I just re-install (again) my windows on the weekend. I borrowed Roxio Creator CD (a burning software) from friend, install it, reboot windows, and realized my windows are screwed up. Windows are running extremely slow, many of the windows services are not running. I gave up... even the System Restore is unable to load up. This is the 2nd time in 2 weeks time I need to reinstall windows on my notebook.

So, it's backup time. Not much things (rubbish) to backup since this is still a pretty "fresh" copy of windows. But hey, the Copy & Paste, Drag & Drop, CTRL+C & CTRL+V ain't working ... Luckily the command prompt is still working, the good old copy and xcopy command saved the day =)

After going through the pain of windows update to get SP1 upgraded to SP2, I think it's a good idea to Slipstreaming Windows XP with Service Pack 2 (SP2) to save myself some time in future. On top of that, you can Slipstreaming Microsfot Office (2003) with SP2 (or any version of Office you have)

However, you still need to do windows/office update after installation to get HotFixes and optional updates. You can "slipstreaming" HotFixes too, but it's way too complicated, you can search Microsoft's KnowledgeBase for more info or just leave the hard work to Windows Update =)

How is this possible #3:
Australia personal loan (car loan) has an interest rate of 9% - 13%, comparing to Malaysia, having only 3% - 4% ???? Why ????

《恶魔狂想曲 之 明日骄阳》 等了 N 个月后终于更新了 ！ 哎，这小说更新速度拖得太久了，读了最新的一章后说真的没什么感觉了。。。不过就是想看故事情节如何发展。。。支持一下吧！

My notebook's harddisk is dead... totally dead. It happened without giving any sign before it just went completely dead and giving that loud clicking clunking noise making me thinks that it's a ticking bomb... The "best" part of it was, it's dead on the 1st day of 2007...Crap attack !

Sad thing is, I didn't backup most of the things in that hdd. Most of them were photos taken quite some time ago until recently... OMG !!! Last photo backup was 2 years ago -_- On top of that, I lost ALL the files for my site. That includes the older versions of all the scripts/media/data and the backup copies as well I always laugh and point to those admin and say "Why don't you do a regular backup ?" when their system crashed and they spend hours and hours trying to recover the data which is N days ago. Now I taste the bitter myself. Damn it ! why didn't I backup my things ?

Anyway, thanks to Karen, I'm able to resurrect my notebook with a new 2.5" HDD before this weekend arrives. Well, I don't know why the computer shops here close so early... some close at 4pm... and they only open half day on Saturday ! doh... I just hate that !

Installing the system took less than 30 mins, but doing the Windows update took me whole night. But still, thanks to the high speed internet, it's less pain in the ass compared to a 56k dialup.

Related weblog entry: New life, new Windows , a quick list containing links to some basic downloads.

My dearest hdd:
You gave me the chance to install (old) games like C&C, Warcraft, CS, Gunbound, Ragnarok, KalOnline and etc. I will not forget the sweet memories of pwning and kicking opponents' asses, may you rest in peace.

It's the last day of year 2006! Go go go ~~ it's only 15hrs+ left till midnight !

I'm busy lately, and I think I'll be occupied until end of Jan next year. Lots of things came up recently and a few of them are notable "milestone" in my life. The decisions that I need to make will causes a huge impact in my life. I guess everybody is has to or eventually will experience this, but this is my first time

I've seek advises from parents and those whose around me, but I'm still worried. I hope I've made the correct move and hopefully things won't screwed up later, if not I'm in big trouble




ps: hmm....next year is pig year, anybody got nice golden pig picture ?

It's Christmas time (again)! Below are some pictures shot lately with my Sony Ericsson K800. My phone is now equipped with a 1GB M2 memory card !

Christmas trees. Oh well, I still think these trees need more blink blink decoration... it's not enough !



Below is one of houses in my vicinity which is fully geared up for Christmas. Very nice lighting !


Two special star shape scones baked by Karen and Winny. Oh well, I'm just messing around more than helping :p


Additional info for the pictures above:

Subject	Christmas
Location	Everywhere
Date	Before 2006 Christmas
Equipment	Sony Ericsson K800
Picture Size	Scaled from 2048 x 1536 / 1536 x 2048
Extra note	Scaling and watermark effect done via FastStone Photo Resizer. Photo saved in 85% quality. Watermark image is created with Gimp.

Also, I've recorded the christmas fireworks last night in Southbank with my K800, you can click here (~9.3Mb) to download or watch it.

How is this possible #2:
Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way,
Christmas in Australia on a scorching summer's day, Oh ~~~

hmm...? wait ! Oh my god, it's Christmas tomorrow and why I still don't feel the scorching heat in Brisbane during the day time eh ? Some more it's still cold at night for last few days

Don't know if this is has anything to do with global warming... the weather is really crazy this year. Arrhh... I hate summer but it's weird that this year's Christmas is not happening in a scorching summer's day...

这阵子比较少阅读网上小说，原因无非是没什么好书，也懒得去找新书看。再说好书都更新得好慢，有些作者更被怀疑被招进皇宫里当太监了。。。悲哀啊~

不过今天有好消息，期待已久的第37集 异人傲世录 终于更新了！！！

爽啊~~~

Just for fun, I'll create a "101 How is this possible" category. It will consists of things that happened on me or around me. Let's start the first one:

How is this possible #1:
One accidental kick on my notebook resulting the PS/2 port on the notebook no longer working...

I know PS/2 thing is history thing... but did I forget to mention I only have one USB port on my notebook and my USB adaptor is dead a month ago. I need that PS/2 for my mouse and the USB port for other purpose. You know, touchpad is really a pain in the ass even when you're trying to use it to click on Windows Start button.

End of the day, what you should learn from the above is: Never use notebook on bed ! Oh well, not when you need some stretch, especially your leg...

Are you still a Winamp die hard fan?


I've been using Winamp for almost 8 years, back to the time when I'm still in high school. Their simple and easy to use interface, minor resource usage and ability to display chinese song titles (in playlist) are the main reasons that makes me a loyal fan to it.

But not anymore, after I update my Winamp to version 5.32 yesterday night, I've trouble to get Winamp to display chinese song titles. SimHei font isn't doing the trick anymore, even tried font rendering settings on the modern skin and also throw in Microsoft AppLocale to aid the encoding thing but it just won't work. The weird thing is, v5.32 supports Unicode better than the old Winamp version I got but I can't understand why it won't work the way I want on the new version.

So, a friend intro me 千千静听. Best thing of this is, the player is using Simplified Chinese for the interface and encoding. That means it shouldn't have a problem to display chinese song titles in the playlist and in player. The downside is, it assume you're running on Simplified Chinese version of Windows. You'll still got trouble to display the chinese song titles if you're running a english version of WindowsXP.

To correct that and make life feels good, download Microsoft AppLocale utility. Install it and run it.
Once you got the utility running:

• Choose "Launch an application"
• Click "Browse..." to navigate to the 千千静听 folder and target TTPlayer.exe
• Click Next, select 中文（简体）
• Click Next and choose "Create a shortcut"

Once you're done, there will be a shortcut added. You can always copy that shortcut and place it in QuickLaunch toolbar. Each time you need to run the player, just use the shortcut created by AppLocale. Depends on how your songs info are stored, if you still having trouble to display the song title, try this:

• Click any song in the playlist
• Right click and select 文件属性
• On the 读取类型优先级, change to ID3v1 > ID3v2 > APEv2

You should get something like below:


It's good when you can read and understand the song titles On top of that 千千静听 also has auto lyrics download and showing... what else do you need ? Life's good ~~~