Month: October 2001 (Page 1 of 2)

Windows XP: Really, What’s New?

I really don’t get it as to why people are praising
Windows XP
heaps. I mean, if you’re talking about the stability that it offers as
compared to Windows 9x/ME, I hate to break it to you but lemme tell
you this: It’s old news, my friend! Linux
users would have definitely agreed. But even if you were to confine it
within the Windows family, the stability has been there since Windows
2000. Windows XP is really Windows 2000 with the Fisher Price
(y’know, the kiddie toy maker!) look and feel on the user interface,
which was obviously something they just had to put in since Apple
introduced Aqua in OS X.
As far as the kernel (core) of the operating system, nothing like the
Service Packs can’t do to Windows 2000 to get it up to speed with XP
(Heh! It’ll be interesting to see how users of Windows 9x/ME handle
patching their OS with Service Packs and Hotfixes in the future!). Of
course, XP has got some other features tacked on to it as well, which
to me makes it more of a bloat and subsequently puts a premium on
the hardware requirements needed to run the operating system alone,
I think. What XP can do, it can be done in Windows 2000 as well, only
that it takes a little bit more effort to install the 3rd party drivers,
software, etc. But hey! At least they aren’t tied to the operating system
like in XP (and requires much less resources too)! Besides, those 3rd
party stuff have more functionality than the stuff that’s bundled into XP
so I think I’m gonna let Windows 2000 Professional live on my PC
(besides FreeBSD,
of course! ;) with its merry bunch of 3rd party software for just a little
bit longer (read: until I can’t run something I need to use on that OS!)
So far, my current set up allows me to do the stuff I need to without
hassles, e.g. email, web-browsing, watch VCDs/DVDs and even TV,
play games (Quake,
Max Payne),
word-processing, photo editing stuff from my digicam, play/create
MP3s, burn CDs etc. Besides, I don’t think I wanna be forking the
moolah this soon after forking out quite a bit when I got my copy of
Windows 2000 Professional last year (Yes, Virginia! I got the original
copy despite the bootlegged version being available in abundance at
Imbi Plaza.) and not to mention ditch all the time and effort taken to
get the set up to what it is right now.

Still, It’ll be interesting to see how well it’s gonna go with the
consumers and prosumers out there. My bet is that most home users
still using 9x/ME will eat XP out of Microsoft’s hands much to Bill Gates’
delight while those who have invested in Windows 2000 will just let it
hang in there some more.

Ex-Boilermakers Pot-Luck Gathering

The old gang from Purdue was re-united for the evening when Joey hosted a pot-luck over at his apartment in Shah Alam. Coolness! It was certainly nice to meet and catch up with them ex-Boilermakers and see what they're up to these days! Anyways, shout outs to Joey & wife, Mat Duan, Shida, Seme, Amy, Bogo, Fern, Ninie, Duan, Izaidy, Putat, Burn, Hanif, Nadia, Nora, Bard, Rosli, Sal, Ustad, Cobou, Eijatt, Nong, Lah, Faris. Uhmmm… did I miss anyone there? Hope not! *GRiN* Anyways, them pictures are here. If you think the pictures suck, tell that to Izaidy, yah? 'Cos he took most of the pictures! ;)

Update (Oct. 30): I somehow knew that I missed a name, and it's come back to haunt me! Azura! There you go! :)

Purdue Potluck Gathering

Joey’s Apartment
Sunday, Oct. 27, 2001

Mud Flood

Thank God we made it back to Kajang yesterday or we would’ve missed this one had we prolonged our stay. Anyways, a massive mud flood hit our house this afternoon after a very heavy downpour. Thankfully, it didn’t get past the compound garden and into the house after we’ve put some barricades to block the water and mud from further pouring in. Just check out the pictures below:

Pleasant Journey

I just made it to Johor Bahru this afternoon. The drive from Kajang was
just slightly under three hours (Okay! So I pressed the accelerator a lil’
bit at certain stretches!), and for once it was certainly a pleasant drive!
No kidding! For once, I wasn’t harrassed by those kiasu drivers in the
Mercs, Beamers and the occasional Protons, flashing their headlights
signalling me to get off the fast lane when I’m overtaking some other
car(s) at 140kph with some loved ones on board! I usually stick my
middle finger out to them when they pass by. Anyways, today’s drive
was bliss, I tell you! Good weather, nice driving music to accompany
me… Ahhhh! Still, I miss those times when my friends and I were doing
those 300-400 mile journeys on the U.S. Interstates during the summer.
Ever watched Good Will Hunting?
Remember the end credit sequence in that movie? Heh! I suppose you
can put that bit in my list of favorite parts from the brilliant movie!

Still on the subject of journey, Lil’ Miss Brickchick‘s
flying off tonight to Australia to further her studies. Sorry I can’t make
it to the airport with the rest of the gang as I’m some 300km away from
KLIA today! :P Anyways, all the best there, doodette! Au revoir! Bon
Voyage! There’d definitely be a vacuum left in Xfresh.com
and #hitz.fm on SorceryNet! Heh!

Why Piracy Lives

Much has been said recently about how rampant piracy is in this country. I’ve been thinking about it lately and it struck me that one of the factors contributing to the situation is availability. I went to Tower Records the other day hoping to get myself Crystal Method’s Tweekend, Baby Boy soundtrack,
Methods Of Mayhem, Tyrese’s 2000 Watts but NONE of them are available! I realize that the market for those albums may not be as many as the larger mainstream and commercial (read Boyband loving) market but you’re ignoring fans of those artists and music genres altogether! So what else can we do but resort to finding MP3s of those tunes on the Internet and subsequently contributing and succumbing to piracy altogether? Now I really like those artists to the point that I’m willing to support them by getting actual copies of their albums but there aren’t any dammit! And what’s the deal with only the censored albums being available too? When I cough up the hard earned dough for an album, I don’t wanna listen to some deformed and neutered piece of work. In this situation, piracy wins again when those people resort to other means (e.g. Internet via Napster) to get their music fix.

Of course, the other factor has to be consumers’ purchasing power. Look at it this way, the average Malaysian earns between RM2,000 (USD 520) to RM3,000 (USD 780) a month. The average American earns between USD2,000 to USD3,000 a month. Now, there’s already an imbalance there. However, the price of a music CD costs around RM 45 (USD 11) here in Malaysia. Looking at some online music stores (e.g. CD Universe), the price is about the same. Now, does that seem right to you? Two different groups of people with different income levels trying to purchase the same goods at the same price. The group with the lower income will definitely feel the pinch of course and what else can they resort to other than pirated goods which costs way, way less. And there we go, piracy wins again.

Then of course, there are those VCD/DVD movie pirates as well. Again, this is contributed by the high cost of a DVD to the average Malaysian. To the average American, forking out USD 20 to USD 25 may not be much when they’re earning some USD 2,000 to USD 3,000 but it does to the average Malaysian who’s earning around USD 500!

Bring It On!

Whoohoo! This has gotta be the longest lapse yet as far as PWM’s
concerned! I was concentrating on some other stuff lately. Menial and
mundane stuff. My head’s really done in with the PWM thingy lately so
I decided to take some time off from it. So today, I was at it again and
fixed a couple of things mainly the Guestbook and Comments thingy.
Previously what happened was that if you throw in an apostrophe into
the entry and it’ll just go *klunk*. So essentially, it’s been made
slightly more robust now. Oh yeah! See that ‘Comment’ thingy along the
header? Feel free to throw in comments into my daily ramblings. Bring
it on!

Got a call from one of my ol’ buddies at PPP/ITM last night. It all stemmed
from my curiousity when I ran his name on Google
and saw his name coming up on UKM‘s
website. I went, “W.t.f. is that s.o.b. doing there??!” So anyways, nice to
hear from you again, Hafiz!

Limp Bizkit Gone Wes-less

Saw this bit of news as I was browsing MTV‘s
website. I’m sure this one caught many people and especially fans
offguard. The parting was an amicable one it seems. No matter what,
I think it may change Limp Bizkit’s sound somewhat. He’s been with the
band since its inception and has somewhat made LB as what it is today.
That elaborate face and body paint will be sorely missed from LB’s
future performances. But perhaps we’ll see it again with Big Dumb
Face
instead? Heh!

Busy Weekend

Gee! The weekend turned out to be quite eventful after all. First on
Friday evening, I was at my Aunt’s wedding (Heh! Corny as it may seem,
she’s a couple of years younger than I am! In the scheme of things, she’s
my Mom’s cousin). So many congratulations, Tini and Khairi!

Then, I was at MK‘s
farewell lunch party at Planet Hollywood yesterday afternoon. Almost the
whole of AMPi’s team members were there. He’ll be pursuing greener
pastures after his stint at AMPi. All the best, dude! Oyez! I finally get
to meet his kickass wifey
too! Check her out… I mean her site!

This afternoon, Hadi invited me to his month old son’s aqiqah and
potong jambul ceremony at his place in Seremban. Heh! I wasn’t sure
how I should go about snipping off a tuft of hair from the baby. God
knows I might poke the baby with the scissors or something. Thankfully
it all went alright! Alhamdulillah! So congratulations once again, Hadi!

Snap! Snap! Click! Click! Flash!

Heh! I finally broke down and got myself a Nikon Coolpix 775
digital camera instead. I know! I know! I’ve been rambling and singing
praises for the Canon Powershot A20 all this while. So why the change
of mind? Two things: 1. Rechargeable Li-ion batteries, this one came
bundled with the CP775 while the A20 doesn’t and 2. Compact Flash
Memory Card, the shop I got this one from was willing to throw in a 64MB
CF card for like an additional RM 50. So that’s that. How do I find it so
far? Great! A tad small though. I’m so used to using an SLR camera all
this while so it’s a bit awkward going back to something similiar to a
compact camera. Nightshots aren’t quite possible with this camera. No
matter how hard I try to force the Exposure level settings, it’s just not
able to capture that much light, resulting an image with a lot of “noise”.
I suppose I’ll have to wait a bit till I can afford something like the
CoolPix 995 then. Heh! This is almost turning into a review already. Perhaps I oughtta put it
in as an article instead.

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