Keng Siang's Blog

Moved to WordPress

2010-04-07T14:10:00.002+08:00

I had moved to WordPress for some time. I'm still thinking what I'm going to do with this blog. Currently there is no plan in near future and all my latest update can be found at my wordpress blog or my personal homepage.

Wordpress Blog: http://ooiks.wordpress.com
Personal Homepage: http://www.ooiks.com

by Ooi Keng Siang

Malaysia Internet Service Provider

2009-07-27T16:20:00.002+08:00

I know almost everyday also got people in Malaysia complain about their internet bandwidth speed. Especially the service name started with "S" and the service provider name started with "T". The user blame the service provider for providing the poor service while the service provider blame the user for mis-configure their router/computer setting. Well, I'm not going to do so like them. I just want to said something in a different view.

P.S.: If you are not a Malaysian, you maybe laughing why the theory "Customer is everything, customer is always right." does not apply on the internet service business in Malaysia, that is because we only get very few option and they monopoly everything... what to do?

I understand that in IT world, there is no 100% uptime. 99% down time free is consider world class best service already. User has the right to know what is happening to the service right? Even a shop closed also will put a notice what is happening. What about internet service down or slow? A notice or announcement should put on the website to inform the user right? But sorry to said you can't found those in Malaysia internet service provider website.

What the hell is their website hosting then? They only host about their product and the notice about down time they scheduled. What about those unexpected downtime? Keep quiet and hope no user will know it. Even if user know, they will just bring you around the garden until the service is fix. I don't want claim a single sen back from them, but I just want to know what the heck is happening only as a customer.

You probably always heard from friend that they complained to their broadband internet service provider about slow connection. Well, what they get is always, maybe your area got too many users so it is slow. That was a great answer to them, because they no longer have to do anything for you, because this is not their fault. The user has sign about the contract that internet service provider will provide their best service, but this is already their best service, so don't complain to them.

I think I was long winded and go out of track already. Well, all I want to said in this post is, Malaysia's ISP website are so suck! A website you will never want to visit again after you register / purchased the service.

Code7 Contest

2009-07-17T17:28:00.003+08:00

Are you ready to welcome Windows 7? Want to get a chance to watch PDC2009? Here is the chance to win a trip to PDC2009 at US and stand a chance to win some award! You will get the chance to present your work to the world!

https://www.code7contest.com/

P.S.: For students, you can use the same application as you use in Imagine Cup, with the condition it did not win any prize on the final. Well, create one new application for this competition and use it to join Imagine Cup 2010! Yeah!

Misinterpret? Miscommunication? Mistake?

2009-07-14T19:56:00.001+08:00

I can’t stop my laughing after I read the news about Imagine Cup on my local newspaper.

Sometime miss one word can have a big different, really big different. Most local newspaper put Malaysia won Imagine Cup 2009 without putting the category Design for Development. This can lead to a big misleading cause Imagine Cup main category is Software Design, thus Romania should be the winner this year. If team member of team Romania read this, I’m sure they will sure have a great laugh.

Sometime I really like to ask Chinese newspaper, why they want to translate every single word. If you translate it right, that is OK, if not, it will turn into a great funny story. Guess what is Imagine Cup translation? Answer was… 世界視像杯 (by Guang Ming & Sin Chew), 创意杯 (Kwong Wah). I have no idea how they come out the word “World” and “Image” in the name. Kwong Wah translation was acceptable. Guang Ming very nice, help our team, Team Cosmic translate a Chinese team name as well, named 宇宙隊 and Capricorn translated to 天蠍座. Sin Chew even translated the project name, this is the first time I heard about my own project name in Chinese language, Virtual Health Connect translated to 映像保健聯繫 and GreenEve2Peace translated to 和平綠化. Kwong Wah did not translate the team name and project name. Furthermore, Guang Ming enter my name wrongly, my name is 黄敬翔 not 黃散翔. I’m not split yet…

Guang Ming written that our project was provided RM40,000 development funding. Wawee, where the hell did the RM40,000 come in? Drop from the sky? Don’t simply write something like this, very dangours one lo. Mr. A said something funny to them?

Sin Chew written that USM joined Imagine Cup in year 2004. I think they have some misunderstanding what our Dean said. Actually is since year 2004, not on year 2004 only.

Lastly, guess what they translate “Microsoft”? 电脑软件公司 by Kwong Wah! I guess Bill Gate will laugh if he saw this too.

Source:

http://www.guangming.com.my/node/51933?tid=3

http://www.sinchew.com.my/node/122374?tid=1

http://www.kwongwah.com.my/news/2009/07/13/116.html

Imagine Cup 2009: Day 2 Video

2009-07-05T23:31:00.004+08:00

Check out the video. Our competition still haven't started while other already go into top 6.

Pyramid

2009-07-05T20:58:00.002+08:00

Guess what? We got the first chance to visit to the Pyramid today. Yeah! Tomorrow we are going have presentation for our competition and we will miss out the culture day, so Microsoft give us the first hand of culture day.

What is my mind when I see the Pyramid? My mind was "How the hell they build that thing?" We even got the chance to visit inside one of the small pyramid. Dark and narrow inside. What you can see is just stone...

When my friend helping me taking photo, one of the Egyptian come and pretend nicely to us, then grab my camera and want me pay him into get back the photo, I was lazy to argue with him and just give him 10 Egypt pound to chase him away. But he so greedy and want some more. Damn, but I didn't give him more. Although this has spoil my mood a little bit, but overall the trip was so fun!

Imagine Cup 2009: Day 1 Video

2009-07-04T15:31:00.004+08:00

Find us in the Day 1 imagine Cup video!!! Yeah!

Imagine Cup 2009: Opening Ceremony

2009-07-04T15:21:00.004+08:00

We just attend the opening ceremony of Imagine Cup 2009. Like last year, there is a lot of fun. Running around and shounting for your own country. Have a lot of food, but the queue is so long and have to wait, meet friend there and so on so on...

Diary: Just Arrive Egypt

2009-07-02T17:07:00.011+08:00

We just safely arrive at Cairo, Egypt. My first impression is... There are a lot of sand!!! The airplane fly through the desert before reached at the airport. Looking around, I see sky and sand... Ya. There is no cactus here, not every desert has cactus I think.

After arrive, we heading to our hotel lead by Imagine Cup crew. The first thing go into the hotel was... WAhhh... 5 stars hotel man! After we got our room, we even shock! Is this our room? That room can fit more than 8 people but we only got 4. There are 5 big LCD TV in our room, washing machine, oven, all sort of cooking stuff, 4 big beds + 1 small bed, sofa... Man, this is the first time I live in such big hotel room.

More story to tell later, stay tune.

Diary: Get Ready for Egypt

2009-07-01T10:36:00.003+08:00

Tonight I'm going to take the flight to Egypt, but I yet to finish packing all my stuff. In fact, I just throw in some cloth only. There are many thing waiting for me to be complete in a short day time.

Mixture of different feeling, nervous because is going to a place I never visit. Hope I can touch the Pyramid. A bit of scare because of AH1N1, although I had already taken the Influenza vaccination, but I heard is still possible for me to get the "lottery".

Well, there is going to be a busy week for me again.

Imagine Cup 2009 Malaysia Website

2009-05-13T22:43:00.001+08:00

Finally our Malaysia Imagine Cup got it's own website in 2009. Although I think it won't last very long as the it is ending soon...

http://www.myimaginecup.com/Default.aspx

Check it out, more to come later.

Imagine Cup 2009 in Unite State

2009-04-23T12:19:00.003+08:00

Want to know more about how other peoples doing for their Imagine Cup project this year? Check this out. This website shows all projects that participate in Imagine Cup 2009 in Unite State. Remember to give them a vote if you like their project.

http://www.icuspeopleschoice.com/

Diary: Feel so down

2009-04-14T23:27:00.001+08:00

Every time participate in a competition we also hope that we will win. Although we keep on remember ourselves that it does not matter whatever win or lose, but it still a big impact we receive the news about losing to others. Maybe thing doesn’t away go as smooth as I think. I think it is time for me to sit down and plan over again.

I think this is call the fighting spirit... need time to build up the spirit again...

Lazy Blogger

2009-04-12T23:44:00.001+08:00

I always got a lot of idea/thing want to express in the blog, yet I was very lazy to write it up. Well, I’m not those who good in expressing my own feeling using word. After much thinking, I plan to make my blog short and quick. Thus, my blog maybe bored and dry.

Well, some of you might suggest me to write short blog in twitter. Ya, I didn’t have a twitter account and I start enjoy the fun bring my twitter, but some time twitter word limitation cannot allow me to write out the thing I want to express. Well, I guess blog is more suitable for this.

Till I start the new short blog then…

I like and dislike about Google Chrome

2009-03-29T15:46:00.003+08:00

I like it because:

The interface is so clean and compact yet everything you need is there. No extra wasted space.
I no longer type into the wrong box as Omnibox is combine address box and search box.
It won’t hang like firefox when some plugin stop functioning like pdf viewer. Just clocse the stop working tab and everything is alright.
The quick access home page show my frequency access webpage without any effort from me which is too good for a lazy user like me.

I dislike it because:

Until now it still don’t have any extension like ad-block, I miss them just like in Firefox.
I like to clear my cookie every time I close my browser, but Chrome just doesn’t have this option.
It can’t be use when there is no network connection. I use Chrome to test the web application I created, but if without the network connection, it refuses to load my page which running at localhost.
There is no way to customize the quick access homepage if I really need.

Diary: The Day Before FYP Demo

2009-03-19T02:21:00.003+08:00

I don’t blog quite some time already. I has been busy about all the assignment, project and final year project that come non-stop on me. Final year project report due today… (ya, today, mid-night already). This going to be my quick blog post.

I just want to said something out loud at this moment as I was so piss off. Silverlight + WCF = Disaster. I have been have a hard time configure Silverlight and WCF to work in IIS server. This is even worse than those open source configuration. Now I understand why people said Microsoft development tool is powerful but when you deploy your thing into server, that will be the pain. Also also understand why we got developer and system admin, because system admin job is to deploy the application (because it is too complicated and need another people to handle).

OK, back to my work…

MSC-IHL Business Plan Competition 08/09

2009-02-20T23:00:00.002+08:00

The MSC-IHL Business Plan Competition just ends today with a prize giving ceremony at Nikko hotel at KL. Well, the result is a little unexpected, UTP get the champion in the Business Plan Competition, which we miss the presentation and later found out their idea was really interesting and good. USM won first runner-up in Business Plan Competition and Merit prize in Business Idea Category. I know the school has a little disappointed as they expect us to win at least a champion come back, but we did our best for everything already. APEX this title on USM sure has given a lot of pressure on lectures and students.

Yesterday was the most tired day, as that is the day of competition. We have practice until late mid night and wake up early morning to attend the competition as we will be the first team to present in Business Plan Competition. We are well prepare and waiting for our time to present. Because of the time keeper misunderstand the timing rule, he only give us 10 minute to present instead of the actual 20 minute. Lucky we still can manage to complete it although we have already skipped a few slides and skip a lot of explanation. The feedback from judge is quite positive as first, so we though this is a good start. Later on they told us they have did the mistake for the timing, so they will give us an extra 10 minute to present what we miss after lunch. At first we was very happy, but thing did not turn up as we think. The judge request us to skip the presentation and turn the 10 minute into just Q and A. The judges were well prepared after the lunch and bring a lot of tough questions and a lot of comments/feedbacks. What we can do at there is just listening. After that, our team has lost the confident and packs our thing and goes for Business Idea Category to prepare the next presentation.

The Business Idea Category room was so small, what we can do is just stand there with my heavy bag on my back. After a small break, we are there to prepare for our idea presentation. As what we expected, we will hit by a lot of tough questions about our idea weakness from judges and the presentation was not really smooth as well. After that, we have a small talk with one if the judge and knowing our result are not too good. Kind of depress that time.

One of our friend in Microsoft call up for a tea drink as he is passing by that area and knowing that we are there. After have some small chit chat we went back for dinner and go back to sleep. Really need to thanks to Ian that helps us reduce the pressure and forget about those bad things we have gone though in the competition. We are just too tired that night, and we fall asleep very quickly.

I really want to thanks to my teammates, jasy, matthew and wan koe as they done a lot of hard work prepare the slides, document and research while I can’t really provide much help at there. I think without them, I wouldn't have come so far to KL and even won 2 prizes. I also want to thanks Roslan, Dr. Vincent, Pn. Rosnah, PPKT stuffs for their advisor and support. We learn a lot in this competition, not just about business thing but I also learn about my future with just programming is not enough.

Chain mail – Are you really helping others?

2009-02-10T14:03:00.001+08:00

Once in a while I will receive some chain mail from friends regarding about saving someone by forwarding this e-mail to others. To be honest to tell everybody, I will delete the mail as soon as I found out. Cold-blooded right? But, did you all really spend some time thinking what can you help by forwarding the e-mail? Are you really helping them or you are just falling into a trap of spammer?

Seriously, did you believing by forward more e-mail to others and the one mention in the e-mail will receive more donation? Are you thinking by just forwarding more e-mail to others, will save the child from rape by others in Africa? I will tell you, you did not help anyone of them yet you are pulling all your friends in your contact list into the trap of scammer/spammer. This kind of e-mail is how they gather your e-mail address and sell to scammer/ spammer, or they are the scammer/spammer.

I just received 2 e-mails about South Africa's Child Protection Unit is to be closed and urges recipients to "sign" a message protesting the closure before sending it to others. After a simple search on Google, I found that the e-mail is just another scam e-mail.

Link:
http://www.hoax-slayer.com/child-protection-unit-petition.html
http://www.joewein.net/hoax/hoax-saps-child-protection-unit.htm
http://www.saps.gov.za/org_profiles/core_function_components/fcs/hoax.htm

Now ask yourself, are you really helping others or you just a helper of scammer/spammer? Think twice before you forward an e-mail to your friend next time. A kind heart which trying to help others is good, but don’t let other misuse it.

Attacked by spam

2009-02-09T23:17:00.002+08:00

Recently, I receive a lot of spam mail, especially streamyx mail which don’t have any build-in Spam filtering system receive almost at least 1 spam mail every hour. This problem really annoyed me when the notification will notify me every time receive the spam mail. I don’t need any medication to prove that I’m a male and I don’t want to earn and fast money by bank transfer. Spammer! Just left me alone!

Recently my mobile phones also receive a lot of spam SMS since I joining a lucky draw contest organize by public bank. Yes, is from Public bank, the contest form is given by their customer service worker to me. The SMS is not from Digi, but from some unknown numbers. Now I cannot stop relating the Public bank with the spammer…

Ahh… I hate spammer!!! I HATE THEM ALL!!!

P.S.: To all my friend, don’t send me meaningless empty mail (no content inside) and please put a title for your e-mail and please write something in the content although you are just send me file using e-mail, because my mail filtering system is very sensitive and myself also very sensitive, I might delete your e-mail before read it.

Vitrox: CS student lost to EE student?

2009-02-07T11:12:00.002+08:00

Yesterday, Vitrox Company has sent 2 peoples come to our school to give a career talk. Well, I was there as some rumor said that the company’s pay was not bad after all and I do not know much about that company. I think it is not a bad idea to spend some time and go listen although I plan to continue my study after all.

I was happy to hear that the benefit and salary provide by Vitrox is almost the same like those other multi nation company, but there are something I piss off when they mention Computer Science (CS) student usually will have lower pay then those from Electrical and Electronic Engineering (EE). Why Computer Science student must mark a lower rank compare with those EE student? Well, that kind of thing always happens in industrial world, but I just not happy to hear from someone outsider saying this.

After that, the girl (from Vitrox) said, “I’m surprise to found that EE student all done well in the programming test we given compare with CS student.” The first thing came into my mind, “What the xxxx? You must be kidding.” I bet they did perform any search or research on CS before they come. I was so upset with that sentence. I pack my thing and walk out that time as I have no longer have any interest to listen anymore.

After that, I go have a lunch with my friend who just got an interview from Vitrox. She told me that the test mostly covers C programming and many other non Computer Science related thing. Now I know why CS student done badly compare with EE student. EE student only learn C programming while our Computer Science student learn so many type of languages (C, C++, HTML, PHP, Java, C#, VB .NET, ASP, Perl, and etc). They are just comparing an apple with an orange. Did they done a search on USM CS school achievement before they come to hire the student? I bet not, while they just come and blindly search for people.

If Vitrox think that EE students are just better than CS students then go ahead hire all EE students to build a software department, why come to our CS students. They are just like the other who thinks CS student must know how to fix a hardware problem PC. Thanks to the talk, now Vitrox are no longer listed in my top listed company to apply, although I admitted that I may still apply this company if I really jobless in the future, but this company has just give me a bad first impression.

Accessibility Award

2009-01-13T22:14:00.004+08:00

There is another new award in Imagine Cup 2009, Accessibility Award. Although this award is not new, but the registration is open not long ago, but there is no direct link the the description page which hardy found by user.

Accessibility Award
The object of the Accessibility Award is to design a technology solution that leverages people’s diverse physical and cognitive abilities. Designing accessible technology means that it is beneficial and usable by everyone, and empowers people with disabilities, temporary difficulties, or the desire to personalize their user experience.

Link: http://imaginecup.com/Competition/mycompetitionportal.aspx?competitionId=33

For some reason, the hardware design award has taken out from the website, I wonder that award is cancel or not.

Last Semester Start Soon

2008-12-20T21:33:00.000+08:00

New semester start next Monday. Here go my 1 month holiday which spends by Business Plan Competition in my own university and my Final Year Project. This is the last semester for me (hopefully). Time for me to hang out is lesser and lesser. Even the game I just started to play in Facebook yesterday also get deleted by me although I’m very interest in playing it, but I don’t have time for that anymore. There are so many things I want to complete in this semester, Achieve better CGPA, work out my final year project, have fun with my friend for the last time, and etc. I wonder I can complete them all and well…

Netbook

2008-12-20T21:17:00.003+08:00

Nowadays, many people crazy over netbook (a new term for small and portable laptop which is smaller than normal laptop and usually powered by Intel Processor such as Atom). Example of netbooks is Asus Eee, Macbook Air, Dell Mini, and HP Mini.

There are rumor about Dell is releasing a netbook which thinner then Macbook Air, but not much information can be found. What we currently know is the netbook is named Adamo. There is even a website already set up with a coming soon word on the website only. Well, dell design are getting better, I’m really looking for the new release.

Webiste: http://adamobydell.com/

HP Mini also hit Malaysia now check it out.

Website: http://h20424.www2.hp.com/campaign/consumer_notebooks/my/en/mini1000/overview.asp

Imagine Cup 2009 - Malaysia

2008-12-04T13:50:00.005+08:00

Imagine Cup 2009 in Malaysia is open to every student in Malaysia now. The champion of Malaysia final round in Software Design category will get a trip to Egypt with their mentor. The price is worth up to RM50, 000. Sound attractive right? Start brainstorm your idea and proposal your idea now.

There is some change in the term and condition in this time. The team must have at least 2 members and cannot more than 4 members. Mentor become a requirement for a team (written on website, but I will check it out). The final of Malaysia local final will be somewhere around May, but the website did not show the due date for proposal submission. I will just find it out.

Update 1:
The due date of proposal submission should be some where before 1st of March.

Register now!
Imagine Cup 2009 website: http://imaginecup.com/Default.aspx
Imagine Cup 2009 Malaysia detail: http://imaginecup.com/MY/SD.aspx

Ultimate Windows Tweaker

2008-11-29T21:39:00.001+08:00

Are you tired of Windows Vista because your PC don’t have the capability to run full speed on it? Trying many tools to make your Vista machine run faster but it won’t work? Here you might found what you want. Ultimate Windows Tweaker, a tools design to tweak the security, performance, personalization and many more things in your Vista machine.

You can download the tool and run without install it. There are notables stuffs you can tweak to get more performance from your machine without losing any nice effect of vista. Example like shorten the waiting time to end services at shutdown process, waiting time to kill non-responding application, waiting time to kill applications timeout during shutdown, disable built-in feature to manage ZIP folders (if you already have a 3rd party ZIP program such as 7zip) and etc.

Explore yourself and give your vista machine a boost of speed. Create system restore point before doing anything and read the tool tip so that you don’t disable unnecessary thing. It is available for both 32bit and 64bit.

Ultimate Windows Tweaker website: http://www.winvistaclub.com/Ultimate_Windows_Tweaker.html

Imagine Cup 2009 - Interoperability Award

2008-11-25T22:40:00.000+08:00

The Interoperability award for Imagine Cup 2009 is up.

Interoperability Award
The Interoperability Award is designed to recognize the software application that best leverages out-of-the-box Microsoft technologies and blends them with other technologies to connect people, data, or diverse systems in a new way. The ability to build technical bridges and blend technologies from different vendors, including free and open source software, has great value in the industry. The experience you gain by participating in this Award will help you and teammates build important technical skills that are highly valued in the job market.

Link: http://imaginecup.com/Competition/mycompetitionportal.aspx?competitionId=30

F-Secure Security Tech Quiz 2008

2008-11-24T22:27:00.000+08:00

Today I attended for the qualification round of F-Secure National Inter-Varsity Security Tech Quiz Championship 2008/09 at my University. At first I thought it only has a few team participating this competition but I was wrong. There are several teams from Island College of Technology come over to Universiti Sains Malaysia to complete the competition as well.

Seriously, I only know the competition date the day before the date of competition. The notification e-mail goes into by Google mail’s junk mail. F-secure’s event notification e-mail goes into junk mail, what a funny story. Lucky, my teammate reminded me, or else I sure have a nice sleep this morning. After a half day of wiki reading, I mange to answer to question, but don’t have much confident to enter to the next round. I bet there are around 100 teams but they want to filter it until 32 teams, the probability being lucky is just too low.

Live Meeting Experience

2008-11-21T22:34:00.003+08:00

Yesterday, I have my first experience attending live meeting at home (I have experience attending live meeting at school with my bunch of classmate before). This time I have to set up software myself. Feel great. Too bad that the connection is not that smooth along the way, and the voice is kind of laggy.

I was attending Imagine Cup 2009 Software Design talk and Embedded Design talk using Microsoft Live Meeting 2007. It is pretty easy to set up and running. It has all kind of feature that you will use in meeting, such as Q&A that let you type the question, give feedback that you want to slow down or proceed and etc. Because it only show the presentation slide and no eyes contact with the speaker, it make me feel kind of bored. Maybe I will get use to it soon. Another thing which I hate is the slide load so slow usually after they talk a few sentence later I only able to see the slide. I think the software should preload the slide first but there is no option for me to do that. Sad.

Hope future I have more experience on this live meeting. To those who miss the Software Design Live Meeting, here is the link for the recorded video: Software Design Session 1

My 2.5" 7200rpm Hard Disk

2008-11-20T23:37:00.004+08:00

I just receive my new notebook hard disk yesterday that I order last 2 week ago from eSquare. Busy reformat my laptop as my last installation in the existing hard disk has some problems cause by the stupid NVIDIA graphic card. I was joy over when receive the hard disk, joy till want to bring around to show the shop that told me there is no 7200rpm hard disk for notebook in this world but in the end I didn’t do that cause I already forget which shop keeper said that, but now I know that shop call C&T Brother. Haha, I will never buy anything from that shop.

My new hard disk is Western Digital Black Scorpion 320GB (All black scorpion models is spin in 7200rpm) which cause me RM360. Ouch that is pain!!! I realize it is BJKT model after I purchase which come with free fall sensor. That makes me not that pain in my heart. Some might ask me is there a different between 5400rpm and 7200rpm. The answer is yes, 7200rpm performance better if you have a large number of files to process and it also shorter the time to boot up. You can see the performance of the hard disk in Windows Experience Index, 5400rpm hard disk usually score 5.1 but 7200rpm hard disk will score 5.7.

Here are some pictures of the hard disk. After read my blog, please don’t tell people there is no 7200rpm hard disk for notebook in this world…

Diary: Restless Day

2008-11-17T10:02:00.001+08:00

These few days really have a lot of thing in my mind. I got ton of project due date. I was just too busy every morning sitting in front of my PC drawing and typing non-stop. Some time I get a short nap, when wake up, I can’t even remember I already have my dinner or not. My whole life gets mess up. Today I even release one of the project due date is on next Wednesday not this coming Wednesday. What for I working until half dead to rush the due date. I really need to cool down my mind. My mind was having too many bug recently, need to debug it.

New Award for Imagine Cup 2009

2008-11-08T20:59:00.002+08:00

There 4 new awards offer to Imagine Cup 2009 competitor this year + 1 award existing award. They are Multipoint Education, Design 4 Development (aka Unlimited Potential), Interoperability Award, Parallel Computing and Hardware Design. Where is Windows Live Award? Well, I also don’t know, maybe removed from Imagine Cup 2009, maybe not.

Come check it out:

Multipoint Education Award
In many classrooms in underserved areas, groups of students must share one computer—there are simply not enough computers to go around. While the existing solution to this problem is to acquire more computers, that is often difficult for schools with limited resources.
With the Windows MultiPoint SDK several mice can be attached to a single PC – allowing students to learn, interact, and collaborate on the same computer at the same time. This makes the MultiPoint SDK the perfect tool to create learning games designed to help achieve Universal Primary Education
Reference: http://imaginecup.com/Competition/mycompetitionportal.aspx?competitionId=28

Design 4 Development Award aka Unlimited Potential
At Microsoft, we believe that making technologies that are relevant, affordable, and accessible to more than 5 billion people around the world who make less than $8 dollars takes more than serious coding skills.
It takes spending time with underserved communities, interviewing and understanding end-users to learn about their needs, and the daily challenges they face with each day – the same challenges that underlie the UN Millennium Development Goals.
Reference: http://imaginecup.com/Competition/mycompetitionportal.aspx?competitionId=29

Interoperability Award
Temporary no information yet.
Reference: http://imaginecup.com/Competition/mycompetitionportal.aspx?competitionId=30

Parallel Computing Award
Many core systems hold the promise of delivering 10 to 100 times the processing power in the next few years. This technological advance has the potential to open a world of possibilities, from creating immersive 3D applications to addressing some of the world’s greatest challenges. Developing applications that harness the full power of manycore systems is difficult and requires software developers to transition from writing serial programs to writing parallel programs.
The objective of the Parallel Computing Award is to recognize the Team that develops parallel algorithms with demonstrable speedup on a manycore processor in order to help solve some of the world’s toughest problems.
Reference: http://imaginecup.com/Competition/mycompetitionportal.aspx?competitionId=31

Hardware Design Award
Temporary no information yet.
Reference: http://imaginecup.com/Competition/mycompetitionportal.aspx?competitionId=32

Imagine Cup 2009 will be fun.

Purchasing 2.5” 7200rpm hard disk

2008-11-08T16:53:00.002+08:00

Lately I have been considering upgrade my current laptop’s hard disk from 160GB to 320GB. Usually I install many development tool programs which take quite a large number of disk spaces, but because of my small hard disk and it is not enough to store as many system restore file, and cause my laptop to fail in an important system restore.

I decide to buy a 2.5” 320GB 7200rpm hard disk. Now I only realize there is no shop that sells 7200rpm notebook hard disk in Penang, Malaysia at all. I don’t want to use 5400rpm as it takes more time to load my program which I very hate. There is some shop even don’t know there is 7200rpm version of hard disk for notebook. I wonder how they open shop to do business. Well, final go through 20+ shops, I manage to find 3 shops who allow me to place order for the hard disk as they don’t keep any store. Well, I can understand that because this kind of hard disk is not hot selling item.

I was very surprise large computer hardware shop like PC Depot doesn’t sell 7200rpm notebook hard disk at all. I was more surprise when I ask the shop keeper about the hard disk. He replied me that he never heard of 7200rpm hard disk for notebook before. I always though PC depot only hire experience employee only. PC depot can’t fulfill my need yet give me this funny answer. Disappointed!

I go to Prangin Mall to try my luck. Nan Yang, which is the largest computer hardware shop at Prangin Mall and I was first time step into the shop since I haven’t step to Prangin Mall long time already. I told the shop keeper what I need and the shop keeper brings me go around the world. They told me we have but out of stock currently. Wow, out stock? That hot selling? So I ask them the price, he answer me is RM275. Second wow again, so cheap? Then I confirm with him again, I want 7200rpm not 5400rpm. The shop keeper realizes that he was misunderstood what I need and start giving me funny explanation. He said that their shop did not sell this hard disk as many customers complain head crush always happen on this fast spinning hard disk. Well, how a shop which never sells 7200rpm hard disk will have customer complain about head crush on hard disk. Damn, want to cheat me to buy 5400rpm also find a better reason please.

I also went to another computer hardware shop, but I can remember the name already, is name “brother” in Chinese name. I ask one of the shop keepers about the hard disk, and he replies me they also don’t have. Another shop keeper heard our conversation and shout out, “There is no 7200rpm notebook hard disk one, 7200rpm is only for desktop”. That time I really think of shout back him. If don’t know just said don’t know or just like other said did not sell, don’t act smart said this thing never exist. Unless you are professional and sure this thing never exist, or else just keep your mouth shut! In the end I also did not shout at the dumb shop keeper as my friend was around.

Surprisingly, I found eSquare which mainly sell notebook but not main on selling computer hardware got this hard disk, although need to order. They offer me the lowest price as well (so far I only found 3 shop sell this hard disk include eSquare). So I place my order there and even buy 1 external hard disk casing to place my 160GB hard disk when replace with 320GB hard disk later. Too bad all 3 shops only sell Western Digital Scorpio Black, although I want Seagate Momentus 7200.3, but Western Digital was not bad just slightly behind Seagate (according to tomshardware review).

Lesson learned, it is so hard to find 7200rpm notebook hard disk at Penang, Malaysia. Many computer hardware shop keeper know nothing but only know how to cheat customer to buy what is in their shop. If not sure about something, don’t act smart, people won’t said you smart but you making yourself such an idiot in front of others. 7200rpm notebook hard disk is damn expansive, almost the cost of 500GB hard disk for 320GB.

NVIDIA: Save only after you dead

2008-11-03T20:15:00.002+08:00

Frankly speaking, I really hate NVIDIA now. Now I’m sitting at home waiting for Dell technician to come over to have the 5th motherboard change due to the stupid NVIDIA GPU defect graphic card broken down. I was very happy with my Dell XPS M1330 since I brought it, but because of NVIDIA, I now suffer for every half year of graphic card broken down.

Thanks to NVIDIA, before that I never knew that laptop’s motherboard can be replace, never saw a laptop motherboard, never knew that graphic card is fix on the motherboard and cannot be taken out and etc. After all, I had seen countless of motherboard changing due to NVIDIA. 4 times of motherboard change, can you imagine that? Now the 5th time is coming.

Some of you might never know about this as NVIDIA cover this problem very well. It only release the news of GPU defect on 8400 and 8600 series after countless of graphic card sold although they already find out at the beginning but they don’t have solution. In order to win ATI, they will just continue to sell defect graphic card. What to do? NVIDIA is such a big company, after people find out this thing and they still didn’t get any punishment.

NVIDIA did mention they will replace the graphic card for you, but when your graphic card broken down only. What a joke, can you imagine you carrying a time bomb with you all the time? Even Sony will replace all they defect battery, before they blow up. Is it because of NVIDIA graphic card cannot blow up, that why it wait till broken only happy to replace for you?

I will never buy NVIDIA graphic card!!! No, I should say I will never buy NVIDIA product if I can (Hope ATI still there). Recently, I upgraded my PC to Ubuntu 8.10, but the graphic driver is not working, NVIDIA graphic card again… Argh, I HATE IT.

Cartridge Refill Not Landfill

2008-10-29T20:41:00.002+08:00

Did you have a printer at home? What will you do when the ink cartridge is low or already finish? Most of us will either buy another new cartridge or buy the ink refill to refill the cartridge. Purchase the new cartridge cost a lot while purchase only the ink refill will cost very few.

To be honest, I always buy the new cartridge when the run out of ink, because I don't want take the trouble to refill the ink. Last time I try to refill myself, but end up spoil the cartridge and my hands is full of ink (it take days to clean it up). I know this way is expansive yet not environment friendly, but I can't think out of any way.

Today, I finally go try the ink refill service offer by Cartridge World. The shop offers the service to help customer to refill their cartridge. With around half of the price of new cartridge, I can refill my ink already. They even pack it nicely for me. Well, the main thing is I no longer create more rubbish. After some printing, I found it is working normally and happy with it. They also offer laser cartridge refill, but I don't have a laser printer.

If you run out of ink and don’t want trouble yourself to refill in yourself, try it out. What we need to pay more yet creating unnecessary rubbish? Cartridge World Website

Xunlei Thunder get boycott?

2008-10-28T11:52:00.004+08:00

Well, most of the people who use Bit Torrent download client have heard about Xunlei Thunder (迅雷) before, maybe even using it now. Before that, I'm also a user of Xunlei Thunder, because it is fast. But I switch to Deluge after changing to Linux OS (Xunlei does not support Linux and my computer are getting older) and happy with it.

Last few days, when I surfing the website, I found someone asking why they stated don't use XunLei or else you will get nothing. I start searching for information on the net, nothing much to be found, but I change to Chinese word to search and I found a lot of information. Xunlei is now starting to ban/boycott by peoples especially on Chinese website.

If you ever use Xunlei before, you will found your computer is busy doing something even you didn't start Xunlei or doing anything. This is because Xunlei will auto run at the background and transfer any file to share with other. (Yes, any file without your permission). How to know it? You will found this 2 process in your task manager, Thunder.exe and Issue.exe. This mean the Xunlei is already sharing your privacy with others. Scary right?

Xunlei even connect to other server without permission which leeches other network bandwidth. You will found Xunlei default setting is very selfish which don't share much resource after download. (Well but it share other file with other without you knowing). Xunlei even come with a lot of advertisement which someone claims that it has Trojan and worm (I'm not sure, never hit by one before).

If you are still using Xunlei, you will found some of your download will stop before reaching 5% or did not even start at all. Please don't worry, because you are boycott by others as well now. Most of the Chinese website take the step to anti-Xunlei for their own good (cannot leech or steal their website resource) and for user's good (stop using Xunlei to share your privacy with others). Go try others bit torrent client and stop sharing your own private file with others.

Reference: http://www.0991s.com/bbs/archive/index.php/t-6682.html (Chinese language)
Website policy to ban Xunlei: http://www.it.com.cn/f/edu/066/2/060601_edu_xunlei01.jpg (Chinese langauge)

Imagine Cup 2009

2008-10-27T18:10:00.004+08:00

Imagine Cup is a competition organizes by Microsoft which invite more 100 countries to participate and given them the air ticket to fly to other country for the worldwide final competition. Each year, Imagine cup will held the final at different country. This year the world final will be held at Egypt. If you are currently a student of IT/Computer Science/Computer related Engineering/Art (yes, there is non-technical category, read below) and etc, come join the competition for a free ticket to travel to Egypt for FREE.

Imagine Cup is just like the Olympic, but it is not for sport, but for developer, or I should said for those with creativity people to crash their ideas together and compete for the world champion. This year theme is "Imagine a world where technology helps solve the toughest problems facing us today". If you think you never do something big for this world, this is the time to show your talent. This year all participation are require to solve one of the 8 Millennium Goal .

There are 9 categories to choose:

Software Design

Embedded Development

Game Development

Robotic & Algorithm

IT challenge

Mashup

Photography

Short Film

Design

In Malaysia, not much people know about Imagine Cup, only IT students in USM, KTar, UTar, MMU and KDU participate in this competition. Sadly, only 1 and only 1 local government university knows about this, what happen to those Microsoft student representatives in other university? It seen like Imagine Cup 2009 in Malaysia will still have the similar participation from those Universities only. There is also no participation for other category in Malaysia. Is the prices too little for them? Who knows? Maybe there is too many people anti-Microsoft I think…

With the sentence of participation in Imagine Cup in resume doesn’t mean you will get a better job in Malaysia, because they usually end up asking you what that is and they will just forget after you answer that. There is news that Malaysia is voting for Imagine Cup 2011. I’m not sure which states will held the event, any way, it just something not confirm yet.
“I wish there had been an Imagine Cup when I was growing up. It gets people involved in seeing that software is changing the world.” - Bill Gate.
What are you waiting for? Imagine Cup 2009 website .

Diary: visit Cyberjaya

2008-10-25T23:12:00.003+08:00

This is the first time I went to cyberjaya and putrajaya. I never know that in my own country (Malaysia) has many nice building (I love to see building architecture, especially those special one). Too bad, we don't have the time to go to visit those nice building.

We spend a night at MMU, MMU was large, but the road was so small and narrow, it is very hard for a big bus to drive through. I think all MMU students had their own transport and travel around the campus since the road is not build for bus and it is quite impossible to walk from building to building. Should I said MMU students is rich? No, I just joking.

We visit MDeC on the next day. MDeC building actual look like a hotel to me... We get many information from MDeC people, about our future as one of the IT graduate students... find job!!! I found that SAP is very on demand on the market... hmm, should I take the course after I graduate? I was expansive man, 11K for student price. Or I should just continue my Master without thinking... My future has bugging in my mind till now.

We have a chance to experience Virtual Reality (VR) as well. That was cool. They also show us about the 3D animation created by malaysian. I would just said that was beyond my expectation. Made in Malaysia wasn't low quality but in fact it is high quality. The graphic and multimedia in Malaysia is speeding up.

At last we visit a company name ACS. A company mainly doing outsourcing business. We get the chance to experience what was the market demand on our IT students. What I can said this trip has show me a lot of thing. I get to know what I should do for the next step. Direct step into the battle field without short term of benefit was not my target after all.

Fennec - firefox in mobile

2008-10-20T12:18:00.003+08:00

Fennec is the Firefox web browser available in mobile. It is currently on alpa version phase only. Seriously I'm not a PDA phone user (Too expansive for me), so I doesn't know how great it was. From the demo video, I saw the interface is standard and professional (similar feeling like Opera). I also saw there is some thing similar to it big brother and add-on tab in the option, I doesn't know is it finalize, if it can have the cold and useful add-on, it should be popular. How many PDA phone developer want to include Fennec remain the biggest problem.

StarCraft II soon or late?

2008-10-17T17:24:00.003+08:00

There has been some news around, that the famous StarCraft II will going be delay again. I bet all the StarCraft fans get usual to that news from Blizzard already. Well, in order not to let the fans down, the Blizzard plan to release StarCraft II into 3 parts each with different races of story. Resource: 'StarCraft 2' is now 3

Well, I always have high expectation on Blizzard as they always balance out the game before release. It look like Blizzard also finding a new way of earning money by breaking the game into 3 parts instead of original and expansion.

Adobe Creative Suit 4 Release

2008-10-16T11:50:00.003+08:00

Just after the day of Silverlight 2 stable build release, Adobe strike back with the latest Adobe Creative Suit 4, with flash player 10, Photoshop CS4 and etc. If you are one of the great user of Adobe, take a look at their website.

Well basically I'm not a great user of Adobe product, the only Adobe product I know how to use is Adobe Reader and Adobe flash player... haha. Although I keep on reminding myself to learn Photoshop but until now still didn't even start a step.

Diary: Wisdom tooth

2008-10-15T17:29:00.003+08:00

Well today I have a really bad experience of operation of taking my wisdom tooth out... ouch... I barely know what the dental has done to inside my mouth. Until now I still feel pain even though I already taken 3 types of pain killer... I wonder I can sleep well tonight or not. I think I will start to miss the taste of rice soon since I cannot eat solid food...

I'm not in a good mood to testing anything out. Although today Firefox 3.1 Beta is release, but I won't try it out as I don't want to mess up my current add-on. I will just wait until it goes to stable release.

OpenOffice 3.0 Release

2008-10-14T21:01:00.002+08:00

Today is a good day to release product? OpenOffice 3.0 finally releases! I have been waiting for this. If you go the the OpenOffice website today, you will see the website is down or the main page change to a very simple download page as there is too many people rush to the there and get one copy of OpenOffice to try on. Linux user should be joy over it as they can finally open the Office 2007 format which usually default saves by their teammate when working on assignment.

Some of you might not know what is OpenOffice, it is actual a set of office software tools like Microsoft Office. OpenOffice is free and open source. Compare the interface with Microsoft Office (Especially the Office 2007), it doesn't provide a very good looking interface but it require far less resource compare with Office. Well, if you need software to simply edit and open Office 2007 format but your computer cannot support Office 2007, try OpenOffice 3.0, you might love it.

I’m once a full time user of OpenOffice as I found there is no different between OpenOffice 2.X with Office 2003. After Office 2007 release, I fall in love with it as it make my life easier, one click apply the color, font I want easily. Now come with OpenOffice 3.0 which as similar function as well. Because of OpenOffice is target on low resource computer, it doesn't have a real time applying effect on your working space what you choose item on tools (Well this is not a big deal).

Well, as the fans of OpenOffice, once I download it, I begin to try using it. Sadly to said, I feel very disappointed once I open it. I open a word 2007 format file (docx), it displaying the thing incorrectly (did not include any smart art) which suffer the same bug like open word 2003 (I think they fix most of the display incorrectly in word 2003 but not word 2007). The interface has not much change, still the same old feeling.

Conclusion, I will still stick to Office 2007 but keep OpenOffice as it is a powerful tool (Well, Office cannot open Open Office format). I hope OpenOffice can fix those bug. What I can say is OpenOffice currently doing a great job to prevent Office from monopoly on this market by keep on improving their product and offer to public as free.

Expression Blend 2 SP 1 Release

2008-10-14T20:22:00.002+08:00

The Microsoft Expression Blend 2 SP 1 also release with the Silverlight 2 release. It was another great news to the developer. It has been in beta testing along with Silverlight 2. Well, it aims to support .NET 3.5 SP 1 and Silverlight 2 in Blend. I still haven't actually tested out the Expression Blend 2 SP 1, but I hope it deliver what it said. I can't wait to try out. Get one copy today if you already have Expression Blend 2 installed. Expression Blend 2 SP 1 download

I wonder with those Silverlight 2 tool getting release and mature, will Silverlight 2 stand a chance to beat flash? Expression Blend 2.5 still in beta, I wonder when it will release.

Silverlight 2 Release

2008-10-14T19:58:00.002+08:00

The Silverlight 2 has finally release. Silverlight 2 has been beta for some time, but now it has release it stable build. Well good news for Windows user but not Linux user.

For non-technical people, what is Silverlight? It is another version of Flash but not develop by Adobe but develop by Microsoft. It has been slowly gaining popularity in the internet world. Well for most people, it has nothing much different, as long as it can work out at your favorite website. So just grab one today if your favorite website need Silverlight but you have no confidence on the beta version. Silverlight 2 download. You no need to uninstall the previous version in order to install the latest one, which Microsoft has done a very great job to make our life easier.

In the other hands, it was great news to developer like me. Finally we can safe to implement something on this. It has make life easier than before compare with version 1. If you previously already install Silverlight 2 SDK, you might have an error installing Silverlight 2 in the link above, but try this Silverlight 2 for developer download. Don't get confuse with Silverlight 2 SDK, the SDK still in beta, this is just the run time.

Conclusion, Silverlight 2 might be something that can stand again Flash. For non-technical people, just get both as long as it works for the most website. For developer, if you never try on Silverlight 2, but know how to program in C# or WPF, just give it a try, it is easy. I’m still waiting for the SDK to go out from beta. I’m still waiting for the SDK to go out from beta. Besides I’m still waiting Silverlight to fully workable on Linux platform too.

WinZip, WinRAR or 7-zip?

2008-10-13T18:16:00.009+08:00

I bet every computer should have at least had 1 file compression software installed. Someone might ask what this thing is, well usually non-technical people will call it program to zip/compress and unzip/extract file.

Most of the people are familiar with WinZip and WinRAR, as most people currently using this 2 software. I'm not sure about what so famous about WinZip, perhaps the name is related with zip? Or most computers pre-installed this software.

Next, WinRAR also one of the popular software that high optimize multi-core technology (those Intel Core 2 Duo, AMD X2) and software that enable user to compress into RAR format.

This 2 software is license and need to pay, although it has a Trier version, but most of the people don't bother about it even after the Trier expiry, as long as it works.

What is 7-zip? 7-zip actual is a compression format that have average higher compression rate compare with zip and rar (in short, the file after compress is smaller). Besides that, 7-zip also is a name of a software that allow user to extract many compression file format such as zip, rar, gzip and etc, and it allow user to compress file into zip and 7-zip. Most important is, this software is FREE, and it is an open source project. Well, the user interface might not look as interesting as other, but it work out nicely and fast (Jzip is another software base on 7-zip and have a nicer user interface, but lack of some most latest feature. FREE too).

For technical person, 7-zip has other feature like compress/extract at background, compress/extract file using command line (this one is useful for software developer), able to extract compression format usually use in linux and etc. Another version of 7-zip which can let you bring around inside pendrive called 7-zip portable.

If you have recently reformatted your PC/laptop and want to download file compression software, try 7zip. 7zip always in the list of tools that I will install on a new reformat PC. You can get it from here 7zip website. Well, just give it a try if you tired to click on the prompt about license expiry.

My experience Windows and Linux

2008-10-12T13:02:00.006+08:00

It has been sometime I switch from windows XP to Ubuntu 8.04. I'm not those peoples who angry on windows but my reason to switch to linux are trying to get familiar with linux. I'm a student who studying Computer Science and I like to promote open source, but I never fully use linux before (usually install and play only a few days).

Now the Ubuntu is sitting in my computer for more than a month and I'm happy with it. Where is Windows? Well, I can't get away from windows as it is needed for my project, assignment, and jobs. I’m having another laptop for windows Vista.

Well from a full windows user to switch to linux was something hard for me at first but not now anymore. Until today, I'm still very happy using Ubuntu 8.04 (Ubuntu 8.10 is coming...). Compare with the older version it has a lot of improvement. Example like the Gnome is crash less than the older one. Yes, linux can crash; don't be fooled by other super linux fans that said linux won't crash.

I can find all the replacement software in linux that serve the something like windows. I can setup Samba server to share folder with my windows on network, using Deluge for P2P (almost as fast as Thunder client), playing any format of song and movie without any problem, chatting with all my friends using pidgin that connect to 6 accounts at once and etc. I can said linux is fun, some of the software is work even better on those on windows and it is all free. Well, everything come with a cost, it really take many time to setup and configure on some software, for those have no idea how to computer work is actually killing them.

I'm not side on linux or windows, but actual both also have their own strength and weakness. Example like windows Vista requirement is high, but the graphic offer is smooth, stable than XP and some good feature. Linux is requirement is low, can offer many cool thing compare with Vista, but the graphic sometime can be lag, some application will crash and close down without any warning or restart…

Conclusion, Ubuntu still need to improve on user friendliness especially those who have low knowledge on computer field. Windows need to continue improve although there are taking most of the share now. Waiting for latest Ubuntu 8.10.

First blog post

2008-10-11T14:42:00.000+08:00

Well, first time create a blog, first time post a blog post.
This is not a private blog, but a public blog to let anyone to view and comment especially friends of mine.
Myself don't know when I will update the blog, but it sure depend on my mood.