr Gabriel must pang-seh our class. English teachers haven't been confirmed throughout the whole sec 4 level. Chinese teachers should change, other than that my teachers remain the same.

Next Wednesday start school already. I am still left with the homework that I was left with 1 month ago. Meaning that I have not done any homework for at least a month already. Better start getting used to the pen already, and better chiong my homework, later cannot finish.

I need to sleep already.

Computer crashed. Blogging at Jonathan's house.

Installed this driver for my speakers (I think) from Microsoft Updates website. The next thing I know after the driver is installed is that I can't boot my computer properly. It just keeps restarting and restarting every time the welcome screen shows.

Tried Last Known Good Configuration, doesn't work. Safe mode can't even load at all, I'm not too sure why. Maybe I can try booting from Windows XP CD but I can't find it yet. Haha. I see first.

Meanwhile, lesson learnt: Dun trust Microsoft Updates website.

Hmmm, the subject combinations for VS Sec 2s this year are out on the School Website. Congratulations to the 15 choir members who get into 8/9 subject combinations.

I think my iPod Mini needs a change of battery. I think I just charged it recently, and only listened to it for a few hours on the computer. Then today the battery went flat. Haha. So now I am charging it and listening to it on iTunes.

I can't post anything on the school forums. They said that I am not logged in. Switched to Internet Explorer then can. I'm not sure why they are so prejudiced against Mozilla Firefox... no, just kidding. I think there's something wrong with their server, that cannot sign me in to the forums automatically after I've signed in to the school website. Or maybe this is something to do with Firefox's new update. Well, I think I will continue to only read the threads and not post anything, since I am lazy to switch to IE to post. I am also lazy to contact the school administrator about it.

Thanks for trying out the stuffs at my tagboard. For other interesting styles to add to the text, please check them out by clicking on "help" below the tagboard.

Note that you must have a closing tag that starts with a forward slash (ie: [tag] text [/tag]) or the style won't work.

Also, please do not use the [scroll] for text more than around 28 characters, because the text is too long and they dun show up in Firefox browser. In Internet Explorer they show up, however, but it actually loops out of the "screen". Thanks.

This morning there was a temperature check in the school hall. So was there on Monday morning too. What happened on Monday morning was that I brought my thermometer (¾ of the hall didn't bring), and it was working well, until when I wanted to take my temperature. The thermometer showed Err, ah well, there's nothing much I could do so I just pretended my thermometer was working.

This morning I did the same thing. Then my thermometer worked after I "checked" my temperature. And the funny thing is that the unit changed from Fahrenheit to Centigrade, so my last taken temperature changed from 100.6 °F to 38.2 °C - I think it was taken quite long ago. Well, at least I know I didn't have fever these few days, dun have to specifically check.

So anyone who knows how to change its settings or whatsoever please do tell me :).

After that there was this Intensive HMT Lessons for HMT students. I, being in MT class, didn't have much to do so I followed Neng Wei, Roger and Ryan Lee to the posterior of the IT and ELDDS Rooms to play Bridge... the whole day! Can't believe that we played from around 8.30am to 10.45am, then ate something before playing again until 1.05pm. Quite funny because I brought a cup of Milo up after recess and had it stood on a chair beside me. Looks like I was in a resort whereby there's cocktail beside me, and we're all under the sun relaxing and playing cards.

Biology lecture started at 1.30pm, with Mr Gabriel as the lecturer. Quite interesting, and he kept digressing. For example, he wanted to explain that endocrime means "internal secretion", because of the prefix "endo-". Then he went on to explain that endothelium is the tissue that is found inside the body (like the blood vessels) and not exposed to the atmosphere, unlike the walls of the alimentary canal (the tissues are called epithelium). He demonstrated by drawing a picture on the transparency, which he kindly allowed me to take home for laughing purposes [see top of post].

Good news!

I dunno what happened, but my speakers/sound card is now fixed. Last time the pitch was raised by a few notches, then just now Eugene Hsu typed a message to me I heard the Messenger sound - it was different! As in, it went back to normal. Last night my sister was using the computer and I think she did something to the sound system.. I must ask her when she wakes up (yes, she's still sleeping).

**Update: I just realised (from my sister) that the pitching can be changed from a software that comes with my computer: Avance Sound Manager. For those who have, you can go to Start > Programs > Avance Sound Manager > Soundman to open it, then click on the Sound Effect Manager on the taskbar (the one that would have just appeared). Pitch can be adjusted by changing the "key". Gosh, my sister is more technologically advanced than me.


Anyway, the cbox is up. Feel free to tag.