Month: March 2002 (Page 2 of 3)

Added a couple more new links under the Linkage sidebar you see
there.

While we’re on the subject on languages, I found a rather nifty feature
on Google
where it can roughly translate any website into some other languages.
Check out this website in the following languages:
Auf Deutsch,
En Español,
En Français

Okay! Call me being off the deep end already! I’ve decided to learn
Finnish! Now, you must be wondering why on good earth would I be
interested to learn what is reputedly one of the most difficult European
language to learn which is only used by about 0.05% of the world’s
population? Heck! Some people even say that even Finns would be
surprised to know that anyone outside Finland would be interested to
learn their language! I dunno really, but it seemed like a good
challenge. I’ve never been good in learning languages (I may speak
and write good English and decent Bahasa, but ask me something
about the technicalities of the language and you’ll floor me easily!) so
I reckon if I could even pick up some decent Finnish, that’d be good
enough to prove myself otherwise. I’ve already managed to pick up
some phrases, starting with “menä en ymmärrä suomea!” which means,
“I don’t speak Finnish!” That’ll change in due time, I hope.

As I was browsing the web to look for Finnish language resources, I
stumbled upon the following which gives you some good reasons to
learn Finnish:

• It is an essentially logical language. The rules are absolute and
  reliable in all situations, except exceptions.

• It is a good sounding language; in other words, it is pleasing to the
  ear. This has to do with its wealth of vowels, which rules out ugly
  consonant clusters. It was recently suggested that some vowels should
  be exported to Czechoslovakia, where shortage of vowels is imminent,
  and that some Czech consonants should be imported to Finland.
  However, negotiations collapsed at an early stage. The Finns would not
  deal with a language that calls ice-cream ‘zrmzlina’, while the Czechs in
  turn distrusted a language that calls it ‘jäätelöä.’

• It is a concise language. One Finnish word can mean several
  different things in English. Why lose time and energy saying ‘the
  committee that takes care of negotiations concerning the truce’ when
  you can use a simple little word like ‘aseleponeuvottelutoimikunta?’

• Learning Finnish builds confidence. If you can learn Finnish, then
  you can learn anything.

• Finnish has longer and better swear words than any other language.

The last one seems reason enough for me! Heheheh!

The rest of the family had to go back to JB to attend to some family
emergency yesterday, which means I get the whole house to myself
this weekend. I would sometimes look forward to this kinda opportunity
for the simple reason of being able to have my life run at my own pace
for a couple of days. Throwing parties may be fun, but cleaning up
after is not as enjoyable, especially on your own! I was needing some
personal time anyways, just for the sake of recollecting myself. So far
at the rate I’m going, it’s more like I hole myself up in my room, with
cable TV going on in the back, cold fast food and pizza left on my study,
soft drinks that has lost its fizz and bottles of mineral water lined up on
the shelf with me either lazing down on my bed, scribbling some stuff
on scraps of papers, reading some book that I just happen to grab off
the shelf, watching some crap on TV or furiously tapping away on the
keyboard. Bliss! I did manage to get myself out from the confines of my
room and house later when I went for my evening run and then later
MidValley and Bangsar.

I slept rather late last night, or rather this morning. I got on to the ‘Net
sometime at 3am when I stumbled into Suria online on MSN. Ended up
chatting and rambling whilst browsing the web and stuff and the next
thing I knew the clock was already showing 5:30am! *slaps forehead!*
I really, really gotta stop doing those sorta things that’ll screw my bio
clock up!

Listening to: X-ecutioners feat. Mike Shinoda and Mr. Hahn – It’s
Going Down

I got myself a copy of The Chemical Brothers‘
latest album, Come With Us the other day. Tom Rowlands and
Ed Simons have done it again. It continues from where their last effort,
Surrender
left off. The whole album is brimming with swirling, squiggly sounds
backed by pulsating, throbbing beats that wouldn’t go wrong at any
rave. They did try to infuse some new elements in this outing. Witness
the percussion work in the midst of It Began In Africa. Turntable
tricks are also aplenty throughout the album. After listening to it
several times though, I found it lacking the gritty and grungy properties
from their Dig Your Own Hole
album. Nonetheless, it’s still a very good album. I’d give it an 8.5/10.

Met up with some of my friends from Purdue for dinner this evening.
They later went karaoke-ing and I went along just for the heck of it.
Heh! At least I know I can carry Man Bai‘s Kau Ilhamku
song! Whoo!

My line of work would occasionally involve computer security. Most of
the time however, news about virus threats don’t interest me as much.
But not this one. This new breed of virus has the inherent ability to avert
anti-virus programs by disassembling an executable and reassembling
it with the program pointers rearranged, thus effectively making itself
(the virus) a part of the instruction flow in the executable and be totally
invisible in the gaze of anti-virus software that utilizes heuristic detection
algorithms. Combine this with a worm like spreading and destructive
capabilities made available by security loopholes in Microsoft’s operating
system as witnessed in recent outbreaks, e.g. Code Red, we have a
real potent mix here. The scary thing about the whole thing is that no
known anti-virus mechanisms out there is able to detect such infections!

However, all is not lost as yet. Technologies such as digital signatures
and fingerprinting, like Microsoft implemented in their device driver signing
initiative, might provide a way out to avert such things from happening
(there is still no way out once something is infected though). But again,
companies or even governments may be slow to adapt and embrace
such things, most likely because there’s no critical need for it yet.
Perhaps the threat of this virus is just the kick in the butt thing that is
needed to make people see the seriousness of what could be an
imminent devastating threat to the computing world.

Detailed info on how the virus works is available
here.

The credibility of our police force in handling prisoners comes into
question after the suspected airport coach robbers
escaped a police lock up early yesterday morning. This certainly isn’t
the first time that something like this happened and it incidences like
these have been on the rise lately. Out of curiousity, would you call
something like this
a lock-up? If it really is, then it’s really a complete joke ‘cos I reckon it
wouldn’t even hold a juvenile delinquent in, let alone major armed
robbery suspects! Egad!

I'm adding photobooks as part of articles within the pages of this website. For starters, enjoy the sights in the Scenes of KLCC! :)

It’s certainly been a while since I last put in any photo collection. I was going through some of the pictures I’ve taken so far and managed to compile some photographs taken around the Kuala Lumpur City Center. So, here they are.

Continue to Scenes of KLCC.

Bart was kind enough to treat us all dinner at KLCC this evening! *BURP!* Thanks, dude! Panjang umur, murah rezeki! Heh! Pictures are here.

Whoo! The 2002 F1 season is now underway and what a start it was at
Albert Park, Melbourne, Australia! Just before the first corner of the
race, Ralf Schumacher got into a really, really nasty accident when he
crashed into the back of Reubens Barichello’s Ferrari and was literally
sent flying over and into the grass before crashing into the tyre barriers.
Nine cars were taken down and out of the race as a result of that
incident and it was rather surprising that they brought out the Safety
Car and not the red flag to start the race over.

Coulthard was leading the pack just before the Safety Car left the track
but a problem with the gear caused him to steer into the grass and let
Montoya, Trulli and Schumacher past him. Montoya was then leading
the race and a furious battle for 2nd place ensued between Trulli and
Schumacher. It wasn’t for long though when Trulli fumbled at one of
the turns and crashed his car, causing the Safety car to make another
appearance. After the mess was cleared up, Schumacher was at
Montoya’s tail end for a couple of laps before the latter conceded with
Kimi Raikkonen, now with McLaren Mercedes, catching up into 3rd
position. David Coulthard’s car eventually stalled midway through
making him among those who didn’t complete the race.

Australian Mark Webber had lady luck working for him as he made a
really memorable debut into Formula One with the Minardi team, much
to the home crowd’s delight. Just about two laps before the race end,
Mika Salo in his Toyota was on the verge of overtaking the Asiatech
Minardi when he miscalculated a turn and spun his car, which essentially
costed him a potential 5th position.

A dramatic start to the 2002 season indeed! Final standings: 1 –
Michael Schumacher (Ferrari), 2 – Juan Pablo Montoya (Williams BMW),
3 – Kimi Raikkonen (McLaren Mercedes), 4 – Eddie Irvine (Jaguar
Cosworth), 5 – Mark Webber (Asiatech Minardi), 6 – Mika Salo (Toyota).