Steven Yong's Weblog - non-computer

Insert drivers into Windows XP installation CD

nospam@example.com (Steven Yong) — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 23:59:00 +0800

We might not able to use Windows XP setup CD to install Windows XP on some desktops/laptops that come with Windows Vista, due to the missing of hard disk controller drivers. Those drivers is for certain newer hard disks with some "enhanced" feature built-in. In order to be able to install Windows XP, you can go into BIOS and enable the native SATA control but this requires a little hard disk knowledge and it is a BIOS-dependant trick. Or you can follow this article to modify your Windows XP installtion CD by inserting some drivers and reburn another one.

Music album in a flash memory card

nospam@example.com (Steven Yong) — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 23:59:00 +0800

SanDisk announced the availability of new physical music format called "SlotMusic', with the support from the four major music labels: EMI Music, Sony BMG, Universal Music Group, and Warner Music Group. According to the news, you can insert this new MicroSD card into your phones or music players and immediately listen to the album. The MicroSD card can essentially store entire music album.

There is awards for blog in Singapore

nospam@example.com (Steven Yong) — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 23:59:00 +0800

Got this piece of email this morning:

I've tried very hard to make this sound not like a spam message. But it's quite hard. (I tried, though.) =P
Well, it's just a leeeetle spam. Please bear with me because this is important to me!

I'm a finalist in the Omy S'pore Blog Awards and need your vote to win the award! The category I'm in is "Most Entertaining Blog". I'm quite flattered, really. But all that aside, now I'm kinda obliged to solicit for votes, lol.
If you love me (or love my blog) or potentially do (or even if not), please vote for me because I work hard on my blog!

My blog is at http://sheylara.com if you need to verify that I'm a real human being and not a spam bot.

And here is how to vote:

1. Go to this link: http://sgblogawards.omy.sg/finalists/?blogCat=entertain
2. Click on the "Vote Now" button.
3. Enter your e-mail and type a password of your choice.
4. Click on my picture and vote!

One of my favorite video on YouTube

nospam@example.com (Steven Yong) — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 23:59:00 +0800

It gets close to 2 million of views and is very much of an edutainment one. It would probably make those who only read non-computer start digging into computer ones.

The Java app I like the most, so far

nospam@example.com (Steven Yong) — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 23:59:00 +0800

By looking at the title, those who know me might be tempted to think that it must be NetBeans IDE, of course not. NetBeans is just the tool that I use most to earn a living.

It is Azureus.

Azureus is a BitTorrent client, written in Java, and it is now called Vuze.

Let's take a look at some screenshots.

The first reason that I like it so much: I don't feel it is written in Java. Secondly, it is really feature-rich. Other than the single core feature that it offers, which is downloading files, it also provides quite a number of nice features. For example, in the middle of downloading some large files, I find that there might not have sufficient disk space and I wanted to move the downloaded files to different disk. I can do that with just four clicks.

This app shows the essentials of a good software: easy to use, feature-rich, decent UI and efficient network and disk I/O operations.

It will be in my top ten list even just talk about software I like in general.

Change Microsoft Office product key

nospam@example.com (Steven Yong) — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 09:33:21 +0800

Just used the wrong box to install Microsoft Office (XP, 2003 or 2007) and the online activation failed?

Don't uninstall it first, instead, modify the Registry, follow this Microsoft Support article.

After that, you can re-enter the product key comes with the right box.

Blog system upgraded

nospam@example.com (Steven Yong) — Thu, 29 May 2008 11:59:16 +0800

I did not expect that it would take me 2 years just to upgrade my blog system.
Anyway, finally I got it done, from version 0.9 to 1.3. So what are the new things that you, as a reader will see?

Nothing much actually.

There is lots more styles for you to choose and I believe it would load faster

It seems a little boring by telling you that this blog system has got upgraded, let me see... why not share with you the successful page after the system upgrading is done?

I think what really has to be upgraded is the frequency of my posting, don't you agree?

PS: Sorry for make you waiting Angie.

Coolest thing in this year JavaOne

nospam@example.com (Steven Yong) — Mon, 12 May 2008 09:45:46 +0800

Let's don't talk about the practical usage, isn't it cool to have a computer running inside a pen with a reasonable price of $149 (1GB) and $199 (2GB)?

Check out the Live demo at JavaOne (fast forward to 58th minute) and the company website. Guess what's the problem that this pen is trying to solve? See what tagline they've trademarked.

Radio traffic report

nospam@example.com (Steven Yong) — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 09:34:58 +0800

Due to the recent weather, SMART Tunnel is closed until further notice. The closing causes extremely heavy traffic on KL-Seremban highway, the highway that I use most often. The traffic report suggests that we could use LDP for an alternate route.

LDP, or Damansara-Puchong Expressway, the highway with high volume of traffic even on holidays.

Just because a method sucks on occasion doesn't mean you can suggest another method that always sucks.

I imagine this scenario when listening to the radion report:

Day 1 - Area A is dangerous
Day 2 - Area A is dangerous
Day 3 - Area A is known to be dangerous
Day 4 - As we know, area A is dangerous, but area B is also unsafe today
Day 5 - Area C is exceptionally dangerous today, you might try area A

Make sure you ask if your job is part of the core business

nospam@example.com (Steven Yong) — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 09:39:24 +0800

After announcing the layoff of about 125 people, the spokesman of eBay explained that the decision is due to the reorganisation of the company to focus on their core business. What is the core of an online auction platform? the marketing? the web development? the network infrastructure? the security or the testing? Next time when you are sitting in a job interview, it's better to make sure you will be hired into the core business.

The representative of my area

nospam@example.com (Steven Yong) — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 09:49:47 +0800

We Malaysian have just finished the General Election last Saturday, and Ms. Teo Nie Ching has won the Serdang (where I stay) parliamentary seat. From now on, this 27-year-old female lawyer will speak for us in the government. Besides, she has a blog and some photo albums.

Random-picked acquisition news

nospam@example.com (Steven Yong) — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 09:51:52 +0800

Occasionally I will share some news that I find interesting.

25/Feb/2008, Novell to buy PlateSpin management software - link
3/Mar/2008, Taylor Nelson Sofres purchased Compete - link
3/Mar/2008, Acer buys smartphone maker E-Ten - link
4/Mar/2008, MySpace co-founder acquires video-sharing site - link
4/Mar/2008, Spot Runner acquires online ad firm Weblistic - link

Interview with Cay Horstmann

nospam@example.com (Steven Yong) — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 14:09:37 +0800

Another interview with Java Champion, Cay Horstmann, my favorite Java book author and a programming teacher. He wrote my favorite Java book, Core Java, the book that makes me understand how to program in Java when I was fresh.

Doing programming

nospam@example.com (Steven Yong) — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 17:15:44 +0800

Every now and then some of my friends will ask if I'm still doing programming, especially those in the same line. To them it seems that programming should be the job scope that we should get rid of as early as possible in order to show that we are no longer in the lower level in terms of position as well as salary.

Please do not ask me again, I am still doing and will be doing until I am not able to.

Happy Chinese New Year

nospam@example.com (Steven Yong) — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 10:06:35 +0800

Hi all my dear readers,

Wishing you a happy and prosperous Chinese New Year! Don't miss this year big movies CJ7 and Kung Fu Dunk, if you are too busy to watch both, I suggest you go for CJ7, that would be sufficient to cheer you up during your holidays.

From Steven

PS: In case you are not going anywhere tonight, check out The Making of CJ7 at 10:30 on Astro channel 311.