Dosboy's Bits and Bytes

More Singapore

2011-01-24T01:50:00.001+07:00

I'm back in Singapore, for 2 weeks this time. A friend of mine has started his own consulting company here and wants me to work with him, so I'm here to learn the product-line (OpenText). It'll be nice to make some real money again.

And as an aside, it's -18 in Toronto right now according to my weather widget. MINUS EIGHTEEN! It's 26 here in Singapore, though I did wear long pants today cuz the air conditioning makes me cold.

Funcards

2010-12-23T03:08:00.001+07:00

A good buddy just released his first iPhone app, Funcards. It's a flash card app to help small children learn. It comes with a bunch of pre-made cards, but you can make your own through a variety of methods.

Trust me when I say that if this guy put his blood, sweat and tears into Funcards - especially when his goal was to help is own son learn - that it'll be the best iPhone flashcard app ever, and worth every penny. And really, at $1.99, it is only pennies you'll be spending. Isn't your child's brain worth a couple of bucks?

From the website...

How long did it take for your child to learn to swipe to the next photo on your iPhone or iPod touch? It didn’t take our little guy very long. I wrote this App so that little people like him could experience iPhone photos with full sound and titles and they could learn as they swiped. Funcards lets parents and older children create card decks from your favorite photos and add sounds (even sound effects) to entertain and educate your little ones.
Funcards comes with two sample decks (letters of the English alphabet and numbers from 1-9) but the real magic is in making your own. For example, you could make card decks for:
family and friends who you don't see as often as you would like
favorite foods for you child to learn to recognize
letter and words in your own language, or a second language
animals from your local farm or zoo, with sound effects
cherished toys that could not come on your vacation

And a special quote from the man himself...

Swiping left and right on my iPhone is one of the first fine motor skills that my boy learned (right after throwing my iPhone against the wall). He was a master of the swipe by the time he was a year old. Now he's 19 months old and is already able to recognize and say many letters and numbers. We use Funcards to keep our extended family on the tip of his (giant) little brain and are coming up with new ideas for card decks all the time. It's a blast.

Grinning Gecko

2010-12-11T11:53:00.001+07:00

I'm in the process of launching a new site called Grinning Gecko. It will be focused on web development, and will eventually include tutorials, tips, tricks, thoughts, rants and other tidbits of webby goodness.

I will continue to update dosboy.ca with the occasional blurb about my life, but for all things technical Grinning Gecko is where it's at (or will be once I get some content up). This phase is always painful. There's so much I want to share, but there's only so much time in a day. So, slowly but surely Grinning Gecko will evolve into something that I hope can be of use to other developers.

Pizza Delivery

2010-11-11T02:02:00.000+07:00

In Thailand they have a lot of different street food vendors. They sell all sorts of things, from pork and chicken to crickets and beetles. The latter mostly in Bangkok. But today I saw the best street food vendor ever. The picture isn't great (should have taken it from the other side so that you could see the scooter that powers this contraption), but it is a mobile pizza kitchen. Two dudes drive around on this thing and for 190 baht (or about $6) you can buy a pizza that they cook off their mobile pizza oven. And it's powered by a 150cc scooter (and probably a couple of tanks of propane). They say it takes 6 mins, but it really took more like 10-15. But for $6 it's a pretty good pizza (actually, I don't really know; I didn't try any). They also sell slices for 50 baht (or about $1.70), but I don't think they'd compare in size or quality to Pizza Pizza.

Oh, Toronto pizza, how I miss thee.

Holy Shit I Love Google!

2010-10-12T22:34:00.004+07:00

I realize that every once in awhile I proclaim my undying love to the big G. And every time I do I feel like a bit of a sycophant. But I really do love them.

Today I realized that some other company had created a Boat Charter Phuket listing on Google Places. All of a sudden my listing wasn't coming up anymore. Then I realized that not only had they stolen my name (granted, I could see someone else using it since none of those words are really trademarked or anything), but they were also using my logo! Which you can see below, is really just an image with my domain name. But they had a different domain name! Yet, they were coming up in all the listings where I should have been, and all of a sudden my traffic had dropped by about 40%. And to top it all off, their site is currently under construction! There's nothing even there but a splash page from their hosting company!

So I decided to report them. Wasn't sure which method to take, so I did a multi-pronged attack. First I submitted their Places listing as spam via Google Webmaster Tools. Then I reported copyright infringement on the logo since it's obviously mine. THEN I reported their business listing as inappropriate.

Well, I'm happy to say that within 5 hours I had an automated response from Webmaster Tools saying they'd received my spam report. Now, received is one thing, but when I checked out the Places link again it had all been fixed. My listing now comes up where it used to, and their site is now showing Under Construction as the only indexed content (which was obviously manually triggered by the Goog as "Under Construction" doesn't appear anywhere on their site).

Thanks Google!

UPDATE: Seems like Google kind of mashed our listings together. It's now got my website and address, but it's got their description and phone number. And I don't have the rights to edit that listing... but when I edit MY listing through the Google Places interface then click the link to view it live, it takes me to the mashed up listing. Hope this gets sorted out, but at least it's got my website so the traffic drop should stop.

Blog Posting

2010-09-18T01:35:00.000+07:00

Sometimes I feel really inspired to write a blog post. But then I feel like I have more important things to do. So I don't write it.

This is one of those times. This was not the blog post that I was inspired to write, but I feel like I have more important things to do than write the original, so I'm writing this quick little blurb instead.

Also, it usually happens late at night (early in the morning) when I'm trying to sleep. I hate that.

And for those of you that care, the original post was going to revolve around ideas vs. execution, and work hard vs. work smart. Seriously, it was inspired. Bah. However I will provide the inspiring link (content alone did not inspire me... it was content + comments, so check those out as well).

http://sivers.org/multiply

Infrastructure vs. Development

2010-09-12T03:38:00.000+07:00

I just spent about 2 hours trying to resolve a problem between a web app and the db. I considered writing this post tomorrow, but decided that given my mindset right now it was more appropriate not to wait.

I remember the days of working infrastructure that we would schedule maintenance at 11pm. We'd meet up at the server room and bust our asses to get everything done by 1:30am so that we could hit Jack Astor's (or whatever bar was nearby to the hosting environment / office) and order a pitcher before last call. Because, as infrastructure monkeys, we knew that when the bits started flowing, our job was done.

But, as mentioned above, I just spent about 2 hours (from 1:00am to 3:00am) trying to resolve a problem between a web app and the db. I got it resolved. But, as a developer, all that means is that it's now time to BEGIN doing work. Cuz as a developer, when the infrastructure is finally working, my job has just begun.

Mike and Fred, I miss you guys. And our late-night downtown Toronto drunken server escapades. And Lemmiwinks.

Google Chrome Status Bar

2010-08-04T20:22:00.002+07:00

Having just switched to Chrome cuz Firefox's rampant CPU utilization was annoying me, I was immediately struck with another annoyance. Chrome is lacking a proper status bar. It truncates long URLs at the END and cuts off any query string variables. Not very nice for developers.

So, I took it upon myself to create a little extension that shows the full href attribute of any <a> elements in an unobtrusive status bar of my own. Hope it helps someone out there.

Download: https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/ojjdiklbbogaliiljdbpbkkkghendjja

Support: http://groups.google.com/group/google-chrome-status-bar-extension

Facebook is Dead to Me

2010-07-06T19:29:00.001+07:00

I am officially cancelling my facebook account. The other day someone in my friends list had a "Like" about some video. Curious, I wanted to check out the video, so I clicked the link. Well, it turns out that in simply VIEWING the video the site developer injected a "Like" on my account for that video as well. I never said I liked it. In fact, I didn't really like it. Having my own little pocket of information on the web that I can direct my friends to is nice, but when people start doing stupid shit it makes me angry. Google "facebook auto like" and you'll see a bunch of black-hat forums where script kiddies are doing this all over the place. Next it's gonna be "auto let-app-have-access-to-my-details", then "auto take-over-my-account". No thanks. And just now I tried to download a PDF from Scribd. It said I could use my facebook account to log in and download it instead of creating an account there. So I chose that option... then it said it needed access to my account. Well, eff that. I'm not giving some random website access to my facebook details so I can d/l a pdf file that's already visible for me to read (just not to save). So, this blog (soon to be migrated to a different environment and spruced up quite a bit - when I have time that is) will continue to be my personal pocket of information on the web. Which _I_ control.

Gregg, you had it right all along. Fuck Facebook.

Funniest Thing I've Read In Awhile

2010-06-17T07:57:00.003+07:00

From an email conversation with a friend which degenerated into a thread about TV Trivia, and me citing my Three's Company expertise:

[I] Wasn't allowed to watch three's company because of God.

I don't even know 100% what that means, but it makes me laugh... nay, guffaw... every time I read it. Go God!

As an aside, I chose this picture because I love Terri. Literally. God be damned!

Singapore AGAIN!

2010-05-24T13:31:00.003+07:00

Ok, now that that's out of the way, I came to Singapore again today. Last time I just hung out at the airport in an attempt to save money. This time I decided that it's ok if I spend a little extra in order to take advantage of Singapore. And by that I mean take advantage of Brewerkz. BBQ Bacon Cheeseburger and multiple Oatmeal Stouts. I am in heaven. To quote a friend, "the only thing missing is a roman orgy". Though technically that would get in the way of my burger and beer, so I'd probably pass anyway.

So anyway, there's a bit of a story (assuming a story is the ability for my readers to laugh at my expense). Woke up this morning with just enough time, went downstairs, and my car wouldn't start. Have been having battery problems lately, and from the moment I got up to the moment I heard the "click-click", I was thinking positive thoughts. "My car will start. My car *will* start." But it didn't. So after swearing for a couple minutes and calling the only 2 people I knew with cars that might be up at 7:15am (of which neither of them were awake/available), a car pulled into my driveway and I was able to get a jump. But then it started to rain. So, there I am, pulling jumper cables and attaching them to batteries while the rain is pouring down and I'm drenched (electricity and water - the breakfast of champions). Anyway, got the car started, got to the airport, got checked in, and got on my plane. Everything was uneventful until I got to Singapore. No problem at customs and all that, got in a cab and told him I wanted to go to Brewerkz. I'd already done my research last night (of course) and figured out what I wanted. But all he could say to me was "it's really far". "I've already flown here from Thailand... a long drive isn't going to deter me" I told him. So what does he do? He drives for a bit, then pulls into some sort of mall with a foodcourt and says "there's lots of places to eat here".

REALLY?! Your fare (that you picked up at the airport) asks you to go to a specific restaurant, and you take him to a foodcourt? Anyway, he sat there for awhile calling people trying to get directions, and eventually took me to a Brewerkz at some stadium. It looked a little suspicious (as in nothing looked open), but he seemed confident so I paid him and got out of the cab. He drove away. I walked around the building to where the Brewerkz is and it was CLOSED! So then I had to walk a few hundred metres to a taxi stand at another building. And I stood there for a long time before a cab came. But my new taxi driver was awesome. Had a nice conversation with her about the crazy red-shirts in Bangkok and arrived at my destination with only a $7 and change cab fare (after the nearly $20 from the airport douchebag). So, I lost about an hour of quality time with my stout(s). But I vow to finish this post now and play a little catch up. Then back to Phuket tonight.

So excuse me now whilst I enjoy my burger and stout.

Sunlight

2010-05-21T19:19:00.000+07:00

As my friends already know, I'm pretty much a vampire - even though I live on a tropical island. The other day I tried to do some work on the roof beside the pool (ok, I was actually trying to watch Breaking Bad). But it sucked. I couldn't see my screen to save my life. The whole glossy Mac screen is nice indoors, but it sucks ass outside. So just now I thought to myself that I should try to find a way to reduce the glare so that I could, when the mood struck me, work outside. So I googled "macbook pro sunlight glare" and the first link I clicked led me to this:

WTF?! Who is going to carry that PoS around with them so they can use their laptop in less-than-optimal-lighting-conditions? Not I. Could you imagine sitting by the pool with your laptop on your lap and that hoody surrounding it? Luckily, further link-clicking led me to this Anti-Glare Screen Protector, which is both cheap and unobtrusive. Now all I need to do is find an even cheaper Thai knockoff.

MacBook 3 Finger Middle Mouse Button Click

2010-05-04T15:47:00.003+07:00

As most Firefox users know, clicking the middle mouse button (or scrollwheel) on a link opens it in a new tab. Since I've been using a MacBook, whenever I don't have a mouse I've been using a 2 finger click to bring up the context menu then selecting "Open Link in New Tab". This is tedious, so today I started looking for a way to emulate the middle mouse button functionality with a 3 finger click. And after a little searching I found a neat little app that does exactly that.

Enter MiddleClick. It's a lightweight little app that lets you use either a 3 Finger Click or a 3 Finger Tap to emulate the middle mouse button. And it works like a charm. Thanks clem!

To make it start automatically (since there's no Dock icon) you have to go to System Preferences > Accounts > Login Items and add it that way.

Firefox High CPU Rogue Tabs

2010-05-02T14:21:00.001+07:00

Lately I've been using Firefox with a lot of tabs. Generally I'm actually using multiple windows with multiple tabs. One window for development/testing. One window for general surfing. One window for time tracking. And many tabs in each. Occasionally my machine gets sluggish, and when I check Activity Monitor it's inevitably Firefox chewing up CPU and RAM. Before today I would just sigh, go through my tabs to see if there is anything important that I still want open, then close all the other tabs, then close Firefox (telling it to open existing tabs when it opens), then re-open Firefox. Big PITA. But no more!

Enter BarTab! I just discovered this little gem and after using it for 5 mins am already in love with it. It basically lets you manage whether tabs are active or passive. If they're active, they act like they normally do. If they're passive, the tab for a page remains visible, but the page isn't loaded until the tab is actually clicked. And you can set a timeout so that if a tab isn't accessed for x hours it'll unload itself. Very nice.

Vintage Transformers (Go-Bot) Wristwatch

2010-03-04T00:33:00.000+07:00

I really want one of these. I had one when I was a kid (grey) and have been looking for some Chinese knock-off for years now. Unfortunately they won't ship to Thailand... so if any of my friends want to buy me an early birthday present or just want to do a guy a favor, I'd greatly appreciate it :)

eBay Link

Crickets Chirping

2010-03-01T08:07:00.000+07:00

Ya, it's been quiet in here lately. Been busy. At any rate, my friend just shared with me the trailer for what looks to be an excellent upcoming flick. Seems like great casting - at least from the trailer.

http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/fox/theateam/

I love it when a plan comes together.

Flies

2010-01-22T12:55:00.001+07:00

If there's one thing I really hate about SE Asia it's flies. As in Musca domestica. They're everywhere. And they have no courtesy. They fly right in your field of vision, into your eyes, up your nose, in your ears... they just don't care. The mosquitos are annoying - but they're relatively slow and can be killed. Ants can be frustrating as when there's one, there's a hundred - but they serve a purpose in cleaning up leftovers. But flies?

Remember those Sally Struthers Ethiopia ads (well, not technically an ad for Ethiopia, but you know) where they have images of the kids with flies climbing on their eyeballs? I get it now. You just get so tired of waving the fuckers away repeatedly that eventually you just give up... and let them climb on your eyeballs.

I will say that Phuket isn't so bad. But northern Thailand (and Laos apparently) are horrendous when it comes to these flying, obnoxious insects. As with everything insect-related, the more urban a location is, the less insects there are. And northern Thailand is about as rural as it gets, so it's understandable that the flies have taken over.

Anyway, that's my pet peeve for the day, as I sit here typing this post on a ~40kB/s internet connection in Vientiane, the capital city of Laos, on what is probably one of the faster 'net connections around. With flies divebombing me and trying to drink my coffee. And land on my eyeballs.

Getting The Word Out

2010-01-07T17:45:00.000+07:00

On the heels of my last post, I need to do something different to make money. And by different I mean still computer related, but something that doesn't involve 10 hour work days (including commute) for 6 days a week. To be honest, $24k/a will do me just fine here in the Land of Smiles, but 60 hours a week makes me want to blow my brains out. I'm looking for about half that.

So, I'm putting the word out. If you or anyone you know would like to employ a computer guru (I hate that word, but I am what I am :) for a piddly salary wherein I could work from the comfort of my own home, please let me know. Trust me... you'd be getting WAY more than you're paying for. But I'm not greedy. After all, what's the point of living on a tropical island when you're working all day? And on that note, I'll even work North American hours, as I'm a night owl and am quite content to work a 10pm-4am workday.

Not only am I a computer guru, but I'm also fun and witty and a joy to work with. Most of the time. Like when I'm not working 60 hours a week. At any rate, for more information see my resume.

Dosboy... for all your computing/programming needs.

Sucktastic

2010-01-04T17:00:00.001+07:00

I do not want to work.
I do not want to work 9-6.
I do not want to work 9-6, 6 days a week.
I do not want to work 9-6, 6 days a week in Phuket town.
I do not want to work 9-6, 6 days a week in Phuket town in LONG PANTS!
I do not want to work 9-6, 6 days a week in Phuket town in LONG PANTS for $24,000 CAD/year.

I need to figure out another way to make money. Fast.

New Mac Annoyance

2009-12-28T00:06:00.000+07:00

This one has been a minor thorn in my side, but today it reared its ugly head again and for some reason really pissed me off. Creating a new file from Finder. In Windows I could right-click then choose New... and I had a ton of options (Text Document, Word Document, etc.). I can't do this in Finder. After much googling I came up with two possible solutions - some app called NuFile or Quicksilver. Since I've been told by many fellow Mac users that Quicksilver is the end all and be all I decided to give that route a try first. Well, after about an hour of struggling I decided to give up and go with the NuFile route. After installing and trying to figure out why it wasn't working, and a little more googling, it turned out that it hasn't been updated in over 3 years and doesn't work on Snow Leopard. So it's back to Quicksilver, which is causing me to prematurely go grey. I was able to get this working, but it took me about a hundred keystrokes, and was far more frustrating than opening a text editor and clicking File -> Save As... would have been. So I'm still not sure what all the hubbub over Quicksilver is.

Frustrated.

Pulling My Hair Out!

2009-12-10T22:58:00.002+07:00

Please, all MacHeads reading this... HELP! I can not believe that there is no way to merge two directories through the GUI in OS X. Yet every forum thread I read tells me to use mv or cp or ditto or opendiff or some other cryptic Terminal command instead of just dragging and dropping the contents of one folder into another (which, as we all know, obliterates the target directory, overwriting it with the source). This is utterly retarded, and I'm really starting to hate it.

Oh ya, and I also really hate that I can't right-click a file (or directory) and choose ~~"Copy"~~ "Cut". Or ~~Cmd-C~~ Cmd-V. Or via the Edit menu. Why??? Why can't I ~~copy~~ cut a folder, THEN navigate to where I want to go, then PASTE?! So fucking frustrating.

Don't get me wrong... the Mac has a lot of redeeming features... but these two simple file system UI oversights are driving me bonkers. I just don't know what to do... for every other issue I've had a forum or blog solution has appeared within minutes of searching... but the only solution I seem to have for these is to go command-line or buy some sort of product - for functionality that SHOULD BE NATIVE!

Argh.

And please, if there's something ridiculously stupid that I'm overlooking or don't know about, feel free to make fun of me - as long as you also provide the appropriate solution. I don't mind being mocked, as long as it's a learning process.

Work

2009-12-08T15:03:00.000+07:00

So it looks like I'm gonna be getting a job. I was planning on doing contract web dev, and I still might do some on the side, but this job is gonna be 6 days a week. Ugh. After not working for 2 years (and having a relatively lax schedule for a year or two prior to that) this is gonna be TOUGH. And for anyone that's ever complained about how much they're making, well, I'll be making 60,000 baht/month. Which is roughly $2000 CAD. Which is $24,000/year. Which is 10 times the minimum wage here. So I suppose it's all relative.

What is it you might ask? Well, it's working for a media company who does both print and web media. I'll be second in command under the owner and managing 13 Thai staff - graphic designers and web developers, as well as interfacing with clients, putting together requirements and quotations, etc. Though I think I'll be getting my own personal assistant, which sounds appealing. I've never had an assistant before.

The thought of working again definitely does not appeal to me (as I sit here typing in my underwear). At any rate, I need to start making some dough, so I'll give it a whirl and see what happens. Who knows, I might quit after a day.

In Search of a Great Pad Thai

2009-11-27T02:30:00.000+07:00

I just got back from Laos (via Bangkok) a couple days ago. Passing through Bangkok I spent a night at a friend's place and went to a Thai Karaoke, outside of which there was a Pad Thai vendor. And let me tell you... this was the best Pad Thai I've ever had. Before this experience, I wasn't even a fan. And now, I'm back in Phuket and went to my favorite cheap Thai food place to see how theirs compared. Suffice it to say, it didn't. Not even close. So now, I'm on a hunt. Where in Phuket (the closer to my abode the better) can I find good ... nay, GREAT ... Pad Thai. I'm not going to rest until this mission is complete. On the downside, each time I get a shitty Pad Thai I end up hungry. On the bright side, each attempt only costs me around 30 baht. Tonight's attempt was a failure. Maybe tomorrow I will succeed. I just need to remember to say "mai ao koong, mai ao moo, mai ao gai" ("don't want prawn, don't want pork, don't want chicken")... I don't know why, but the veggie-only Pad Thai in Bangkok was way better than any meat-oriented dish I could imagine. So screw the animals... I just want noodles, peanuts and veggies.

Off to Laos

2009-11-16T14:38:00.000+07:00

I'm off to Laos again. Overnight bus to Bangkok tonight then overnight train to Laos tomorrow. Will probably be gone about a week, and with the shitty internet there it's unlikely that I'll be updating... but we'll see. After all, a post is just text... might only take an hour or so for it to upload.

A Sailing We Will Go

2009-11-10T09:44:00.000+07:00

Ok, technically there's no sail, but I'm off to the boat for a few days of seafaring action. I'll be back Thursday or Friday. Until then, ahoy matey and all that.

I <3 Google

2009-11-09T02:25:00.002+07:00

Really. A lot.

I was thinking about writing a little code that took English subtitles and translated them into Thai (or any other language) using Google's Translation tools. Then I stumbled across Jubler, which already incorporates that functionality.

Then I thought I'd like to read Le Mort d'Arthur since I've always been a fan of the King Arthur stories and am currently watching the BBC series Merlin with my gf. Interestingly enough, many episodes of this show have had their dialogs translated into Thai subtitles. Then I got thinking that my gf probably doesn't know the original legend/myth (the Merlin show is somewhat bastardized, but entertaining nonetheless). So I hopped over to Project Gutenberg to see if I could find the original stories. Then I hopped onto Google Translate and used their Google Translator Toolkit to upload the html files provided by gutenberg.org and translate them into Thai. I admit, they're not perfect (there's random English words scattered throughout the text) but I'm sure they're passable. So now my gf has something to read on my iPod Touch, and all for free! And there's a plethora of books available at gutenberg.org, all ripe for the pickings.

Project Gutenberg, I <3 thee. And Google, I <3 thee even more.

Why MPlayer Beats VLC

2009-11-06T22:00:00.006+07:00

I was going to make this a comparison with a fore drawn conclusion, but instead I'm just going to mention the deal breakers with VLC and the deal makers with MPlayer OSX Extended.

VLC

Crashes when I load certain subtitles using Thai fonts (like all SSA files from ThaiSubtitles.com)
Hangs sometimes when I'm playing a movie, pause it the try to exit or load a new movie, requiring me to kill the process.
Bookmarks don't work.
Has an option for always on top, but not always on top while playing.
Always on top option causes Dock mouseover names to appear underneath the player.
Postprocessing only has a quantitative quality ranking (1-6) and is not granular.
I hate VLC's icon. Seriously, a pylon? How is that related to multimedia?

MPlayer OSX Extended

Handles all subtitles I've thrown at it so far.
Has never hung or crashed on me.
Option for always on top while playing.
Always on top option allows Dock mouseover names to appear above the player
Video postprocessing equalizer allows granular control over video settings.

Sure, MPlayer doesn't seem to have bookmarks or a functional playlist, but since I'm only using it for video the playlist function is moot. Bookmarks would be really nice (as in, the ability to mark a timestamp in a particular file to resume from there later), but I can live without it. The continued crashing/hanging of VLC is really what did me in, and I'm glad it did as MPlayer, so far at least, seems much nicer. VLC also appears to have a ton more options, but none of them concern me right now. Though I'm sure if I needed to change my output module to Color ASCII Art or add a Telnet interface to my video player, I'd switch back to VLC. Until then, MPlayer is it.

Is This English?

2009-11-05T22:00:00.000+07:00

I was trying to figure out how to use the external HDD enclosure I bought. Or, more specifically, I was trying to figure out how to screw my drive into it cuz when I don't screw it it's a little loose (i.e. I can hear it wobbling around inside the enclosure when I tilt/move it). There's screw holes on the bottom of the enclosure where they should be, but the external shell covers them up, and it seems to be glued on to the "cage" where the screw holes are. See picture.

At any rate, I googled the model number, figuring maybe I was being dense and that there really was a way to remove the bottom part. But, according to this description, I'm interpreting that there isn't. Admittedly, this is an English description on a Thai site, so I don't expect it to be perfect... but I'll bet Google Translator would do a better job of whatever source they had. Excerpt below:

Opens quickly exempts the screw to raise covers the installment

Uses the fashion the outlook with to renovate the type technology most newly, exempts locks the screw, renovatesdirectly -like the design, exempts the general traditional external connection
Gathers also needs to lock screw these troublesome steps, some time incautiously, when disassembling the screw has fallen, how to look does not look
To also makes the whole body perspiration, only needs the simple three steps, then completes hard disk's installment, 1. opens outer cover 2. to insert the hard disk 3.
Covers the cover, may use immediately, quite facilitates, fast, later capacity 夠 Canada will not buy the hard disk again, will replace the hard disk to be possible
More convenient fast

Seriously... is that English?

Error Control Sucks

2009-11-04T22:00:00.001+07:00

Since I've gotten back into coding, I've realized what I used to hate about it... error control. It sucks. I just want to write the part of the code that DOES something, and not worry about when it errors out due to technical issues or problems between the keyboard and the chair. For example, since my previous discovery, I discovered that PHP has iconv built-in. So I decided to write a little web app that would convert those pesky subtitles encoded in TIS-620 to UTF-8. Took me a couple of hours, and it seems to work great. However now I need to deal with errors. Upload errors. File system errors. User errors. Filetype errors. Filesize errors. Errors, errors, errors! I realize that there exists exception handling to make this a little easier, but it's still a PITA.

Suffice it to say that once I sort out this error control I'll make the converter available to the general public. Until then just use the method(s) posted below.

Thai Subtitles on Mac OSX

2009-11-03T17:46:00.005+07:00

Update (18/01/11): I recently developed an online tool to do this conversion for you. Read the rest of this post if you want to go old school, otherwise stop by and use the Thai Subtitle Converter brought to you by Grinning Gecko Labs.

Original Post:
After some searching and experimenting I believe I've found a solution. I realized early on that it was a character encoding issue, but didn't really know how to resolve it. Well, after reading this thread I've managed to make it work in MPlayer OSX Extended (loading either the pre-converted or post-converted subtitles in VLC just crashes it... oh well). As I'm sure you already know if you're reading this post, ThaiSubtitle.com is the place to go for Thai subtitles. However, according to the above thread, it encodes its SSA files as ANSI (TIS-620) instead of UTF-8. This causes issues. The solution, though, is rather simple. Using iconv (included in OSX; 10.6 at least, but I'm sure it's kicking around in earlier versions as well) you just run a quick little Terminal command and you're off to the races. So, let's say for example that your downloaded subtitle filename is subtitle.ssa and your movie filename is movie.avi. Open a Terminal window, navigate to the folder containing both of these files and type the following:

iconv -f tis-620 -t utf-8 subtitle.ssa > movie.ssa

Now when you launch movie.avi in MPlayer, it automatically loads the subtitle of the same name (movie.ssa) and the characters render correctly. Sweet!

For the record, on Windows just use Media Player Classic Home Cinema and switch the font/encoding to Thai or use VobSub and do the same. Both are included as part of the K-Lite Codec Pack.

Automatically Enable Internet Sharing (or ICS) on Mac or Windows

2009-11-02T19:36:00.003+07:00

Since I have the iPod Touch and don't have a functional wireless router/AP, I needed to set up wireless internet sharing on both my Mac side and Windows side. Setting it up was easy, but getting either of them to enable it after reboot was difficult. On the Mac side, it shows as enabled, but you have to toggle it (turn it off then on) for it to work. On Windows it just doesn't connect until you tell it to. After extensive googling I managed to find the solution for both, and present them here.

Mac (OSX 10.6)
Set up Internet Sharing on your Airport as you normally would. Then open a Terminal session and type the following:

sudo sh -c 'echo killall InternetSharing >> /etc/rc.local'
sudo sh -c 'chmod +x /etc/rc.local'

When you reboot it works as it should.

Windows 7
Share your wired connection (or whatever your internet is connected to). Then create an Ad-hoc wireless network. Once that's done open a command prompt and type:

netsh wlan show profiles

This will show you a list of wireless profiles. Remember the name of the one that's referring to your newly created Ad-hoc network (referred to hereafter as PROFILE). Then create a shortcut on your desktop with the following command-line:

C:\Windows\System32\netsh.exe wlan connect name=PROFILE

Name it whatever you want, then move it to your All Users Startup folder (I was unable to create the shortcut directly in my All Users Startup for some reason, likely some sort of UAC restriction). When you reboot it connects to the Ad-hoc network and your internet is shared.

Who'd have thunk that I'd be posting Mac tips on my blog. Not I.

Found in Translation

2009-10-30T02:36:00.000+07:00

I'm sure surviving in Thailand was a lot different before the internet. I can't count the number of times I've used online translators when talking to my girlfriend simply to make myself understood. And it just keeps getting better. Tonight I was talking to her about red and yellow peppers, and by name she didn't know what they were. So I pulled up Google Images and showed her some pictures. She obviously knew what they were by image, and then I saw a picture of roasted red pepper soup (my favorite!) and told her so. Next thing I knew she had me pulling up a recipe for it and using Google Translate to translate the web page into Thai so that she could make it. And, though I don't read Thai, it appears as though Google's translations are pretty bang on. Or at least understandable. This has both made my life here a lot easier, and made my desire to learn Thai far less. I know a few words that I use repeatedly (mostly restaurant and convenience store type stuff), but as far as grammar and reading/writing, I'm useless. But does that really matter? Actually, check that... will that really matter in 5 or 10 years? It definitely matters now, but once I have a device that listens to what I say and speaks it back in Thai - or vice versa - actual knowledge of language won't really matter so much. Unless your battery and/or internet connection die :)

Along those lines, there are some funny things that I've heard in English. Somewhat insightful even.

My last gf used to say (when she fell asleep reading a book) that the book was reading her.
My gf today said (when I gave her my iPod to play with) that she was like a monkey with a coconut. I.e. she had no idea what to do with it or how to get it "open".

Mac Software Selections

2009-10-28T14:09:00.006+07:00

I've been using my new Mac for about a little under a week now, and figured I'd regale you with my software choices. As on Windows, I tend to stick with FOSS if at all possible.

Firefox - No brainer. Firebug is a major requirement. Also I really hate not having a status bar at the bottom of my window (a la Safari).

VLC - To be honest, I haven't even loaded up QuickTime yet, but I really have no intentions of doing so. Actually that's not 100% true... I loaded up FrontRow with the included remote (which, apparently, was replaced by Apple with an aluminum one in October of this year - and which I ordered in September so got the crappy plastic one). I tried playing an XviD. It didn't work. That was the extent of my usage of QuickTime and I quickly jumped on the VLC bandwagon. I've also experimented with MPlayer OSX Extended and definitely like it, so I may bounce back and forth. My biggest issue right now is with Thai subtitles... they won't render using the correct encoding, and they appear as garbage in both VLC and MPlayer. I had similar issues on Windows, though using ffdshow and VobSub I had a lot more in the way of configurable options and managed to make it work. I'll keep trying I guess.

GIMP - I tried Seashore as per a few people's recommendations, but I couldn't even figure out how to crop an image. GIMP may run under X11, but it functions just like it did in Windows and it's snappy. Doubt I'll be changing this up anytime soon. Definitely had to follow this guide though as the window positions were really pissing me off.

SABnzbd+ - This is an awesome little usenet binaries downloader. It's free and uses a web interface (highly recommend using the Plush theme as it's ajaxy and the default isn't). Definitely not as robust as Newsleecher, but does the job and does it nicely. Even has support for RSS feeds so I can set up a feed for my favorite shows and it automagically downloads them when they become available. Very nice. Check out here and here for some very useful tips on using RSS feeds to d/l TV shows.

Komodo Edit - Played around with TextWrangler, but from all the reviews I read online Komodo seems to be superior. It's got nice autocompletion for CSS and a bunch of other languages, as well as tooltips when you type a keyword explaining its function. Excellent free app.

Adium - Never really used an IM client on Windows (other than the embedded Gmail one) but since I've started using the native Mac Mail client I never have a browser open with Gmail anymore. Adium was recommended by a friend, and it seems to do what it's supposed to - i.e. IM.

MAMP - Mac Apache, MySQL and PHP. Used WAMP on Windows which did pretty much the same thing. My only issue so far with MAMP is that I seem unable to connect to MySQL to populate DBs unless I use root, even when they're permissioned correctly. I'm sure it's a problem between the keyboard and the chair, but it's such a minor issue that I haven't really looked into it further. Oh, and it prompts me for my password when I have it set to use port 80. Really wish I could get around that one without using port 8888... or maybe I'll just revert to 8888 and not worry about it.

FileZilla - My go-to FTP client on Windows, and they have a Mac version as well. So it is written, so it shall be done.

Evernote - As above, used the Windows client before, and now using the Mac client. No brainer. And I'm happy to say that the Mac client is much nicer than the Windows one.

Folx - Download manager. If my internet was even somewhat reliable I'm sure I wouldn't need this, but as it is I had to install GetRight on Windows and this is the only free equivalent that I've found on Mac. My biggest problem with it is that it supposedly supports torrents as well, but it sucks at them. However when it downloads a .torrent file it doesn't open µTorrent for me, it keeps it and tries using it. So I have to manually kill its torrent download and open the torrent in µTorrent. Bit of a PITA.

Update: So it turns out Folx is a piece of crap. Or, to be politically correct, "it didn't suit my needs". I was trying to download the iPhone SDK which is 2.4gb and requires being logged in to the Apple site. Folx just couldn't get it, no matter what I tried. And it kept intercepting the download link, even after I'd disabled it and the Firefox plugin. But it couldn't actually get to the file and kept downloading a redirected login page. So I'm now trying out DownThemAll! which seems to be a much better fit. Native Firefox extension so I'm not having any problem grabbing the file from the site, even when I haven't actually logged in (i.e. I was logged in when I first started d/ling it, but have restarted Firefox multiple times since then and it keeps resuming nicely). Hopefully this one works out for me.

Max - for converting audio file formats. Nothing fancy.

StuffIt - for dealing with rars.

Quicksilver - I have no idea why yet. But the two largest Mac proponents in my immediate circle of friends/family both told me to install it right from the get-go, so I did. Apparently I need to watch some tutorials or something before I can figure out what to do with it. In other words, RTFM.

So far that's about it. All FOSS. I'm sure that there are better pay alternatives out there to some of these, but I'm on a budget and really, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

The NEW A-Team

2009-10-25T12:28:00.003+07:00

Well, the cast has been, uh, cast... for the new A-Team movie, and here are my thoughts (being the die-hard A-Team fan that I am both from my youth and during a revisiting of the series a couple years ago on late-night TV).

Hmm... this Brad Cooper dude has a good Faceman look to him, but the only things I've seen him in are Wet Hot American Summer and Wedding Crashers, and I don't remember him from either. He's no Templeton Peck. Check that, just realized he's the guy from The Hangover... ok, I'll give him the benefit of the doubt.

Rampage Jackson... MMA fighter... shouldn't do too bad as BA, since Mr. T couldn't act anyway. He's just gotta act like a tough guy, and I'd rather see an MMA fighter doing that than Ice T or Cube or whatever ghey rapper they were thinking previously.

Neeson should do good. I've always liked him.

Then there's this Murdock guy... Sharlto Copley? Who the fuck is this? He doesn't even have a picture on IMDB, and this will be his 3rd movie ever. That's weak. When I was a kid I hated Murdock as he detracted from "the action", but in growing up and rewatching the A-Team, I realized that the show would have been a steaming pile of feces without Murdock, and specifically Dwight Schultz (who, incidentally, doesn't have a picture on IMDB either - what's up with that?).

Summary: Highly dependent on this Copley dude. If he can bring H. M. Murdock to the big screen properly, it shows signs of success. Wish I'd seen him in something so that I could be a little less (or possibly more) judgmental.

First Mac Annoyance

2009-10-24T22:40:00.002+07:00

I just moved a folder (Books) into another folder containing a subfolder Books. It asked me if I want to overwrite the target folder (which, admittedly, I assumed meant "overwrite any files contained within that are already there"). Thinking it would merge them as it does in Windows, I said yes. Instead it wiped the target and moved the source. Luckily there wasn't anything really important in there, but that's somewhat retarded imho. If it's gonna be destructive it should at least tell me that, or give me the option to merge.

Oh ya, and Time Machine doesn't work on a FAT32 drive, which is what I need so that I can share between my OSes (as well as with my friends). I suppose I could partition, but who can ever predict how much space they'll need for various partitions/data stores? Not I. Frustrating.

As an aside, I just finished installing Windows 7 using BootCamp via my USB HDD. Took some finagling, but I managed to get it to install and all the drivers seem to be there (i.e. no unrecognized devices). So now I just need to figure out what I want to play, cuz I've been missing gaming. I would also like to say that for the record, it looks pretty much like Vista. Tough to compare speeds since this machine is much faster than my Tablet was, but it does seem snappier (but then, when does a clean install NOT feel snappier than a bloated pre-load?). I'd also like to say that the Mac eye candy still puts Windows to shame. I was working in it for a bit and thinking "hmm... not bad. Visually pleasing. This might actually be better than OSX". Then I booted back into Macintosh-land and after launching one app thought "nope, Windows still has a long way to go in the eye candy department".

First Attempt at Bending Me Over

2009-10-23T23:28:00.001+07:00

<sarc>Thanks Steve</sarc> (if only I could use those tags in real life). I get my shiny new lappy and iPod, and after playing with the lappy for a couple days I decided just now to unbox the Touch and see what it can do. Well, after setting up sync'ing and all that, it tells me there's a software update available. Neat I think. Tell me more! Well, it turns out that this software update (from v.2.2.1 to v.3.1.2) will cost me $4.95. Um, isn't this device BRAND NEW?! Shouldn't I be entitled to at least a month's worth of updates for free? Or forever? I mean, it is a firmware/OS sorta deal, isn't it? Updating my Nokia's firmware doesn't cost me anything.

Guess I'm stickin' with 2.2.1 unless someone can tell me why I shouldn't? Cuz likely by the time I do anything that would have required 3.1.2 instead of 2.2.1, 4.0 will be out. Re-tar-ded.

AMP

2009-10-23T10:53:00.000+07:00

As in Apache, MySQL and PHP. I was happily using WAMP on Windows, and my sister suggested I use XAMPP on OSX. However in reading the included software it appears to include PHP 5.3.0, which is incompatible with the latest stable version of Joomla!, 1.5.14. So I searched and found MAMP, which includes PHP 5.2.10 (compatible). So I'm off on my first foray of installing an AMP package on my new toy. Whenever the slow download finishes that is.

I really hope there's an easy way to restore a factory image, as I'm sure I'm gonna cause some serious problems before this learning experience is complete.

Oh The Irony!

2009-10-22T15:57:00.000+07:00

My first post on dosboy.ca via a Mac. Get it? DOSboy. Mac. Ironic.

I have no idea what I'm doing. I just installed Firefox (though I'm using Safari for this cuz I started while FF was d/ling). Beyond that, I have no idea what to do. But it sure is shiny. And my gf is already jealous of my NEW gf (though, at the risk of sounding gay, all my computers have been named after Transformers, and all male, so technically this would be my new robotic bf). However I don't even know how to name this thing in front of me. I'm seriously lost. Time to RTFM I suppose.

Sarcasm and the Language Barrier

2009-10-19T21:02:00.001+07:00

Oh Sarcasm, how I miss you. Let me give you the latest play-by-play of how sarcasm can bite you in the ass here in the Land of Smiles.

GF, my friend and I went out earlier. My friend and I wanted to leave, but she wanted to stay, so I told her to take a motorbike taxi back when she was done (about 50 baht). She called me about an hour later asking me to come pick her up. I said no since I was working and since due to traffic getting there and back it would've taken me about 30 mins in a car (and would take the motorbike taxi about 5 from where she was at). She then proceeded to tell me that I didn't love her because I wouldn't pick her up. This is where things went awry.

Text message from GF (spelling corrected): Hi do you love me? Now I thinking you don't love me same and you don't care about me.
Text message from me: Has nothing to do with love. I'm not a taxi driver and I'm working so that I can make some money. Take motorbike taxi. [Friend] has my car [which was true, though he only borrowed it for about 30 mins].
Follow-up text message from me about a minute later (this is where the sarcasm enters and things go awry): Call [friend]. Maybe he loves you more than me and will pick you up.

GF then proceeds to call me and lay into me about how she doesn't want to sleep with my friend (whaaaa?) and that she's angry at me for suggesting it (double whaaaa?). I try to explain sarcasm. It doesn't work. She gets angrier then threatens to go sleep with someone else because I suggested it.

OH MY GOD I MISS SARCASM!

Vonage Local Long Distance

2009-10-18T22:21:00.002+07:00

In A Nutshell:
Vonage Local Long Distance (hereafter referred to as VLLD) lets you use your cell phone (or any other number local to your Vonage number) to bounce a call to a long distance recipient. The effect is that you can make Vonage long distance calls for the cost of a local call.

How It Works:
Using a web browser (mobile phone friendly) you hit the VLLD webpage and provide some information including Vonage username/password, Vonage phone number and long distance recipient (or SimulRing) number. The application then logs into your Vonage account and changes your SimulRing number to be that of your long distance recipient. Then, when you call your own Vonage number, it SimulRings your recipient. When they answer their phone you're now using your Vonage long distance rates to talk to them from a non-Vonage number.

The application has been available at http://vlld.dosboy.ca/ for awhile now, but I haven't really had any testers. Posted on some 3rd-party Vonage forums about it, but people were hesitant to provide their Vonage account info to an anonymous web app. And rightly so I suppose. So, even though I'm leaving the app online there for anyone that wants to use it, I'm also providing the source code here if you want to set it up yourself, thus alleviating any concerns of identity theft. Note however that even at vlld.dosboy.ca, the code does not store any information. Though since you can't really see the code that's there I suppose you just have to take my word for it.

If you do want to set it up yourself, all you need is a web server that supports PHP and cURL and you should be off to the races. Download and unzip VonageLocalLongDistance.zip to your web server and you're up and running.

Known Issues:

This app will wipe out your current SimulRing settings, so you'll need to go back in and set them up again afterwards. Version 2 will temporarily record your existing SimulRing settings, wait a specified amount of time (likely 30 seconds or so) then switch them back. This will allow you to call your long distance recipient and let the web app switch your SimulRing settings back to normal in the background so that you don't miss (or accidentally redirect) a call. If you plan on using this app (either hosted on my server or on your own) and need that functionality, let me know and I'll make it a priority.
This has only been tested (and currently only functions) on vonage.ca. If you're using vonage.com or vonage.co.uk you'll both need to change the $url variables in simulring.php and do some testing.

Because I conceived of this app a few years ago but only got around to writing it recently I haven't really gotten around to perfecting it. Also, since I'm in Thailand and can't actually make use of it, my drive to perfect it is even less. See the 80/20 rule. However, if others are interested in it I'll see what I can do.

Back to Bangkok

2009-10-14T16:53:00.002+07:00

On my way to Bangkok tonight to try to sort out my passport issues. Back in a few days. Wish me luck.

Nothing's Perfect

2009-10-12T08:59:00.000+07:00

Woke up this morning to the sound of a weed whacker. Obviously they're mowing the lawn on the roof, and they don't like to use real lawn mowers in Thailand. Weed whackers all around! Oh, and I was getting dripped on (note that my room is directly underneath the swimming pool). Called management and apparently the room next to me is also leaking. So now I'm running on 4 hours sleep, got weed whacker guy upstairs and have pool drippings attempting to flood me out. Not a happy camper. I need my beauty sleep.

More SE Asian Internet Commentary

2009-10-07T23:09:00.002+07:00

In talking to my Laoatian gf today, I briefly pondered the idea of moving to Laos (if only temporarily). But, from my experience, shitty internet was quite a stumbling block. So, thinking that maybe all the internet cafes cheaped out or something, I figured I'd do a little research to determine what high-speed pricing was like. And then I did some conversion from LAK (Laos Kip) to CAD. And then my I picked my jaw up off the ground, shook my head, and vowed that I will never spend more than a few days in that country unless I feel like disconnecting myself from society and becoming a farmer (which I would suck at cuz I wouldn't be able to look up how to plant seeds or harvest crops on the internet). Some sample pricing follows. I'm not even going to bother with the low-end (128 kbps DSL... seriously, is that a joke?), so I'm just going to cite a few high-end offerings.

ETL High Speed ADSL
1 mbps down / 512 kbps up - 3,600,000 LAK = $449.75 CAD

Planet Online High Speed ADSL - this one's great cuz they list their speed as "256 kbps - 2048 kbps*" where the * points to "The speed fluctuates during certain time of day". What they mean is "During certain times of the day it may be slightly faster than absolutely useless".
20 GB/month cap (the highest) - 1,600,000 LAK = $199.75 CAD

Suffice it to say I won't be moving to Laos anytime soon. I don't know how a country can get away with that. Infrastructure's one thing, but with tech like WiMax available, shitty phone lines aren't an excuse. Also, isn't the average salary in Laos lower than in Thailand? I mean, if minimum wage here in Phuket is 6000 THB/month = $190 CAD and Laos is equal or lower, how the hell is anyone supposed to afford internet? And without internet, how is anyone supposed to learn anything and get a higher paying job and help to pump up the Laoatian economy? Chicken/egg anyone?

Computer Bits & Pieces

2009-10-06T22:41:00.000+07:00

Strange as it may be, I just got a dopamine and/or serotonin rush from looking at my desk which has some screws, screwdrivers and an HDD enclosure sitting on it. Yesterday I bought an external enclosure for the drive that I ripped out of my dead HP Tablet and looking at the remaining bits sitting on my desk provided me with a wave of happiness. I think I've been out of tech for too long. I miss it. But I miss only the fun stuff, not the 7am tech support calls explaining how to double-click (ok, that was years ago... most people know how to double-click by now, but still, I have experienced them). I also bought a new power supply (since the old one vanished when I was in Bangkok/Laos) for an old Linksys WRT54G so that I could get wireless up and running at my new place and decided to flash it with DD-WRT. Though now it's randomly locking up on me, and the suggestion from the forums is to "Check your power supply". Great. Gotta love Thailand tech. But, ironically, I actually do love that I get to fiddle with something new. I think this is really just my brain trying to occupy itself until I get my 2 new toys near the end of the month.

I miss disposable income. Tech is so much fun.

Sketchy Thailand Internet

2009-10-04T08:56:00.001+07:00

The other day the whole country was out. It happened around 6pm. I'm guessing some guy in a server room somewhere was drinking Sangsom then kicked a cable that he shouldn't have on his way home. Cuz it got resolved at around 8:30 the next morning. You know, when businesses opened and people started trying to do their jobs. And likely when the drunk guy from the night before got back to work and realized what he'd done. I really do find it fascinating that it took until the next business day to get resolved. As far as I'm concerned, Internet is a utility. If you're electric's not working or your water's not flowing, does the service company wait until the next business day to get it resolved or do they work on it all night until it's fixed? Actually, in Thailand I think they wait til the next day (there's been more than a few hours at a time that I've been without water).

Fast forward to last night. Internet's out again. I run a traceroute. Makes it 13 hops to what I had previously looked up to be the TOT International Internet Gateway in Thailand. Figuring a nationwide outage again I didn't bother making a stink about it. This was around 8:30pm last night. But, this morning I wake up and it's still down. Texted the owner of the building hoping she'd call cuz as we all know the squeaky wheel gets the grease. Instead she asked me to log into the router and try resetting it. Since it was really the only action I could perform I figured I'd give it a shot. And what? Internet started working again. Which really baffles me. Cuz prior to this I was still able to traceroute 13 hops to the same TOT International Internet Gateway. Yet after resetting the modem the 14th hop was now Verizon Business in Watsonville, California. How is it that resetting my modem fixed a routing problem 14 hops down the line? Baffling.

Effing Bureaucracy

2009-10-01T10:30:00.000+07:00

I've come to the realization over the last month or two that I'm going to need a new passport. My existing one only has one free page, and I have just under a month left on my Thai visa (just under 2 months if I do a 30 day extension). But as soon as I leave the country to, say, Laos, that last page will be used up by a Laos visa and I'll have nowhere to put my next Thai visa. So I need a new passport.

Turns out that the process for applying for a passport abroad is a big PITA. According to the application I still need a guarantor and my birth certificate. Well, I don't have my birth certificate with me (I think it's in a box somewhere between Toronto and Waterloo) and I obviously don't have a Canadian guarantor in my luggage either. So wtf am I supposed to do? I've emailed the Consulate here, but I have a feeling it's going to involve mailing shit from Canada to here, which is not exactly the cheapest or fastest method in the world to achieve these goals. And passport processing takes 15 business days, which means I need to have all my ducks lined up no later than early November.

I hate bureaucracy.

Mac Software Planning

2009-09-30T11:32:00.003+07:00

As per this previous post, I've been pondering my upcoming life change a lot lately. The other day I was talking to someone else who does web dev and recently made the switch from Windows to Mac. We started talking about software, and I voiced some concerns that I would have trouble finding equivalents on the Mac to my tried and tested Windows apps. He assured me that it wouldn't be a problem. Then I cited an example - ffdshow. I explained that it's similar to a codec pack except far more powerful. He said I'd use QuickTime. Then I started telling him the things that I do with ffdshow - fixing audio sync issues, subtitling, subtitle delays, equalizer, LFE crossover management, video post-processing (generally making dark videos slightly brighter/adding more gamma), volume boost (above and beyond what Windows believes to be my "max" volume) and a ton more. At some point while I was explaining this he got a strange look in his eyes and when I finished he sort of squeaked out "quicktime?" again, but then admitted that I was scaring him a bit and that he was far less geeky than I'd originally made him out to be.

So, the question remains... what will replace ffdshow? And a ton of other apps (which I'm going to list in a second). I'm pretty worried about this, especially after watching that MS video below, as now I'm afraid of Windows 7 as well (or at least the people that use it). But I digress. I'm going to start building a list of apps I use on Windows and what I do with them, and am hoping that my loyal readers can provide me with their Mac counterparts so that I don't have to scour the web and use trial-and-error when I first get my new toy. So, without further adieu, here they are, roughly in the order that they appear in my QuickLaunch and Start Menu (i.e. random). Note that unless otherwise stated, these apps are free and I'm not looking to pay for alternatives. I want to trade free for free (and that doesn't mean pirated). Also if I'm sure a Mac version exists I'm not going to bother listing it.

ffdshow - already stated, I do a ton with it. Audio and video post-processing. Sure, it's a little CPU intensive, but I always get the desired result.
Media Player Classic - lightweight media player with heavyweight features.
GIMP - image manipulation program, a la Photoshop. But free and open source. Someone was telling me the other day that it's really slow on Mac and that I should use some sort of offshoot called Seashore. I'm definitely not going to be using Photoshop, as I feel almost the same about Adobe that I do about MS. Their software is just not cost effective for the hobbyist.
PixelRuler - quite a kickass little application. Lets you measure pixel distances on your screen. Great for doing any sort of web/UI dev.
ColorPic - along the lines of PixelRuler. Lets you use an eye dropper to get the color code of any color visible on your screen.
Newsleecher - used for downloading binaries from Usenet. And yes, I paid for this one. Which means unless I can find a viable free alternative this one's running in a VM, as I don't want to pay for 2 pieces of software that do the same thing, even if they are on different platforms.
Nokia PC Suite - Hmm... I don't recall ever stumbling across a Nokia Mac Suite, but it would be nice to sync my phone still. Though if I can't find an alternative to this app I'm sure I can make due with just using my phone in Mass Storage mode.
MED - my favorite text editor ever. Been using it since back in my OS/2 days (there was and still is a native version for OS/2). No native Mac version though :(
Mobipocket Reader - really I use it to read books on my phone, but it syncs them up with my native Windows installation, of which a Mac version does not exist.
DVD Decrypter - even though it's been discontinued and development has stopped on it for years, it's still the most reliable tool to burn PS/2 images.
MP3Gain - great little tool for normalizing your MP3 collection.
7-Zip - great all-in-one zipper/unzipper supporting every compression format imaginable. Apparently there's a command line version available for 'nix, but since Mac is all about the GUI I definitely want that route if there is one.
AutoStitch - mentioned before, this tool stitches together a series of photos into a nice panorama shot. Seemingly by magic.

That's all that I have on this borrowed laptop, but then it's not much of a powerhouse so I'm sure I'm missing some apps that I've abandoned due to processing constraints. However, the above list is core to my computing experience, and I desperately need adequate replacements. So if anyone has any suggestions, please post in the comments.

Oh. My. God.

2009-09-30T04:23:00.002+07:00

I really don't know what to say. Knowing that I have a Mac arriving in about 3 weeks, I watched the whole video with a grin on my face. Yet I think I shed a few tears on the inside. But, if I ever needed a reason to jump ship, this video is it.

Since my friend from Canada actually called me to find out if this was real or just some practical joke (and oh boy, do I wish it were the latter) I decided to provide the source (via Gene). Note that they link to a whole slew of other related videos.

Whoever said that any press is good press never saw these videos.

Things I Hate About Michael Bay's Transformers

2009-09-28T23:05:00.003+07:00

As my friends and readers know, I'm an avid Transformers fan. But I'm talking G1. After the original Transformers movie I pretty much lost interest. But I'm still a huge fan of those original Autobots and Decepticons. And mom, if you're reading this, I'm still waiting for the pictures of my long lost and newly found Transformers toys.

Also as my friends (and my readers to a lesser extent - though I'm really not sure I have any regular readers that I don't know personally) know, I hated the first Transformers movie. Hmm... I just realized I'm going to use the word "hate" a lot in this post. Oh well, I'm not really a hateful person. But some things (or people... ahem... Michael Bay...) bring it out in me. Also, I realize that I'm a fanboy, and will be saying things here that normal people may read and think that I live in a basement and never see the light of day. And that's partially true (well, ok, not literally, but figuratively at times anyway). So take these emotional outbursts with a grain of salt.

Anyway, let's be clear. There were multiple hatreds in the first movie. I'm going by memory here since I haven't seen it for a long time and never plan on watching it again, but I'll try to be as chronological as possible.

The first Transformer we saw (helicopter named Blackout) wasn't even an original Transformer (by "original" I mean part of the G1 crew).
GM Sponsorship. Oops, I accidentally (for real) typed "Sponsorshit" there, which may be more appropriate. I understand that it's Hollywood and money is money, but there are some things that shouldn't change - like Bumblebee. At most he could have been updated to the New Beetle, but I was very disappointed in turning him into a Camaro.
Bumblee's first appearance. Sure, Bay pays a slight homage to the original Bumblebee by having the new Bumblebee park beside an old yellow Beetle. But then, what does he do to it? Slams it with his door and generally fucks it up. Dude! That's just not cool. At all. Not how you pay homage to your ancestor.
Transformations. They sucked. There were a million flying bits which eventually assembled into something that vaguely resembled a robot, or at the very least some sort of bipedal creature. It was like watching Pig-Pen. I just timed Ironhide's transformation in the sequel, and it's horrendous (more on that later). You'd get blasted before your bumper transformed into your ass. The original animated series was so much smoother and the robo-bits made sense (i.e. you could recognize components of the vehicle in the robot).
Stupidity. When the Autobots are clomping around on Sam's (Spike's) lawn, they're imbeciles. Knocking shit over, unaware of their size, stepping on shit, and generally being clumsy. This scene pains me to think about to this day.
Highway fight between Optimus and Bonecrusher. Now, correct me if I'm wrong (and I'm obviously not), but in G1 Bonecrusher was a member of the Constructicons - 6 Decepticons who together formed Devastator. Now, a fight between Optimus and Devastator - SURE! Bring it on! But a fight between Optimus and 1/6 of Devastator? That's way beneath Optimus. He doesn't have the time for that crap. Send Bumblebee and be done with it.
Jazz's death. Big. Fat. BOO! Jazz is by far the coolest Autobot, and killing him off when there's a mute-ass Bumblebee just waiting to get picked off is not cool at all. Jazz should not have died. Period.

There's more I'm sure, but those are the major sticking points that I still remember after 2 years. The only positive thing I have to say about the first movie is that it was visually stunning. And I mean that. STUNNING. I first watched a DVD copy on my projector, and it was ok. Then I watched a 720p version and my jaw dropped. Definite eye candy. Too bad trying to digest it makes you sick :)

Now, on to the hell of Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen. I just sat down to watch it, and at 4 minutes, 36 seconds into it I've already decided that I need to blog about its retardedness because there's no one in the room watching it with me to whom I can yell and hurl obscenities. So, let's start at the beginning.

The sound effects before the movie even starts, during the Dreamworks and Paramount intros. Horrible. I realize they're the same sound effects used in the original movie (and will likely plague this one too), but what ever happened to the original transformation sounds from G1? I'm not saying they need to be identical, but they don't need to sound like metallic fingernails scraping a chalkboard.
Shanghai China - 22:14. Yet it's bright and sunny out. Ok, nitpicky I'm sure (maybe he meant GMT or EST) but I'm still gonna write it cuz it annoys me.
Ironhide's first transformation. I shit you not, it takes 15 seconds. Do you know what would happen to a transformer in G1 if it took them 15 seconds to transform? Well, I'd say they'd be shot to death, but no one ever died in G1, so probably there'd just be a lot of stray fire shooting around him and then he'd retreat or something. At any rate, 15 seconds is way too long. Also, he was grunting while transforming. Grunting! I didn't realize Autobots had a respiratory system.
Ironhide - "He's here. I smell him." Uhhh... since when did robots smell? I guess if Bay can give Optimus lips he can give Ironhide olfactory senses.
The first Decepticon is some sort of construction vehicle with treads. Yet he transforms into a contraption with 2 HUGE wheels. Where did they come from? And why is each individual wheel bigger than he was in his vehicular mode?
Sideswipe is a red Lamborghini. Fine, so there's the GM sponsorship issue to contend with, but he's supposed to be RED! Not silver.
Why would Sam find a piece of the All Spark and give it to his girlfriend instead of the Autobot sitting in his garage, who just happened to save his ass from all the little Decepticons that magically appeared in his house (because of the All Spark). Why does no one ask where these little Decepticons came from? WHY?!
Bumblebee STILL has no voice. 2 years later. And reinforcements from Cybertron have arrived. Couldn't they have brought some spare parts? WTF?
Sam to Bumblebee - "Freshmen aren't allowed to have cars" - Um, in what school in what country? Lame writing. He's a fucking Autobot. He can park anywhere he wants and still give Sam (god I hate typing that... it's SPIKE dammit!) door-to-door service.
PRO: Soundwave is a spy satellite. Since he was always a spy, and tape decks are obviously obsolete, a satellite is a good choice. Kudos. Also, his voice, though not the original Soundwave synthesis, is well done.
Optimus' transformation when falling from a plane: 6 seconds. Optimus' transformation when sitting in a hangar: 15 seconds. WTF?
PRO: Soundwave still has Ravage. Interesting "eject" mechanism, but still happy about Ravage.
Human-looking Decepticon chick (Alice apparently) with extra long mechanical tongue and tail. Again, WTF?! This isn't Species. Goddammit Bay, get your shit together.
After getting his ass kicked by Megatron, Starscream and Helicopter Decepticon (Grindor apparently), Optimus spits out... WHAAAT?? Bloody bone-colored teeth? He's a FUCKING ROBOT!
PRO: I like the Autobot Twins, Mudflap and Skids. They have personality like G1 Transformers did. They've adopted Earth's mannerisms like G1 Autobots did. I realize they're intended to be comic relief and, though they're not really very funny, I like them nonetheless. Hell, they have more personality than most of the human actors.
Jetfire. Hmm... Sure, somewhat true to the original storyline. Came to Earth long before the other Transformers. Switched sides from Decepticons to Autobots. But why does he have to be an old man comic relief? Not so sure about this one.
Devastator transformation time: 38 seconds. It was a somewhat impressive transformation, but the end result still looked like a pile of junk.
Bumblebee is too much of a badass, and the rest of the Autobots are just fodder. Hell, they don't even introduce half of the Autobots. Along those lines, none of them have personalities, beyond the Twins. They really are just fodder. Weak.
Devastator has testicles? COME ON!!!
Matrix of Leadership resurrects Sam? *sigh*
Optimus - "Let's roll". Would have been much better if it was "Autobots, ROLL OUT!". Oh ya, and then he flies.

The End

Overall, same assessment as the first movie. Visually stunning with no substance. Actually, I'll hazard to say that since the first movie was SUCH a disappointment and set my expectations SO low, I probably preferred the second. At least Jazz wasn't around to get killed again.

Also I just had to add this picture since it came up when I googled "Matrix of Leadership". Heh.

A Day in the Life...

2009-09-18T07:44:00.002+07:00

Wrote this article a few years back. Wow... 2003 actually. Anyway, I was doing a little egosurfing and I stumbled across this link with this quote:

Consider what Canada-based consultant Garth Gutenberg has to say. Mr Gutenberg, who is an expert in the area of home automation, says: “The convenience of Bluetooth in a security device such as a door lock would be amazing,” he says. If the lock itself includes some type of “intrusion detection”, the intrinsic security of the Bluetooth should be sufficient, he explains. “While any wireless technology is subject to potential hacking, this type of lock would be at least as secure as conventional key locks, and Bluetooth would provide greater security than typical garage door openers, which often allow entrance into the main part of the home,” he adds.

I love it when people who've never met me refer to me as "an expert". At any rate, it made me want to find the original article, and since the site that I wrote it for is now defunct I decided to hit up the Wayback Machine. And lo and behold, there it was. So, without further adieu, I'm republishing my original article here, mostly out of vanity and because I don't want to lose it again. Just remember when reading it... it's 6 years old. Tech has changed since then. Though most of the concepts I wrote about still haven't found their way to my low-budget Thailand apartment.

Bluetooth at Home

By Garth Gutenberg

You wake up to the incessant beeping of your alarm clock. Your curtains, which were closed while you were sleeping, are now wide open, letting the sun pour in. Your bedroom light has come on, as have the hallway and bathroom lights. You reach over and hit the snooze button, granting you a meager 9 more minutes of sleep. Just as your alarm clock quiets itself your curtains begin to close again. The stream of lights from bedroom to bathroom shuts off leaving darkness in its wake.

When you finally arise you make your way to the bathroom. As you walk down the hallway you hear the coffee pot begin brewing and the stereo turns on. The sound of your morning radio show pours into the bathroom, ready to accompany you on your routine. As part of your dressing routine you put on your Bluetooth headset. "TV, news" you say. Your radio is muted and your television is turned on to your favorite morning news show. You grab yourself a coffee and sit down for a few minutes of morning relaxation. Your cell phone rings, but it's in the other room, still on the charger. "Hello?" you say into your headset. The television is muted and the call answered. You talk to the caller for a minute, and just as you are about to hang up, your landline rings. You end your cell phone call and say, "Answer phone." Your headset picks up the call coming in on your landline. The television remains muted. During the conversation you need to reference something in an encyclopedia, so you turn to Google. You pick up your web pad and surf away. When you hang up from the call, the sound on your TV comes back on. You finish your coffee and head out the door. It closes and locks behind you as the coffee maker, television and lights shut off and the security system is armed.

In the scenario described above, every device has one thing in common - Bluetooth. These devices talk to each other and are aware of each other's presence. It is as though they are sentient. When your alarm clock turns on it sends a signal to your curtains, opening them, and to your lights, turning them on. When you hit the snooze button it sends another signal telling them to close and turn off. In the hallway there is a Bluetooth enabled motion sensor. It has already received the wake-up signal from your alarm clock, so it just sits and waits until it sees you walk by. At this point it tells your coffee maker to start brewing and your stereo to turn on. Your stereo communicates to various Bluetooth-enabled speakers placed around your house, following you from room to room via Bluetooth motion sensors.

Your headset is paired with both your cell phone and a multi-function access point such as JazzBlue^TM. Your voice commands are sent to the access point and it executes them. "TV" sends a command from the access point to your television, turning it on. "News" sends a preprogrammed channel to the television. When your cell phone rings, your headset automatically establishes a connection to it for you to issue voice commands. When you say "Hello" and answer the call, your access point issues the appropriate muting signals to any devices that are currently outputting sound. When your landline rings, it is routed through your Bluetooth access point and your headset establishes the appropriate connection for you. The web pad you pick up could have either a Bluetooth or a Wi-Fi connection to your high-speed gateway. If that Internet connection were to fail however, only Bluetooth would allow you to use the same device to establish a data connection over your cell phone as a backup. When all telephone calls have ceased, any device that was previously outputting sound resumes doing so, thanks to the access point. When you leave, a combination of motion sensors and a Bluetooth-enabled door lock tell your access point that you've left which relays an Off command to your coffee maker and television, and an On command to your security system. You could even go so far as to have a Bluetooth-enabled passkey that did not require you to insert a key into a lock, but rather just enter the vicinity with the device. This key could be any Bluetooth device including your cell phone, headset, PDA or watch.

Is all of this possible today? It is possible to do everything that I mentioned above today, but you'd have to use a lot more than just Bluetooth to do it. You would be using as many as a dozen different technologies and you would probably need a PhD in Electrical Engineering. The question then becomes what can be done today with Bluetooth, and where are the gaps? I will try to break it down by device type and cite a few examples of each as they exist.

Clock

The Bluetooth alarm clock is such a simple concept, yet to my knowledge nothing of the sort exists. If all of the clocks in your home were Bluetooth-enabled you would never have to set one again. You would never have to change the microwave clock during daylight savings. The wake-up alarm that you set on one clock would be transmitted throughout your home so that other devices that are set to perform functions when you start your day (or at any other time) will do so. This also applies to wristwatches, of which none have yet been Bluetooth-enabled.

Home Automation and Security

Home Automation is an area in which I am very excited to see Bluetooth making an appearance. For years Home Automation enthusiasts have had to deal with X-10 and other wired technologies. X-10 is a protocol designed for Home Automation which allows home electronics and appliances, attached to X-10 transmitters, to communicate through your home's electrical wiring. Some proprietary RF implementations have been created, but there hasn't been much adoption. With Bluetooth we have a global wireless standard, which has low power consumption and is perfect for Home Automation. So far the only company to even mention entering this arena is Hassnet with its JazzBlue^TM device. In addition to its access point functionality, JazzBlue^TM boasts Home Automation modules that will behave much like X-10 does today, perhaps even using the X-10 protocol over Bluetooth. I look forward to seeing this in practice. Another device that provides an X-10 gateway is the Blue-X from Roving Networks. It provides an X-10 gateway from either a Bluetooth device or wired Ethernet. The Blue-X communicates with standard X-10 modules that are commonly available.

There are both advantages and disadvantages to using Bluetooth modules to replace X-10. Since Bluetooth requires very little power consumption and usually runs on batteries, a module could be put anywhere, including outdoors, whereas an X-10 module requires a power outlet or other wired power source. This simplifies installation, especially for people who rent or do not wish to rewire their homes. On the other hand, if a module has mechanical parts that draw extra power, such as a motorized drape system, it will require an external power source anyway; though I'd like to see solar power introduced in a device like that. Bluetooth is also more reliable than X-10, including native error correction. With Bluetooth you don't have to worry about dirty power, bad wiring or line noise, and its error correction and frequency hopping overcome most airborne interference.

Home Security is following suit and as of yet only the JazzBlue has made an entrance into this market. The convenience of Bluetooth in a security device such as a door lock would be amazing. Is Bluetooth's innate security mechanism enough to prevent thieves from walking up to your door with a Bluetooth laptop and "picking" your lock, or is additional encryption and security required to sit on top of the Bluetooth stack? If additional software is required, it will break the concept of using any device as a key. If the lock itself includes some type of "intrusion detection", the intrinsic security should be sufficient. While any wireless technology is subject to potential hacking, this type of lock would be at least as secure as conventional key locks, and Bluetooth would provide greater security than typical garage door openers, which often allow entrance into the main part of the home.

Home Entertainment

All television, stereo, DVD and other component device manufacturers READ THIS: Infrared is dead! Bluetooth is the future. Embrace it. Who needs line of sight and other restrictions imposed by Infrared? Without this, people will need tiny Bluetooth-to-IR repeaters scattered around their homes - but that's not really enough. Infrared is not stateful, i.e. it doesn't know if a device is on or off. Also, in the case of home entertainment devices it is a one-way transmission. With Bluetooth we can finally have intelligent automation that will allow us to "turn the TV off" rather than just changing its state and simply hoping that we turned it off. This may not seem like much if you're sitting in front of the television watching its state change, but consider the following scenario:

You are working late at the office and there's a television show you're going to miss. You decide to record it. You have the capability to use a web browser to connect to your home and control any device you like. If your DVR supported Bluetooth, you could just turn it on and start recording. If it were already on it would remain on and begin recording when you told it to. With only infrared, you have to know what state your DVR was already in. If you "turn it on" and start recording, but it was already on, you've now turned it off. Admittedly, there are devices you can put on the power lines to check if your DVR is drawing a signal, but this is where having the aforementioned PhD comes in handy.

So please… Sony, Panasonic, LG and everyone else, I implore you to embrace the future and help to simplify our lives with Bluetooth. At this point I am not aware of any Bluetooth-enabled Home Entertainment devices. I am not aware of any Bluetooth-to-IR repeaters either, but as Bluetooth becomes more prevalent in Home Automation I'm sure that these devices aren't far behind.

The alternative today is to use a Home Theater PC instead of multiple component-type devices. This allows all of your Home Entertainment needs to be serviced from a PC that would, of course, be Bluetooth-enabled. Many manufacturers are releasing PCs running Microsoft's Windows XP Media Center Edition, which wraps this experience up into a nice package; though a Bluetooth dongle is still required. Alternatively, you can just build your own using products like SnapStreamPVS or ShowShifter.

Multi-Function Access Point

A basic Bluetooth access point provides LAN access for Bluetooth-enabled devices. A multi-function access point provides LAN access as well as a variety of other access types over a Bluetooth connection. The most robust product yet to enter this arena is the Hassnet JazzBlueTM. Not only does this product provide LAN access, but it also provides PSTN connections (landline), Home Automation and Security modules, a built-in web server and the ability to automatically place outgoing calls if triggered to do so by a security alert. This device is the Swiss Army knife of access points. Having PSTN access means that with a Bluetooth-enabled cell phone or headset, you can place calls over your landline so that you don't incur per-minute charges as you do with your cell. The built-in web server and Home Automation/Security modules rank this device with some of the more powerful Home Control Units costing as much as US$1000. It will be interesting to see what kind of price tag Hassnet applies to the JazzBlue. Unfortunately, the JazzBlue does not provide Wi-Fi access, but with the cost of Wi-Fi routers and access points steadily dropping, this isn't such a concern.

Depending on your needs, a PC could suffice in this area. But if you plan on using it to issue Home Automation/Security commands from a Bluetooth device you'd better don your Engineer's cap, as this is a long and ugly road.

Headset

There are many viable alternatives in this arena, and it really depends on what you're looking for and your preference when wearing a headset. Currently, the smallest by far is the Nextlink BlueSpoon, but at US$270 it is also one of the most expensive. It fits right inside your ear and locks in place with a spring. For around US$100 you can purchase the Jabra FreeSpeak which has an earpiece that goes inside your ear canal while the rest of it wraps around the top of your ear. It has a tiny arm that extends underneath your ear containing the microphone. If you prefer an over-the-ear model, you can choose from just about anyone. Motorola, Ericsson and Nokia all have very different looking models, but all are over the ear with a boom. Another innovative design is Sound ID's Personal Sound System. Using their proprietary technology they are able to adjust incoming sounds for maximum clarity, customized to the listening ability of the user. They have a demo on their site that is well worth listening to.

If you're looking for a stereo headset that allows you to listen to music and provides two-way communication there is currently only one alternative. The Openbrain Bluetooth Wireless Stereo Headset is a truly innovative piece of equipment. Its features include a microphone, stereo speakers and a built-in MP3/WMA/SBC player with up to 128 MB of memory. The reason that they've included an MP3 player is due to a limitation of Bluetooth. Bluetooth's bandwidth is limited to around 700 kbps synchronous transfer, which means that it delivers around 350 kbps in each direction. The audio stream that is delivered when a 128 kbps MP3 is decoded or a CD is played is around 150 KB/s or 1200 kbps. What this means is that Bluetooth does not provide enough bandwidth to deliver a pure, stereo audio stream. Openbrain has compensated for this by providing a built-in audio decoder that can stream the audio file itself, thus conserving bandwidth. It also doubles as a portable MP3 player (contained in the headphones). The standalone MP3 player has virtually no form factor at all as you are wearing it on your head. This product is truly an ingenious design. My only problem with the product is, well, its color: it is a bright yellow. Personally, I prefer anything I'm wearing on my head all day to be a little more understated. Having said that, I'm sure it won't stop me from getting my hands - er, ears - on one of these once the 128 MB version becomes available.

Cell Phone

Bluetooth has made definite headway in the cell phone market as more and more handsets are being released Bluetooth-enabled. Which cell phone is the best? That really depends on your preferences and is outside the scope of this article. It is a constantly changing market and 2003 will introduce myriad new Bluetooth-enabled cell phones. All I can say on this subject is to keep reading www.BluetoothNews.com for future product reviews ;)

Input Devices

Bluetooth input devices have begun to hit the market. Logitech has a Bluetooth mouse/laser-pointer and Microsoft has a Bluetooth mouse and keyboard. Both of these devices have been done before using proprietary RF. They are not very innovative. Enter the Senseboard^TM. This device, by Senseboard Technologies AB, is an amazing piece of equipment for us touch-typists. It is a pair of "clamps" that attach to the inside of each hand between the thumb and index finger to capture your finger movements. It is a go-anywhere keyboard. You don't need to unfold it or set it on a flat surface, and it is Bluetooth-enabled so it works with any device that supports Bluetooth as an input method.

Now let me discuss game controllers. I am a gamer. PC, console or PDA - the platform doesn't matter. For the moment I am going to assume that you also enjoy the occasional game. I'm sure that you have developed likes and dislikes to the various controllers and input methods that you've used. Some are far more intuitive than others, or you have more experience with one. Wouldn't it be great if you could pick one controller that works well and use it on all games on all devices? Admittedly, this wouldn't always work as some games may require specific input methods, but it would be nice to have the option. Instead you are forced to adapt to every device that you play on. Why haven't we seen any Bluetooth-enabled game controllers yet? I have seen it argued that Bluetooth's latency is too great for gaming, where latency requirements are generally less than 30 ms. But according to the Blueooth HID profile specification, "The implementation of the Bluetooth link should add no more than 5 ms additional latency between the user input and the application response over a wired implementation when the Bluetooth HID is in the active state". This should prove more than sufficient for gaming, and is great news for the gaming industry. These devices will be slow to arrive, but they will come. STMicroelectronics will be producing a complete reference design supporting the Bluetooth HID (Human Interface Device) profile (See related article.) Personally, I can't wait to get my hands on a Bluetooth-enabled game controller, because trust me, there's nothing less enjoyable than driving a Porsche 911 down the Autobahn with a stylus.

Bluetooth has the potential to revolutionize the home. Combined with its adoption in the mobile market, Bluetooth could finally be the technology that allows all of our electronics to work together seamlessly and without cables. The possibilities are endless and will open people's minds to ideas that they have never dreamed of.

As all good things must come to an end, so must your day. After returning late from work you come home exhausted and fall asleep in front of the TV. When you awake a few hours later you are so tired you can barely open your eyes and all you want to do is crawl into bed. You gather all of your strength and somehow manage to pull yourself off the couch. Slowly you drag yourself to the bedroom, TV still blaring behind you and your home lit up like a solar eclipse. As you crawl into bed you utter one last word before removing your headset, "Goodnight". At this, your TV and lights turn off, your front door is locked and your security system is armed. You hear the hum of a small motor as your curtains reclaim your privacy, and your alarm clock is reset to wake you in the morning. Life is good.

Garth Gutenberg (Toronto, Canada) is a Senior Application Software Developer for a major financial institution. He also provides consulting in the areas of infrastructure, mobility and home automation/media. His focus is to make people's lives easier through technology.

Garth believes wires should only be used for hanging coats, and paper should only be used in the bathroom.

More New Digs

2009-09-17T20:11:00.002+07:00

So I've moved again. Sold off my share of Dos at a substantial loss, but it beats the alternative. So, rather than keep living there I decided to move again. Househunting is a pain here, as the only things listed on the 'net are for farangs by farangs. Which means expensive. The ideal situation for getting a house here is to have a Thai person drive around on their motorbike and call other Thai people when they see House for Rent signs (usually written in Thai). At any rate, I tried that method for a bit and looked at a few places, but none of them really wowed me. Then I found this apartment complex online. Yes, it's for farangs run by farangs (I think the owner is Canadian actually). I have basically the same amount of space I had at Dos - one room studio. But I also have a small kitchenette and the attention to detail is quite nice. I'll be taking some pics of the inside once I've cleaned up my moving-in explosion of crap, but in the meantime please enjoy the following pool and 360 panorama pics of the roof. THAT'S what wowed me. Wow. And I'm paying roughly the same as I was at Dos (8500 baht/month + electricity and water; Dos was 10k all in).

Boat Charters in Phuket

2009-09-17T19:51:00.000+07:00

I've been doing a little work on the side, and here are two of my latest creations:

Epic Charters - Luxury Catamaran Yacht Charter in Phuket, Thailand

Boat Charter Phuket - Direct-to-Owner Boat Charters in Phuket, Thailand

If anyone reading this is either looking for a boat charter in Phuket or owns a boat they want to charter out, please check out Boat Charter Phuket as it's sure to suit your needs.

Firebug Kicks Ass!

2009-09-14T23:53:00.000+07:00

In my new pseudo-career as web developer I've been looking for tools to help me out along the way. And since I haven't done any REAL web dev for a few years, I'm a little behind. At any rate, what has got to be the absolute most valuable tool I've ever seen is Firebug.

According to their website:

You can edit, debug, and monitor CSS, HTML, and JavaScript live in any web page.

And you really can! It doesn't do anything server-side, but all the code that your browser sees is accessible to it for you to change on the fly. Makes debugging (especially someone else's code) a breeze! Anyway, if you do even the slightest bit of web dev, download and install it. I can't do it justice here... you have to try it to believe it.

Word

2009-09-07T02:00:00.000+07:00

I've been giving some thought to Word lately. And the other MS Office products. In my upcoming transition to Mac, I've been trying to figure out what I'm going to use to replace my core apps. Word immediately came to mind as an app that was of concern, as, from all reports, the Mac version of Office just isn't up to speed with the Windows version. But then I got thinking... what is Word really? I mean, any documents I write I want to publish on the web. And Word's HTML conversion/Save As... well, to put it bluntly, sucks balls. So, from my perspective, Word is a glorified HTML editor. And it doesn't even do that very well. Which means that I'm not going to miss it (other than possible conversion problems from .doc to .html, which may require a Windows VM for proper formatting). In other words, Word - I won't miss you. I might miss Excel, though I've yet to really put Google Spreadsheets through its paces, and since I'm not a real power user, it might suffice. Otherwise I'm sure I can find an adequate replacement.

Damn it feels good to free myself (theoretically) from the Microsoft regime. Oh, and I'm going to use GIMP on Mac as well, so no Adobe cartel to deal with either. Open source kicks ass. Hopefully my new MacBook will allow me to appreciate the nuances of Unix so that a Linux conversion can also take place in my currently permeable mind. But all in due time.

International Bacon Day

2009-09-05T00:23:00.000+07:00

Tomorrow (September 5th) is International Bacon Day. I had some grandiose plans for this day a few months ago, but as often happens, plans change. So, I'm going to be celebrating this most reverent of holidays by going to eat Moo Kata. There's a really detailed explanation of this food/ritual/event/porky goodness at that link back there, so I won't bother you with too much detail. But suffice it to say that it involves choice cuts of pork (mostly bacon and bacony parts) cooked over an open flame on a metal skillety bbqy thingy. I've only had it once before, and it's definitely not something I should be doing on a regular basis (due to the crack-like effects of bacon addiction), but tomorrow is a special day. And don't worry, I'll be taking pictures and describing the process in detail. And to top it all off it's only 120 baht per person - ALL YOU CAN EAT!!! That's about $4 CAD... for ALL THE BACON YOU CAN EAT!!! And there's some vegetables and stuff there too, but I neither have the time nor the gastronomical capcity for such things when I'm staring down so much bacony goodness.

And as a side note, "moo" in Thai means pork. But "neua" means beef. I'm not sure if Thai cows make a different sound than Canadian cows, but I would think that "moo" would be more appropriate for beef. Oh, and "poo" means crab. Which is funny when a Thai person speaking Thenglish says "I want to eat some poo".

Improving My Skillset

2009-09-02T00:45:00.009+07:00

Lately I've been doing a lot of web dev. Well, let's say it's a little dev, a little design, a little Joomla!, and a lot of grandiose planse. And not that I'm trying to let any cat out of the bag just yet since my current project is in its infancy, I did spend about 3 hours working on a logo last night which I'm SUPER proud of (even though I created it by following a 9 min youtube tutorial on making graffiti text in GIMP and it still took me 3 hours to get it just right). At any rate, I'm gonna post it here cuz whenever I do something neat with graphics I can't help but share.

It's much smaller on the actual site, but damn it looks good, especially against a black background (added for your viewing pleasure on the blog, but the original has a transparent background). I only wish I could have figured out how to string the underline between the loop in the "g" rather than just overtop of it.

And now I'm off to bed since I haven't slept in about 37 hours as I can't seem to get my mind off of coding. Hopefully tonight won't be a repeat. And hopefully I can get my shiny new laptop soon. Though I must say, as far as 3-4 year old celerons go, I actually have a better user experience on this borrowed Dell than I did on my <1 year old HP running Vista. Thank god I'll never have to work with that hell of an OS again!

The Light Side

2009-08-29T00:54:00.000+07:00

I was going to call this post "The Dark Side", but realistically I've probably been supporting the Dark Side since I began computing. Not that I want this to turn into a theological monologue, but suffice it to say that I'm going Mac.

It turns out that my lovely HP TX2000z had a fatal flaw - heat. Combined with Thailand's not-so-cool weather, it died a miserable death on me. 3 months after the warranty expired. Luckily it was purchased using my lovely sister's Amex which provided with an additional 1 year warranty. After jumping through a number of hoops to get my laptop back to the US and into some sort of repair center, Amex has called me and told me that it's not cost effective for them to fix it since both the motherboard and CPU are fried, so they're reimbursing me the full purchase price. Yee Haw! So after much research and internal debate, I've decided to go Mac since it's more versatile. Bootcamp if necessary, but a lot more flexibility than I'd have with a Windows machine. Not to mention it'll be a nice change of scenery.

So there you have it. Yet another convert (theoretically). There's no telling whether I'll like it or not, but what the hell... it's worth a shot.

Obama

2009-08-21T02:50:00.000+07:00

I was presented with a question tonight during a (moderately) heated discussion between myself and two Republican Americans.

Q: "Let's say a guy at the end of the street had a real problem with you. He said to you 'I hate you. When I have enough money to buy a gun, I'm going to kill you.'. What would you do?"
A: "Well... I'd try to reason with him and understand why he hates me so much. Then I'd try to convince him not to kill me"

Questioner's Response: "That was such an Obama answer. That was what Obama would say".

He obviously intended this as an insult of sorts, but I took it as a compliment. He was basically trying to get me to say "I'd buy a gun and shoot him first", which, honestly, I'd never do. This may be a cliche, but a bullet won't protect you from a bullet. I.e. if someone shoots me, having a gun in my belt won't save my life.

My $0.02.

I'm Back

2009-06-19T03:41:00.000+07:00

Sorry for the delay in updating. The Internet in Laos was horrible so I gave up on blog updates. Any internet usage was painful. I checked my email every couple of days and that was it. Suffice it to say that I'm back in Phuket. Trying to sort out a number of things right now, and once I have a proper update will be forthcoming. Blah blah blah.

PHP Shorthand (
2009-05-16T18:56:00.002+07:00
Am doing some web dev (and learning PHP in the process - I know, late to the game, but better late than never), and every sample script I downloaded was in shorthand - i.e. the opening tags for php script were simply <? instead of the more traditional <?php. I'm using WampServer, which is quite a nifty little package for doing this type of dev on Windows, but I couldn't figure out for the life of me how to make it understand the shorthand. Then I realized that I was making it too difficult. All you do is left click the WAMPSERVER icon in the systray and select PHP > PHP Settings > short open tag. I also dug around in the C:\wamp\bin\php\php5.2.9-2 directory and found the php.ini which also contains this setting:
short_open_tag = Off
But when I edited it and restarted the services nothing had changed, so maybe something in Wamp overrides this.

Also, this is one of those that I decided to blog about because searching google for <? and <?php when you don't know the term "shorthand" is a big PITA, so hopefully this helps someone.

Taking an Hiatus from an Hiatus

2009-05-15T18:06:00.001+07:00

I was doing some research today in trying to figure out what to do about my Thailand visa when I want to go back. Vientiane has a Thai Embassy, so I figured since I'm already here it makes sense to renew my visa. Well, it turns out that right now until June 5th the Thai Embassy here is giving away Tourist visas for free. FREE! Apparently Thailand's tourism is hurting (duh!) so this is a step in the right direction. Not only that, but they're one of the few places that issues Double Entry visas... which means that, theoretically (it's all theory since most of it is up to the dude that accepts (or doesn't accept) your application - see my previous post on the hellhole that was the Philippines) I can get 180 days in Thailand and only have to leave the country once at the 90 day mark to literally cross the border and come back. So I may return to Phuket early on in my travels so that I can tend to my investment and lick my wounds from this experience.

That's not to say I won't be back, but realistically I need a travel companion. And I need to start making some money to subsidize these ventures. And really, if I'm gonna dig my heels in and try to earn a living, I'd much rather do it in Phuket than Toronto, especially if I can figure out some way to 4HWW that bad boy.

So, as it stands I'll probably end up in Phuket next week or the week after. We'll see. But I'll be sure to keep everyone posted.

P.S. I'm writing this from some sort of internet cafe instead of my guest house, and I was averaging a screaming 25KB/s... then it started raining and chased me inside and now I'm averaging about 8KB/s. Damn rain.

Flying Solo

2009-05-13T21:24:00.000+07:00

As I've previously identified, I suck at traveling alone. I've been giving this a lot of thought lately, especially after reading Mike's post on why he prefers it. I am currently in Vientiane, Laos. Alone. I don't speak the language, and whenever I try talking English or French (the theoretical second language here) I generally get a bunch of gibberish I don't understand in return. That's not to say that I'm putting on my Superiority Hat(TM) here or anything, in fact just the opposite. I'm in a foreign country whose foreign language I can't speak or understand, and it causes me stress. I'm afraid to eat at a noodle stand because I have no idea what to ask for. So I eat at tourist traps which cost too much and don't give me an "authentic" experience. But then I think to myself... self, what is an authentic experience for one such as you? Stammering and trying to explain that you really REALLY don't like seafood so please, just give me some sort of noodle dish with pork, chicken or beef? Trying to find an internet connection that runs faster than slow dialup (ok, to give them credit, the best connection I've found here actually runs faster than slow EDGE, but still!)? And the level of English (and probably French) here is likely far better than if I venture deeper into the countryside. This presents a serious problem for me... and I'm positive it's because I'm by myself. If I was traveling with someone else, these would be non-issues. Sure, we'd both still have communication issues and we both might have trouble getting what we want, but at best it would end up a joke that we could share together and laugh about later, and at worst we'd both get screwed, and as we all know, misery loves company.

And then there's the other question which has been praying on my mind lately. Is this venture being spoiled because of the Internet? Let's use the Plain of Jars as an example. I read about them, I see pictures, I understand what's going on. I read about the archeology reports and about the myths. I understand what there is to understand. And then I think to myself... self, what's the point of a journey to the middle of nowhere when you already have all this knowledge? I must admit, it was difficult to write that last sentence, because I know that many of my readers (i.e. my friends and family) will be thinking "WTF?! What's wrong with you?!". But I'm serious... what's the point? Sure, it'd be cool... but so is a roller coaster. Or swimming in the ocean on Xmas day. Or having a beer on the Mekong at sunset. Though all of those items lose something when they're done solo (at least, IMHO). I'd much prefer to share my roller coaster, Xmas swim or sunset beer with a friend than experience them alone. And, continuing on with the Plain of Jars, there's the "myth" side to contend with. Sure, I admit, I haven't been there (yet?), but in reading this:

"At the foot of one of the hills, we met a woman gathering firewood with her young children. As did other people we encountered, she gave us the popular explanation for the jars: the tale of military victory and celebratory wine. She also said that the jars were molded from a mixture of sand, sugar, and buffalo hide—a traditional view disproved by mineralogical analysis."

I feel less inclined to do so. Reader's Digest version of the above "explanation":

"Lao stories and legends claim that there was a race of giants who once inhabited the area. Local legend tells of an ancient king called Khun Cheung, who fought a long, victorious battle against his enemy. He supposedly created the jars to brew and store huge amounts of lao lao rice wine to celebrate his victory."

I've never been much of a fan of tradition-for-tradition's-sake, nor of ignorance for religious or other reasons. So when I read that as far back as 1923 people have been studying these (studies which have contradicted the local myths), yet the locals still believe in the myths... well, I want to go there even less. I don't want to pretend to know more about an area than someone that's lived there all their lives, but I also don't want to go to an area, having been previously informed about the area via scientific method, and be told that there's ghosts, vampires, voodoo or any other mythological hocus pocus. Hell, I laugh every time a Thai person tells me they're afraid of ghosts.

Anyway, I don't want this diatribe to be a debate about the origins of the jars, but more about whether or not to go visit them (specifically) or other such sites (non-specifically). What it comes down to is that it would probably be fun to visit with a companion, but pretty bland by myself. This is obviously just an outlook thing, as I know many people that would be thrilled at such an opportunity, solo or not, but I just don't think I'm that person. So, having said that, I'm not really sure where the road will take me next. But wherever it is I'll do my best to keep you all informed... even though it may be over 1kb/s internet wherein I go bald before a post actually gets published.

Vientiane

2009-05-11T22:07:00.000+07:00

Left Bangkok on the evening of May 8th at 8pm on a sleeper train which was scheduled to arrive in Nong Khai at around 9am, May 9th. Train ride was pretty uneventful, though I did bring along a bottle of Sangsom to help pass the time. Upon arrival in Nong Khai I was accosted by tuk tuk drivers. Figuring that no matter what I did I was gonna get ripped off, and that these guys probably have a process in place for getting farangs into Laos, I figured I'd just go with one. He took me to a "travel agency" who basically fill out the Laos Visa application for you. Less headache at the border I suppose. Though, and I'd read this before but was still a little surprised, Canada pays the most of any country for a Laos Visa. And it's not even like "Canada, US and UK" or something. No, it's Canada only at $42 USD. Then US and a bunch of others at $40 USD. Which isn't much of a difference, but why do they have to single us out like that? Did Canada sleep with Laos' sister and Laos just wants a little revenge? Baffling.

Anyway, after doing that the tuk tuk took me to the Thai side of Friendship Bridge and I got my exit stamp from Thailand, thus invalidating the remainding 30+ days on my B Visa. But since I figured I wouldn't be coming back within enough time to make the remaining time on that worthwhile, I didn't bother going to an Immigration office and getting an extension, which would have cost me 1500 baht and would really only be worthwhile if I came back with at least 15 days remaining. So, after getting the exit stamp, myself and a bunch of other travellers sat around waiting for our bus to take us across the bridge. When the bus arrived all the locals (i.e. Thai/Laos folks) scrambled and pushed and shoved their way onto the bus. I wasn't really sure why until I got on there and realized that it was standing room only, and that was putting it mildly. I'm surprised I didn't have someone sitting on my shoulders or hanging upside down from the ceiling. But a few minutes later we were on the Laos side of the bridge and going through the whole Visa/passport stamp stuff. Luckily it had all been taken care of by the travel agency, with the exception of a small form I had to fill out for the passport stamper guy (customs agent?). Went smoothly, and I was supposed to wait for a different bus on the other side. But I couldn't find the contact guy and tuk tuk drivers were accosting me, and I was tired and wanted a shower, so I just got some tuk tuk to take me to a cheap hotel with internet in Vientiane, about a 20 min drive from the border.

Finally arrived at the hotel and it was 600 baht a night. Or about 150,000 Kip. Don't get me started on this whole currency thing... Thailand was bad enough when it started at around 34 baht/CAD and dropped as low as 26. But now I need to do these other conversions. Basically one baht is about 244 Kip, and one CAD is about 6700 Kip. Feel strange to take out 700,000 of any currency from the ATM. At any rate, the hotel's internet cost 70 baht/hour (which is exorbitant - I was paying 15 in Bangkok when I had to use an internet cafe), and it was broken. My first day there consisted of sleeping all day then drinking Beer Lao Dark all night... or at least until the bars closed at 11:30, at which point I took a tuk tuk back to the room and proceeded to do everything in my power to try to find food, which was impossible. Not even a 7-11 or the like open. The next day I slept really late, past checkout time, so figured I'd just keep the room another night. Found some place called K-Plaza a little way down the road that seemed to be an electronics mall of some sort. Very white and well lit. And they had free internet terminals, so I was able to do at least a little catch up in the way of email. Then back to the bars on the Mekong, one specifically, the Full Moon Cafe, which was offering 2-for-1 happy hour from 5-7pm, however which only applied to cocktails I realized once I got there, and I couldn't pass up more Beer Lao Dark, so a waste of a happy hour. But they did have good prices on beer and excellent food. When I was leaving I ran into the same tuk tuk driver who took me back to my room the night before and he hooked me up with one of his fellow drivers for that evening's return trip. These trips were 20,000 Kip, which is about 80 baht, which I feel is a little expensive, but it's tough for me to haggle when I don't really know the value of the currency to locals.

This morning I woke up on time and checked out of that hotel and moved to a new one which I'd found while doing research with my precious internet time. Same price (actually slightly cheaper - I think about 550 baht/night) and has in-room WiFi and a pool. It's a little bit further from the Mekong bar district than the previous hotel, but still only about a 20-30 min walk. Slept all afternoon while downloading TV shows at a blazing 13 KB/s... so didn't actually get one show completed, and even doing basic research on Vientiane is harrowing. Went back to the Mekong bar area again cuz there was a Tex-Mex restaurant I wanted to check out. Wasn't bad, but wasn't fantastic either. Though I did enjoy the ham quesadilla - good combination and perhaps something we need to add to the Dos quesadilla options. As I was leaving (decided to walk home as I'd only had 2 beers) I ran into my tuk tuk buddy again, so I figured I'd give him the fare and let him drive me (also cuz it was dark and I wasn't exactly sure how to get back to my new hotel).

So, here I sit in my new hotel writing this post. I realize that I haven't taken any pictures yet, but I tend to be pretty bad about that. I'll try to snap some tomorrow instead of sleeping all day... not sure why I'm taking these naps since I've been here... normally I'm not a napper at all. Also need to check out some of the French-inspired breakfasts I've been reading about.

Things that I've learned so far:

I feel helpless without internet, and only slightly less helpless with slow internet.
I don't travel well alone, but then I think I came to this realization in the Philippines.
I miss Phuket.

Sukhumvit Soi 71

2009-04-27T14:50:00.002+07:00

That's where I'm staying right now. In Bangkok. Probably gonna be here for a couple more weeks. The place is decent. Air conditioning, furnished, small balcony (3rd floor)... 4500 baht/month. Internet too, though it hasn't been working since I moved in about 10 days ago. Yesterday I went to an Internet cafe and spent about 6 hours configuring my laptop since after removing the offending RAM stick (see previous post) I did a factory restore and had about a thousand updates and apps to install. Never got my WiFi fixed per ce, as the prospect of trying to get the native card replaced seemed far too daunting when it had already taken me 2 hours the previous day to find canned air (sometimes the language barrier can be a bitch), so I just bought a USB WiFi stick and left it at that. At any rate, I was gonna go back today to finish up but it started pouring rain, and since I forgot my backpack rain cover in Phuket I decided it wasn't in my best interest to take my laptop out in the rain. So I went downstairs and asked the manager if I could try to fix their internet issues. Took me all of 5 minutes. For one, their Linksys router was in default configuration, so that was easy enough to hack into (ok, not really hacking since I was given permission and didn't need to really do anything other than use the default password, but hack sounds better than log). Took a quick look at the config. Turns out the IP assigned by the DSL modem was 192.168.1.2. The internal addressing scheme of the Linksys was 192.168.1.x. Error! Routing not possible. So I changed the internal scheme to 192.168.2.x and instantly had 'net access. Why oh why don't people that set these things up check these things?! So now I have Internet in my room (though only 1 out of 4 bars since they haven't blanketed the building yet, but still better than nothing).

As for other points of interest near my humble abode, there's a little night market down the street that has a couple of "restaurants" (basically some dudes with gas flames and woks) that sell fantastic Thai food for about 25 baht a plate (~$0.90 CAD). They also sell this stuff called นารีรำพึง (that's naa ree ram peung for the uninitiated) which is some sort of homebrew Thai whisky that's got a very peppery flavor (kind of reminds me of the bacon vodka that we made for the bacon party before I left Toronto, since we totally over-peppered it). I'm guessing it's not super strong (maybe about 25-30%), but it's 130 baht (about $4.60 CAD) for a 750 mL bottle, so you can't beat that with a stick. And it beats the hell out of เหล้าขาว (lâo kăao) a homebrew rice whisky - a single shot of which makes you want to vomit faster than Ipecac. Interestingly, the translation of naa ree ram peung is:

นารี naa ree	woman ; female ; lady ; girl
รำพึง ram peung	groan ; lament ; mourn ; bemoan ; cry over ; complain

Other than that I haven't ventured too far in the walking neighbourhood. The streets around here are super narrow and there's no sidewalks, which makes me constantly afraid of being hit by a car, truck or motorbike. Have I mentioned previously that Thai drivers are fucking crazy? If not, let me point it out now. They are fucking crazy. Very little concern for anyone (or anything) else on the road. But, c'est la vie.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

2009-04-16T19:07:00.000+07:00

I'm not sure which is which here, and there's probably multiple of each, but it seemed a fitting title since I haven't updated in awhile and I've had experiences which fit each of the above.

I was going to do this chronologically, but I don't really remember where I left off, and it's easier for my brain to work backwards right now, or maybe just jump around, so here it is. I'm sitting in a hotel room in Chiang Mai, writing this on Sean's computer. Why you might ask? Well, because my computer is fucked. It's been bluescreening for awhile now, and got to the point where every time I turned it on it would bluescreen then reboot then go into some sort of Windows repair mode where it couldn't find anything wrong then reboot then let me log in. That process took around 30-40 mins. Then when I logged in WiFi *might* work. But it also might not, and then I'd have to go through the entire process again. I had plans to fix it this week, but this whole impromptu roadtrip to Chiang Mai happened so it fell by the wayside. So today I had a little downtime and decided to try to figure out what was wrong. I *suspected* the memory modules I bought in Phuket, and low and behold one of them seems to be extremely faulty. As in, when it's plugged in I bluescreen on bootup forever, and when it's not my machine boots perfectly. But, now that I've taken it out my WiFi seems to be 100% disabled (i.e. broken). Even in the BIOS I have a nice "!" in front of the option to use it as a boot device. The kicker is that it's on the same module as the Bluetooth, but the Bluetooth doesn't seem to have any problems at all (shocking, I know). So, as stated above, I'm using Sean's computer for this while mine just sits there. I'm planning on going to Bangkok tomorrow and will do my best to get the offending module fixed/replaced there. Thankfully there's a crazy-ass computer mall there which has everything I could ever desire and then some, so it shouldn't be a problem getting the part, but the language barrier might be. How does one say "HP WiFi/Bluetooth module for a TX2000z" in Thai?

At any rate, the last few days have been a bit of a whirlwind. I was planning on staying in Phuket until after Songkran (Thai New Year, April 13th), but at the last minute (the 10th) Sean told me he was roadtripping it to Chiang Mai and that I was coming with him. And that we were leaving on the 11th. So I literally had 12 hours to pack up my life and jump in the truck. Sure, I could have said no, but to quote the (excellent) movie The Art of Travel, "The art of travel is to deviate from one's plans". So I did. Said my (painful and tearful) goodbyes, packed up my shit and got on the road. The night of the 11th we spent in Bangkok after driving for about 10 hours. It was pretty uneventful, though I did get a good video of Sean riding a mechanical bull. The night of the 12th we spent in some little village which is *supposedly* a 5 hour drive from Bangkok but which took us about 10 hours due to crazy slow traffic where the Thais took it upon themselves to turn a 3-lane highway into 4 lanes by using the shoulder. Not cool. In that village (Seong Sang I believe, but my spelling may be horrendously off) we were staying at the home of a friend, and suffice it to say that it was downhome, backwater, old-school Thai livin'. Their bathroom consisted of a squatter (i.e. a toilet without an actual seat that you just squat over to do your business), a bucket of water with a scooper (that you pour in said squatter to rinse out your business when you're done, as there's no flusher), and a big tub-looking thing that was about 3' tall and full of stagnant water (that you use to "shower" by pouring water over yourself from it and brush your teeth / wash your face / generally clean up). We stayed there until the 14th, and suffice it to say that I didn't shit nor shower for 2 days. I figure at some point I'm gonna have to use one of those facilities, but since I wasn't REALLY forced to do so (i.e. my bowels helled out) it wasn't a big deal. As for the showering bit, well, it was Songkran, which basically consists of people throwing water on other people, so that wasn't really necessary either.

For those of you that don't know, Songkran (at least my take on it) is a bunch of people with huge garbage bins full of water driving around in pickup trucks and throwing buckets of water at other people driving around in pickup trucks. Or riding motorbikes (scooters). Or walking. Or standing on the side of the road. It's a day where everyone gets wet. I think there's some sort of history there, and originally had something to do with cleaning or old people or respect or something... but what I participated in included none of those things. At one point Sean and I were in the truck and there were at least 15 people in the back. At the first stop (a lake where we went swimming no less) the older folks got out and got another ride back to the village and us young folks continued on for the rest of the day, with a much safer 8-10 or so people in the back including myself and Sean as one of the locals was able to drive while we partook in the festivities.

Yesterday was more of the same, but instead of some little village we were driving around Chiang Mai, which is a city that's surrounded by a moat. So there was no shortage of water. And people here like to add giant bricks of ice to it, so when you get hit by it it's freaking COLD. Also, the moat water is pretty dirty, and I'll be lucky if I come out of this without a dozen different types of parasites eating away at my innards. But it was a lot of fun :)

Oh, I also forgot to mention that both of those days also consisted of copious amounts of Sangsom (Thai Whisky which is actually, supposedly, a rum) and Chang (6.4% Thai beer).

Tomorrow I'm off to Bangkok and plan to spend a few weeks there as I have a friend I'm visiting, then off to Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia (not necessarily in that order). I hope to be back in Phuket sometime in July as there's a multi-week boat trip that I'd like to take part in.

I think that's all I'm gonna write for now as I'm a little mentally exhausted. The next update will probably happen after I get my WiFi fixed, and there's no telling when that will be, but hopefully not too long. Also means I'm gonna go a little incognito for awhile and will be checking my email only sporadically and likely not Skyping/Vonaging anyone for awhile. But once I'm all fixed up I'll make sure everyone knows about it.

Happy Songkran everyone! And Happy Easter too I guess (though I didn't see any bunnies or painted eggs here).

Fixed!

2009-04-07T18:06:00.000+07:00

I finally took it upon myself to fix the broken images on this blog. It was much easier than I thought it would be. Basically I grabbed the images from the template zip file and uploaded them all in one fell swoop to photobucket. Then I copied my template HTML into my favorite text editor, MED, and did a global search and replace on the URL and pasted it back into Blogger. And voila, no more "Upgrade to Pro Today!" garbage.

A new post with life updates will be occuring soon, now that I've sorted out my technical issues. Stay tuned.

Conjunctivitis

2009-03-25T21:12:00.000+07:00

AKA Pink Eye. I got it. Went back to do a little more volunteer computer work on Monday, and it felt like there was a piece of dust in my eye all day, but by the end of the day it was watering so I figured that'd take care of it. Woke up Tuesday morning with my eye glued shut. Chanisa went and bought me eye cleaner and eye drops later that day, which I begrudgingly used. Actually, I begrudgingly laid down and let her administer them for me since I have an insane phobia of things going near my eye, which is why I don't wear contacts and have never used any form of eye drops. Until now. Anyway, this morning was no better so I went to the hospital and was promptly diagnosed with Conjunctivitis. AKA Pink Eye. Or, as Thai2English told me, dtaa daeng (ตาแดง). So now not only do I have eye drops that I have to use every 3 hours, I also have an ointment that I have to put on my eyeballs before I go to sleep.

What's ironic about this is that last week I went out on Sean's boat and we ended up swinging by Koh Racha and picking up our buddy Mike (that's where he lives/works). Well, I talked to him today and guess what... he's got it too. So he's coming to Phuket tomorrow to go to the hospital, and then we'll quarantine ourselves for a few days.

Oh, and I neglected to mention in a previous post that right before I did my Penang trip I came down with a throat infection which lasted about 5 days and felt like I was swallowing razor blades.

Good times.

Ahead of Schedule!

2009-03-12T16:39:00.000+07:00

Yay! There's a 5:50pm flight tomorrow from Penang to Phuket. My Visa will be ready at 2:30pm. It's gonna cost me about 130 ringgits to change my flight, but I save 2 days of hotel and 2 days of utter boredom in this hellhole they call Penang. Yee Haw!!

Back in Penang

2009-03-12T09:56:00.001+07:00

I realize it's been about a month since my last update, and I'm sure everyone is on the edge of their seat wondering whether or not my Visa saga played out for or against me. Well, given the subject of this post, suffice it to say that it was the latter. The dude at the embassy was a complete jackass and just wouldn't help me one bit. So I re-entered Thailand on a 30-day stamp. And now, here I am on yet another Visa run to good ol' Penang.

I arrived last night around 9pm and just didn't have it in me to visit the Visa broker then, so I went this morning. I gotta say, this dude rocks. Drop off your paperwork and passport before 11am and pick it up at 2:30pm the next day. He handles everything. Highly recommended for anyone that has to do a Visa run to Penang. The nice thing too is that he knows what he's talking about and can predict with some certainty whether or not you'll get what you apply for (he told me I'd probably only get 3 months instead of 1 year, but I can theoretically extend that every 3 months at the Immigration office in Phuket - assuming Sean's lawyer gets her head out of her ass). My return flight is Sunday as the only other one available was tomorrow at 4pm, and I figured that wouldn't be enough time to pick up the Visa and get to the airport, but Jim assured me that if I wanted to get on that flight there'd be enough time. But, since I've already paid for my hotel and flight I figured I'd just stick with it until Sunday. Maybe this trip will be better than the last one.

Back to the white-guy-in-an-asian-country-getting-ripped-off scenario though... I took a taxi from the hotel to Jim's Place. It cost me 10 ringgits. Coming back I took a rickshaw pedalled by some really old dude (as they all are here). It cost me 20 ringgits. Had I walked it would have taken me 10-15 mins. Obviously there's no meters on rickshaws, so you're paying at their discretion. But it's still annoying that some dude pedalling me cost twice as much as an air conditioned taxi. On the bright side, I got back to my hotel and went to have the breakfast buffet (which I did not pay for with my room) and they didn't charge me for it. So I suppose that's worth the extra 10 ringgits.

And on a related note, someone stole my credit card # and racked up $3000 in fraudulent charges. In about a week. My bank called me a couple of days ago to investigate suspicion and we established that a bunch of charges were not mine. For instance, they purchased 2 baby strollers online from different sites. The last place I used it before this happened was an upscale restaurant in Patong called Whitebox. Great restaurant and my buddy who was with me knew the owner through another guy, so he sat with us for awhile and we drank free wine, but still annoying that the staff then took it upon themselves to appropriate my credit card info. Either way, not a big deal as my bank will deal with the fraudulent charges, but it means that I'm without a valid credit card until they send me the replacement. And travelling without a valid credit card always worries me a bit. Luckily this happened after I'd booked my flight and pre-paid my hotel, so again, not a big deal.

As for the last month, I've just been so ecstatic to be back in Phuket that I haven't really wanted to blog about anything. Other than my excitement. But whenever I sat down to write about it I felt I couldn't do it justice, so I aborted. Suffice it to say that I will once again be ecstatic to return to Phuket on Sunday. Yay Thailand!

Ankle Pr0n

2009-02-06T21:17:00.017+07:00

Since I was kind enough to show you all a picture of my foot last time I twisted my ankle I figured I'd do the same this time. I actually thought when taking the picture that it was more bruised up this time, but in comparing the two it seems that they're virtually identical. In fact, aside from the background and a slight shape difference on the upper bruise I had trouble telling them apart. So, for your viewing pleasure, ankle pr0n.

ROUND 2 ROUND 3

It's too bad I didn't think to do this the first time I twisted it. I could have started an ankle pr0n scrapbook.

Lonely

2009-02-05T00:23:00.048+07:00

As an addendum to the last post, I'm lonely. And I just finished watching The John Denver Story, which made things worse. Cuz I have a strong association with John Denver, specifically Leaving on a Jet Plane. You see, back when I was around 20 I was dating a girl from Denver. And we broke up right around the time John Denver died. In a plane crash. So every radio station played Leaving on a Jet Plane all the time. And I left Denver on a jet plane. And it made me sad.

I'd like to talk for a minute about being ripped off as well. Before going to Thailand everybody told me that you never pay the asking price for something. Coming from Canada this seems bizarre. I mean, if $20 is how much something costs, $20 is how much you pay. But not here in South East Asia. Here it's like a continent-sized flea market. Only the color of your skin determines the asking price (the whiter, the higher). And me with my albino-like qualities, well, I tend to get shafted. I definitely learned from my last few months in Thailand, but the Philippines is a whole new bag of tricks. See, in Thailand if I get ripped off it means I paid double, MAYBE triple what I should have paid. But here??? At the crappy hotel I was staying at before this one I was planning on going to the embassy, so I reserved a car when I checked in. They said it would be 1000 pesos. 1100 if I paid with credit card. That's about $30, and for a round-trip cab ride it seemed reasonable. But then I did some research online, and in one forum someone said that the cost of a cab from the area I was in to the Thai Embassy was about 85 pesos. EIGHTY-FIVE PESOS!!! And they were gonna charge me over a thousand! After reading this I promptly called down to the front desk and cancelled the car, as even though I'm a bit of a chump at times, this is ridiculous. And this begs the question, what else am I being ripped off on? And for that matter, what gives the driver the right to (attempt to) rip off someone so badly? Maybe I'm just not cut out for world travel, or maybe I only am if I have a limitless bank account and don't care about paying a fair price. But this kind of behavior doesn't make me angry, it makes me sad. I guess I just don't have that killer instinct that I could demand 10 times the going rate for something from a complete stranger (or anyone for that matter).

Sad, lonely and frustrated about my visa situation. I don't think I travel well alone.

Worst. Trip. Ever.

2009-02-04T15:19:00.054+07:00

Do you remember when Adam Sandler was on Saturday Night Live and he used to play the Travel Correspondent during the News bit? He'd go to Disney World, and his entire report would be about his hotel room because he never left it? Well, that's me. Let me explain.

My last visa run was to Singapore, wherein I obtained a 90 day Non-Immigrant B Visa. I did not yet have my work permit, so I needed to get the B Visa in order to apply for the work permit. Once I had the work permit I was supposed to be able to extend my B Visa in 90 day increments for the duration of the permit. However, when it came time to go to the Immigration Office, Sean's lawyers did not have the appropriate documentation, nor did they (apparently) have time to prepare it. So they told me I needed to leave the country and reapply for another 90 day B Visa. Though this would cost way more than simply extending my existing visa, I figured what the hell, I'll make a mini vacation out of it. I decided to go to the Philippines because they speak English and the only other country around here where English is common is Singapore, and I've already been there twice. So, I booked my flight and decided to stay for 10 days.

The night before I was to leave for the Philippines, I twisted my ankle AGAIN. That's 3 times now. I know, I'm retarded. At any rate, the next day was a mad rush to the plane and I made it to the airport with literally 9 minutes to spare, and still somehow managed to get on my flight. The lawyers had prepared a ton of documents, and with these in tow I was off. My first two days in Manila consisted of me laid up in a crappy hotel room barely able to walk to the bathroom to go pee. After two days of this (and with a week left) I switched to a slightly more expensive, but much nicer hotel. After one night there (here, as I'm writing this) I gathered all my documents and headed off to the Thai Embassy.

The "official" (not sure what his actual title is - basically the guy that accepts/processes the visa applications) was a total jackass. There was a guy from Switzerland in queue before me who was trying to get a Tourist Visa, and the "official" told him that he had to do that in his home country. This is complete and utter bullshit. Then it was my turn. I limped up to the counter with all my documents, passport, work permit, photos, etc. and handed them to the guy. He looked through it and started asking me stupid questions -

"Why didn't you just extend this in Thailand?"
"Because the lawyer wasn't able to prepare the appropriate documentation in time before my stamp expired."

"Why did you come to the Philippines?"
"Because I figured I'd make a mini vacation out of it."

"So you just came here to get a Visa?"
"Well, not exactly, but that was my primary purpose."

Then he proceeded to tell me that I was missing 4 documents. Now, I'm telling you, I have a STACK of papers that I handed the guy, all in Thai. There must be 40 pages of shit here, including a copy of my work permit, my passport, and Sean's passport. WAY more than I had when I got the original B Visa in Singapore. But that wasn't enough. And when I explained my situation to him as nicely as I could, he basically said too bad. Get the documents emailed, print them off and bring them back in. So, I left and came back to my hotel and proceeded to call Sean, Simon and Chanisa, trying to get ahold of the appropriate documents. And just now (about 6 hours later) I received a call back from Chanisa saying that she talked to the lawyer and that they can't (won't?) do anything. So I'm stuck in a hotel in the Philippines with a swollen ankle, barely able to walk, on a trip that cost me over $1000 CAD, for NOTHING! I have absolutely nothing to show for it. And I'm stuck here until Tuesday.

So, when anyone asks me how my trip to the Philippines was, I'll let them know just how nice my hotel room was. Cuz if my ankle doesn't get any better then that's all I'm gonna be seeing. Good fucking times.

Knight Rider Season Finale

2009-01-22T15:30:00.002+07:00

WARNING: SPOILER ALERT (for those of you that care)

I just finished watching ~~the season finale of~~ the most recent episode of the new Knight Rider series, and I gotta say that it ended on a fantastic note. As a die-hard fan of the original series I've quite enjoyed the first season. They paid homage to The Hoff in the first episode, and though there were some cheesy bits along the way, each episode was pretty entertaining. It took me awhile to get used to the new K.I.T.T. (IMHO, it should have been a far sleeker car, along the lines of the one that gizmodo "reported" on over a year ago). But, taking sponsorship into consideration and the trend of little car bits flying everywhere that Michael Bay began with the horrendous Transformers movie, overall I grew to like K.I.T.T.

The last episode started off a little weak. Cheesy moral lessons and a love scene thrown in to add a little brie. But the last 10 mins were great. Good fight scene between K.I.T.T. and K.A.R.R. (who has now become a transformer with the original voice of K.A.R.R. (and Optimus Prime!), Peter Cullen. And then to top it off it ended with the rebirth of Knight Industries and F.L.A.G.

Well played NBC. Well played.

Globalization

2009-01-21T02:57:00.000+07:00

Sometimes I'm in awe of the world around me.

Tonight I was hanging out at Dos, ready to go out with Chanisa, Simon, and his girlfriend Sara (her Thai nickname is Meow or Miow or something that sounds like a cat and means "cat"). Mike called me. He wanted to ask me a technical question about supporting users in Toronto. He's in Morocco. I'm in Thailand. I told him to send me an email with the details and I'd have an answer for him (or my best attempt) before the next working day (where his users are)... 24 hours from the time of the call (since 10pm here is 10am in Toronto). Isn't that crazy?!?! I'm literally 12 hours difference from his users, and he's about 5 hours... and yet we're able to coordinate and collaborate. At the cost of a 5 min phone call (probably using VoIP so uber cheap) and a bit of email exchange.

Mankind has been around for a few MILLION years. We invented the radio about 100 years ago. The Internet has been around for about 20 years. And today, I'm able to do the above without blinking an eye. Oh, and he didn't call me on some sort of antiquated "land-line". He called me on my mobile phone. Which resides in my pocket and which is basically a personal communication device that I can talk to anyone on the planet with.

Wow! I'm sure every generation says this, but I'm glad to be living now and not a thousand years ago (though if I had to choose any other time in history, I'd probably choose the Wild West of the early 20th century and have been shot to death by the time I was 22... but as they said in Hammy Hamster, "that's another story").

Status Update

2009-01-13T16:07:00.000+07:00

Chanisa is out of the hospital and doing fine. A couple weeks of recovery time and she'll be as good as new. And with her health insurance and the gov't hospital (it's called Mission, which I didn't really think much of until I read the large text on her prescription bag - JESUS WILL SOON BE HERE) the bill came out to less than 6000 baht. So for everyone that offered to help, thank you, but it's not necessary. The thoughts were greatly appreciated though.

Other than that I spent the 3 nights in the hospital with her and finally got to sleep in my own bed again last night. It was fantastic. Sleeping on a hospital room couch leaves something to be desired.

So that's about it. Lewis wiped out on his bike a couple days ago and bruised his ribs (and the rest of him), so he's been hobbling around like a cripple. It's a sad state of affairs when I'm the healthiest person in the house.

Raising Money

2009-01-07T05:13:00.003+07:00

[rant]

Ok, this really isn't directed personally at anyone. But ... dammit... I hate it when people make a statement followed by a "but". Hmm... let me start over.

Donations to causes. Donations to faceless causes. As in, you're giving money but you don't REALLY know what's going to happen to it. Everyone does it. It's a tax write-off. Why wouldn't we?

In the face of that, how do real causes raise money? I posted yesterday about Chanisa's issue, but who really reads my blog? And of the people that do, and see that post, who will actually send me an email and tell me they want to help? Admittedly, and of a great credit to them, a couple of buddies at Dos tonight told me they'd help in whatever way they can. Awesome! But I see them every day and I told them what was going on before I ever posted about it. To me, this is a "real" cause. It's not faceless. I admit, to most readers it IS faceless. You've never met her, and in fact you don't really know that she really exists (with the exception of the picture posted below... but really, that could be anyone) (that was a lot of "really"'s). But that's not the point. This is a REAL person. Not a faceless organization. Which leads me to the original cause of this rant (and again... no personal slight on anyone that may draw similarities to what follows with themselves).

I got an invitation today to join a Facebook group. "HELP [friend] RAISE $2500 FOR THE RIDE TO CONQUER CANCER". So my question is... can I start a Facebook group called "HELP CHANISA RAISE $1000 TO REMOVE HER TUMOR"? Can I invite the same people, linking to my previous blog post? Would this be in poor taste? This group already has 30 members. If every member of this group donated $20 (CAD) to help Chanisa we'd have 17,766 baht. That's 60% of the money she needs (as an aside, she's decided to go to a government hospital which means the gov't will cover a majority of the costs, and her costs have been reduced to around 30,000; still a huge sum when the average wage here is around 6000 baht a month). This is a person vs. a cause. Not sure what to do.

Confused.

[/rant]

It IS A Tumor

2009-01-04T18:59:00.001+07:00

Ok, so maybe given the situation that title isn't the most a propos I could've chosen. At any rate, Chanisa has been having pains as of late and went to the hospital this morning. Turns out she's got a tumor in one of her ovaries that has grown to 15cm in 2 months. She's going into surgery on Friday to get it removed. Problem is that this costs 100,000 baht here in Thailand (probably cheap compared to the rest of the world), but still expensive in Thai terms. She doesn't want to ask anyone for help, so I am. If anyone that I know (or that I don't know but has a deep well of kindness in their hearts) wishes to help, I'm accepting donations on her behalf. I guarantee they will be put towards her surgery. And given the baht exchange rate, every little bit really does help. $20 CAD is about 575 baht, and $20 USD is about 700 baht (goddam do I hate that CAD exchange!). $20 would be great; $100 would be stupendous. I have no idea at this point how to do funds transfers and all that jazz, but if you want to help out send me an email (be sure to include your reply address) and I'll be in touch. She's a sweet, responsible girl who doesn't drink (well, didn't before she met me) and doesn't smoke. She goes back to her home town a couple times a year and gives money and toys to the kids. She's a giver. I could go on (and was actually gonna set up a separate site and domain to try to raise money for her), but she doesn't want me to. Suffice it to say she doesn't deserve this (as if anyone does), and could use the help of anyone that's reading this.

(She's the one on the viewer's right)

Crack

2009-01-04T00:30:00.003+07:00

In my ongoing quest for new snack foods, I have discovered what is currently the reigning champ. These things are amazing. Pretzel sticks (my favorite - the only twists I like are the authentic, bready Oktoberfest-style pretzel) with a chemical flavoring of ham and cheese. They are delicious. At first I thought it was only me that was addicted to them, but Gregg took a liking to them when he was here and Lewis seems equally addicted. And the other night we fed some to the cat, who probably would've done back flips for them if she knew how.

(Sorry about the sideways video. I've yet to find a way to rotate 3gp videos without converting them to some other format)

Merry Xmas!

2008-12-25T14:14:00.000+07:00

Just a quick Merry Xmas to my loyal readers. I'd be at a beach right now but it's a little overcast, so maybe tomorrow. Lewis arrived last night and is here until the 16th, so I'm sure much debauchery will be had. Hopefully he doesn't get stranded on an island like someone else that came to visit.

Volunteering

2008-12-19T18:00:00.000+07:00

The other day I decided to give a little something back. Googled "volunteer computer phuket" and the first hit was Phuket Has Been Good To Us Foundation - a group of English teachers made up of paid staff and volunteers. They have a small office with a handful of computers which were in various states of disrepair. I emailed them and set up a time yesterday to go take a look at their situation. All in all things weren't in horrible shape, but they were suffering from standard small organization issues - lack of anti-virus, lack of Windows Updates, etc.

One issue they had which required hardware work (blech!) involved a computer that would power on but not do anything. Monitor never came out of suspend. HDD light was on solid. Nothing happening. Cracked open the case and tried a few things and even managed to get it to boot up once... but it was kind of flaky. At one point I put my hand on the case and I actually got a shock. Not a static shock, but a continuous flow of electricity through my hand and up my arm. Something was obviously amiss. Tried out a different PSU but had the same current flowing through me. After some trial and error it turned out to be a faulty powerbar which, I suppose, was improperly grounded. And had obviously caused some irreversible damage to the motherboard. Unfortunate, but the electrical situation in Thailand is less than stellar.

At any rate, I'll probably be doing a little more work for them in the future, and maybe trying to find other organizations that need my help. I find it odd that a lot of the "volunteer" work around here (at least according to the 'net) requires me to pay them. I mean, I'm living here, I have free time which I'm willing to donate, but I'm quite unwilling to pay someone so that I can then give them free time. Doesn't make a lot of sense.

If you're reading this and know of someone in Phuket that is giving back to the community and needs some IT help, drop me an email and I'll see what I can do.

We're sorry...

2008-12-18T02:19:00.000+07:00

... but the clip you selected isn't available from your location.

Complete and utter bullshit. This happens ALL THE TIME. US TV stations post their clips online and, traditionally, being a Canadian I can't watch them. Even though we see the actual television shows on the same US (syndicated) channels that US viewers do, and at the same time. And now I'm in Thailand. And have access to a US proxy server. But I'm STILL getting this message when I try to watch the Battlestar Galactica Webisodes. WTF?? GeoLocation is cool and all, but there's no reason for it to be limited in this respect. IT'S THE INTERNET FOR GOD'S SAKE! If I email the right person and say "Hey man, can you use some sort of cool software to grab that flash video and send it to me or post it somewhere so I can watch it?" it'll be done in a flash. But why? Why can't SciFi.com just remove their Geo-shit and let me watch these webisodes? I've been looking forward to it all day, my internet is finally not crawling along like a snail, and I get hit with the above shitty message. Bull-Shit.

</rant>

P.S. If you're "the right person" and have somehow acquired these clips and posted them somewhere that my current country of residence is not taken into consideration, please email me some links so I can watch them. Thanks.

Photo & Image Management Tools

2008-12-14T17:53:00.001+07:00

In continuing the Favorite Tools series, I present you with my favorite tools for photo and image management.

Picasa

Link: http://picasaweb.google.com/

What can I say about Picasa? Frankly, it rocks. Being the Google fanboy that I am, it's only natural that I'd appreciate this tool. In a nutshell, it organizes all of the photos and images in your My Documents folder and all subfolders. It allows you to create albums and upload those albums to Picasa Web, your personal online photo album from Google. It lets you link your Picasa albums with Blogger, GeoTag your photos, create screensavers, export your pictures to HTML pages for use on other sites and adjust image quality/attributes. The viewer included with version 3 is quite slick and just fun to use. And there's even a Facebook plugin that lets you bulk upload images directly into a Facebook album with a single click. And really, I'm sure I've only scraped the surface, especially with the gamut of plugins available for extensible architectures like this.

AutoStitch

Link: http://www.cs.ubc.ca/~mbrown/autostitch/autostitch.html

One of the best tools I've ever come across. You basically take a bunch of pictures, and as long as there's some overlap this app will stitch them together to form a massive panorama. Can be used for taking 360 degree panoramas, or even complete spheres if the desire arises. And far better than equivalent pay-for apps that supposedly do the same thing.

GIMP

Link: http://www.gimp.org/

No, not some dude in a leather mask. GIMP stands for GNU Image Manipulation Program. It's basically a free version of Photoshop. Sure, it may not do quite as much as Photoshop, but unless you're an uber-skilled professional graphics guru, do you really need that much power? I sure don't. Also, it's WAY easier to use. Far more intuitive, IMHO. I've used it for all of the Dos Gringos imagery and marketing materials, and plan to continue using it for a lot more. Great free tool.

Basically, with these three tools in your image arsenal, you really don't need anything else.

Grrr

2008-12-13T09:20:00.001+07:00

It appears that Google (Blogger) has made some changes recently, which caused my hacked DNS solution to fail. Very annoying. Took me about 12 hours to realize that it was a DNS problem on my side that I needed to fix, though obviously due to changes on their side. Basically what it comes down to is that Blogger doesn't allow you to set up an A record (or at least doesn't support doing so), so dosboy.ca (rather than www.dosboy.ca) is a bit of a crapshoot as they can change the IP that my A record is pointing to at any time. And they did. Yesterday it was 64.233.179.121 and today it's 209.85.171.121. Boo.

Makes me consider switching to WordPress. They definitely have a better interface and a lot more functionality... I'm just not sure what it would do to my old posts, stats, etc. Also I'm not sure if they support a root A record either. PITA.

UPDATE: So it turns out that WordPress charges for custom domain mapping and doesn't support AdSense (though they'll apparently display their own occasionally unless you pay them not to). Weak. I mean, shit, I've had AdSense on my site for almost 6 months now and I've made a whopping $5.18 (or, well, have that in the GoogleBank until I make $100 and get my big fat paycheque). But anyway, I'm not paying to use my own domain. So I guess I'm at the whim of Blogger until a better solution is found.

Infinitesimal

2008-12-13T02:08:00.002+07:00

I've been back on an astrophysics/darwinism kick lately, and have been reading a bunch of Richard Dawkins and Carl Sagan books that I missed the first time around. As always, Carl Sagan is amazing at putting the universe into perspective. I want to quote him here. The book is Dragons of Eden. At this particular point he's talking about time, or has he puts it "cosmic chronology". The universe is 15 billion years old. 15 billion is a big number that most of us can't really comprehend. What follows his Carl Sagan's attempt to put this number into perspective.

The most instructive way I know to express this cosmic chronology is to imagine the fifteen-billion-year lifetime of the universe (or at least its present incarnation since the Big Bang) compressed into the span of a single year. Then every billion years of Earth history would correspond to about twenty-four days of our cosmic year, and one second of that year to 475 real revolutions of the Earth about the sun.

PRE-DECEMBER DATES

January 1	Big Bang
May 1	Origin of the Milky Way Galaxy
September 9	Origin of the solar system
September 14	Formation of the Earth
September 25	Origin of life on Earth
October 2	Formation of the oldest rocks known on Earth
October 9	Date of oldest fossils (bacteria and blue-green algae}
November 1	Invention of sex (by microorganisms)
November 12	Oldest fossil photosynthetic plants
November 15	Eukaryotes (first cells with nuclei) flourish

DECEMBER 31

1:30 P.M.	Origin of Proconsul and Ramapithecus, probable ancestors of apes and men
10:30 P.M.	First humans
11:00 P.M.	Widespread use of stone tools
11:46 P.M.	Domestication of fire by Peking man
11:56 P.M.	Beginning of most recent glacial period
11:58 P.M.	Seafarers settle Australia
11:59 P.M.	Extensive cave painting in Europe
11:59:20 P.M.	Invention of agriculture
11:59:35 P.M.	Neolithic civilization; first cities
11:59:50 P.M.	First dynasties in Sumer, Ebla and Egypt; development of astronomy
11:59:51 P.M.	Invention of the alphabet; Akkadian Empire
11:59:52 P.M.	Hammurabic legal codes in Babylon; Middle Kingdom in Egypt
11:59:53 P.M.	Bronze metallurgy; Mycenaean culture; Trojan War; Olmec culture: invention of the compass
11:59:54 P.M.	Iron metallurgy; First Assyrian Empire; Kingdom of Israel; founding of Carthage by Phoenicia
11:59:55 P.M.	Asokan India; Ch'in Dynasty China; Periclean Athens; birth of Buddha
11:59:56 P.M.	Euclidean geometry; Archimedean physics; Ptolemaic astronomy; Roman Empire; birth of Christ
11:59:57 P.M.	Zero and decimals invented in Indian arithmetic; Rome falls; Moslem conquests
11:59:58 P.M.	Mayan civilization; Sung Dynasty China; Byzantine empire; Mongol invasion; Crusades
11:59:59 P.M.	Renaissance in Europe; voyages of discovery from Europe and from Ming Dynasty China; emergence of the experimental method in science
Now: first second of New Year's Day.	Widespread development of science and technology; emergence of a global culture; acquisition of the means for self-destruction of the human species; The first steps in spacecraft planetary exploration and of the search for extraterrestrial intelligence.

Reading stuff like this seems to help me put the little things in perspective. Why should I stress over some minute detail of my life when an hour and a half ago I was still an ape, picking nits out of my mate's fur, and 14 minutes ago I was still eating raw meat (on a bone nonetheless!)?

Music & Video Tools

2008-12-09T16:07:00.003+07:00

In the last year or two I've become a huge fan of open-source and other free software. Actually, I was always a fan, but it's only been recently (at least IMHO) that this stuff has really started to compete with the (really expensive) pay software, or bloated MS native offerings (Windows Media Player anyone?). I was going to post all of my favorite tools in one post, but there's just too many of them and I don't want to sit writing this post for hours. So I've broken it up into multiple categories: Music & Video, Photo & Image Management, Internet, Mobility, Developer, and System. So, without further adieu, here's my top picks for Music & Video tools.

Music & Video

Media Player Classic Homecinema

Link: http://mpc-hc.sourceforge.net/

My go-to media player. Far more lightweight than Windows Media Player (WMP). On my Vista64 install, WMP uses 20mb of memory, while Media Player Classic (MPC) uses just 4mb. It supports DVD playback natively and without any licensing cost. It natively supports DivX, Xvid, H.264, DTS/AC3 and a slew of other codecs and formats. It has native support for subtitles, including a built-in lookup which references opensubtitles.org (I've even managed to get it to properly display Thai subtitles). It supports custom channel mapping for up to 18 input and 18 output (speaker) channels. It suppors on-the-fly volume normalizing or boost. It even has a built-in web server for performing automation-type functions using a web browser or other web-based application. There are both 32 and 64 bit versions available. I use this application for all video playback and most audio playback. Basically, I have all media filetypes associated with MPC, but on the occasions that I want more granular music control or the ability to use visualizations, I use MediaMonkey.

Note that I do combine MPC with some variation (usually Full or Standard) of the K-Lite Codec Pack.

MediaMonkey

Link: http://www.mediamonkey.com/

MediaMonkey is the shiznit as far as music library management goes. It's extremely robust with a ton of useful (and not so useful) features. I realize that virtually all music playback software are feature-rich these days, and in the end it comes down to personal preference. However I'll outline a few of the key features of MediaMonkey that make it my choice.

The user interface is very flexible. Being a power user, I prefer a lot of information displayed, and even when maximized there's information that MediaMonkey is capable of displaying that I just don't have room for. It can convert between formats (OGG, MP3, Flac, etc.) and does so quickly and quietly. It can play Winamp Visualizations, which above all I covet (have you seen MilkDrop? Ryan Geiss is a genius). It does crazy shit with organizing, renaming, grabbing info and album art, and generally just keeping your music library in tip-top shape. Oh, and I can control it with my phone over Bluetooth using Salling Clicker. I'd go on, but it would take a post unto itself, if not many posts, to delve deeply into MediaMonkey's features. Download it. Try it. Love it.

Note that even though I use MPC as my default MP3 and other music filetypes player, when I want to queue up a bunch of tracks and kick back MediaMonkey is all I consider. The only reason I don't have it as my default player is the time it takes to launch as compared with MPC. If I just want to double-click an mp3 or wav file, I want it to play immediately, not load up my whole music library.

MP3Gain

Link: http://mp3gain.sourceforge.net/

A very lightweight app that does one thing and does it well. It normalizes a set of MP3s so that they all play back at roughly the same volume. In the bar I own we use USB keys to play music, and having to adjust the volume between tracks because of differences in the way they were encoded just isn't an option. Passing all the tracks through MP3Gain before copying them to the USB key makes a world of difference.

Note that MediaMonkey can do the same thing, but in my experience MP3Gain just does it better.

Audacity

Link: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

Nothing too fancy here (well, there is, but not that I use). Basically a music file editor and recorder. Cuts, inserts, etc. Handy for fixing broken tracks, cutting out weird silences or creating custom tracks for use as ringtones or the like. I also use it for recording the audio from web sources such as YouTube that don't offer the audio track as an option for downloading. It does a lot more than this, but I'm a pretty basic user on this one.

Crippled Again!

2008-12-04T21:31:00.003+07:00

I must be the clumsiest man alive. Two nights ago I twisted my ankle... again. Same one. And it's now big and swollen and I'm in the same state I was 5 months ago. Wearing tensor bandage and hobbling around. Luckily it's not quite as bad as last time in that I can put a little weight on it. Also a good thing since I've lost my crutches at some point in the last 5 months.

How did I do it, you might ask? Hmm... I should really make up a good story here. But alas, all I have is the truth. I was at a bar, a little drunk, and stepped off the curb onto what appeared to be flat ground, but was, in reality, a divet or hole of sorts, which my foot proceeded to enter, thus causing me to anticipate where the ground was going to be prematurely and putting too much weight down too soon. And twisting my ankle in exactly the same spot I did before.

I didn't bother going to the hospital this time since I had both my tensor bandage and painkillers left over from before, and also cuz I've been to the hospital more here than I ever have in Canada. I hate being crippled.

Dos, Dos and Dos

2008-12-02T14:49:00.001+07:00

If the English language wasn't already messed up enough with "their", "there" and "they're", I've realized in recent posts that my blog is gonna cause just as much confusion.

Dos /dɔs, dɒs/ : The nickname given to me by my sister when I was about 15; short for Dosboy; originally derived from D(isk) O(perating) S(ystem).
Dos /doʊs/ : The single-syllable word I use to describe my bar, Dos Gringos; Spanish for "two".
Dos /duz; unstressed dʊz, dəz/ : Many items in a To-Do list, as in To-Dos; rarely (if ever) used here since I really have nothing that I have to do (or at least I try not to).

Hopefully the context of the word will make it obvious, but I'm not gonna stress too much about it. Just an anecdotal observation really.

Robocopy over RDP

2008-12-02T14:11:00.003+07:00

In trying to upload the Dos Gringos website to the webserver over RDP today I became extremely frustrated. Suffice it to say that internet connections from Thailand to the US aren't the most reliable in the world. Combine that with the retarded overhead that copying files through RDP's Explorer interface introduce and you're in for a world of hurt. Timeouts, failures, and just general headache inducing crap. So I thought to myself, "Self, there must be a better way. What about Robocopy? It's never failed you in the past." And you know what? My self was right. After a bit of googling I found this excellent post on how to backup your files using Remote Desktop. I'm gonna quote the author here as he succinctly describes what I was going through:

I hate using explorer to copy a large number of files. Why? Because most of the time it will fail half way through the copy - with no way to resume.

His post goes into much more detail than mine does, but if you want the Reader's Digest version, here it is...

Use \\tsclient\ to reference the drives that are mapped over RDP. So if you're copying C:\Temp you'd use \\tsclient\c\temp. That's it. Thanks Steve!

For your reference, these are the other switches I use:
/mir /r:1 /np /log:"filename.log" /tee

If I had large files that I was copying I'd also use /zb. Hope this helps someone out there.

Yo Ho Ho and a Bottle of Mekhong

2008-12-01T22:06:00.002+07:00

I realize that my posts have been a bit sporadic as of late, and I apologize. But I'm gonna point the finger at my last houseguest, Gregg, who was supposed to (and assumingly is still going to) write a guest blog post. Which I have not received. Even though it's been at least a week since he's been back in Bermuda. And he had about 30 hours of plane tripping in which to write it. So he has no excuses. But I digress.

A couple of weeks ago when Gregg and JP were here, around the 19th of November, Sean graciously offered us an overnight trip on his badass boat. So that afternoon Gregg, JP, his gf Kelly, Santino, Sean and I set sail (well, it's a powered catamaran, so there was actually no "sail" involved). After some discussion we decided on Phi Phi Islands as our destination. The afternoon involved a fairly fast 20 knot, 1 hour ride with only a few minutes of rain.

We dropped anchor at one of the unpopulated edges of Ko Phi Phi Don and proceeded to swim and snorkel for a bit. The sealife was quite impressive, and I'm sure Gregg got some great shots with his underwater camera, but he didn't share them and hasn't posted them on Picasa yet, so I have none to share with the rest of you. Santino decided to try to swim through an underwater cave, but freaked out about halfway through, did a 180, and came up about 8 metres short, scraping his back on the cave ceiling. It looked worse than it was when he finally climbed back on the boat, what with the better portion of his back covered in blood. But it cleaned up alright and as far as I know they didn't have to amputate.

After that we decided to anchor a little closer to the beach so that we could go ashore for some dinner and nightlife. I'm not gonna go into a lot of detail here as overall the evening wasn't really that eventful. Phi Phi, generally speaking, is a big tourist hole. The only Thais on the island appeared to be working... everyone else was a farang. As an aside, in our infinite wisdom we only had one cell phone between the 6 of us - mine (you'll note the relevance of this later). Ate a decent dinner at some Italian place then bounced to a couple of different bars for drinks. JP and Kelly took off to get their first Thai Massage and Gregg did the same only solo. JP and Kelly ended up calling it an early night and went back to the boat first. It was around that time that things started getting interesting. Gregg, Santino, Sean and I were walking along looking for the next bar to go to when all of a sudden Santino wasn't with us. We sort of hovered around for a bit, but he never showed up, so we kept on walking, figuring we'd find him eventually, if not that night then the following morning. The three of us stopped at a bar on the beach and had a beer, then started walking again... only this time when we stopped and turned around Gregg had gone missing. So, again, Sean and I sat around hoping that he'd stumble into us, but after about 20 mins we decided it wasn't going to happen. At this point it was around 2:30am, so the two of us went back to the boat, figuring that we'd just head back to the island in the morning and hunt down the two castaways.

The next morning at around 11, JP, Sean and I received a text message from Simon, the manager of Dos, saying that Gregg had turned up at Dos and was safe and sound. Note that this was at least a 1 hour boat ride, and when we last saw Gregg he was pretty drunk. This is why I'm eagerly awaiting his guest blog post. I won't give away too much here, but suffice it to say that he didn't swim back. A few minutes after we got that text we started getting the dingy ready to go back and look for Santino, when all of a sudden we here "Oh My God! I finally found it!" coming from a small boat in the distance. Seems that Santino had commissioned a water taxi to help him find the boat, but had started on the wrong side of the island and it had taken him the better part of an hour to finally find us.

Since all of the crew was now accounted for, we took off again, this time to Ko Phi Phi Leh, the island that was used for the movie The Beach. The snorkelling here was pretty impressive too, but it had become a bit of a dirty tourist hole. There was a ton of garbage floating in the water, and as soon as we dropped anchor the Thai water equivalent of a forest ranger motored up to us and charged us a couple hundred baht for anchoring there. After a bit more swimming and snorkelling we figured we should head back to Chalong and find out what happened to Gregg (more on that when he finally sends me his post).

Overall, it was a fun trip on a great boat with Santino handing Gregg the title of MVP.

That was my first experience on Sean's boat. The second (and third) just happened over the last 2 nights. This week Phuket is holding the King's Cup Regatta, and Sean is getting paid to drive sponsors around to watch the race. So as of Saturday he was anchored in Kata. Originally the race was supposed to start today (Monday) but with all of the turmoil in Bangkok and difficulty in getting to Phuket, they postponed it until Tuesday. Which meant that Saturday and Sunday night the boat was just sitting there empty. So Sean invited a few people out there on Saturday, but I was the only one that showed up. We hit a bar in Kata before going on the boat, and it just so happened that Sara, one of the waitresses that used to work at Dos, was there and celebrating her birthday. It got pretty messy with shots of tequila and sambuca rapidly making the rounds. When we finally got out to the boat the water was warm and a 2am swim was in order, followed by an extremely sound sleep and a throbbing hangover headache the next morning. We hung out on the boat until around 2pm, then went back to Dos for a bit.

Sunday was the opening party (apparently there's a different party every night) and Sean had an extra pass (admission without a pass was 4000 baht), so I took advantage of it. Free food and an open bar was a potential recipe for disaster, but I was feeling ill and only had a couple of glasses of wine. Ended up crashing on the boat again, but had to get off by around 12:30 today as there was some sort of pre-race race or something for which Sean had to drive some sponsors around. At any rate, Sean's boat is pretty pimpin' and was definitely one of the better boats anchored out there today. We were even talking about doing a trip to Ko Phangan for a Full Moon Party when Sean gets back from the US in January - supposedly a three week trip (one week each way with a one week stopover in Phangan). Let's just hope Dos is making money by then.

2000 FPS

2008-11-24T09:16:00.000+07:00

Stumbled across this video in my travels today and thought it was cool.

Bureaucratic Chaos

2008-11-21T13:11:00.000+07:00

This morning I woke up at 7:45am so that I could deal with the car ownership transfer, insurance, etc. Basically car stuff. At that time the car was in Kathu. The plan was that I was going to go to Phuket Town with Chanisa, meet up with the owner, do the transfer, go to Kathu with Chanisa, pick up the car, drive it back to Chalong and get insurance. This would have involved a single uninsured trip from Kathu to Chalong, about a 30 min drive. But that's not how it worked out.

Chanisa and I arrived at the "DMV" (or whatever it is they call it here) around 9am. The owner showed up a few moments after we did. The DMV guy checked all the papers, and then proceeded to tell me (via my translator, Chanisa) that I needed a Residency Certificate with my address and photo on it and that I needed to go to the Immigration Office for that. He also told the owner that the car needed to be onsite to be "inspected" before the ownership transfer could take place. So, Chanisa and I took off to the Immigration Office and the owner went back to Kathu to get the car. We met back up about 45 mins later and the car proceeded to the inspection area. After a semi-thorough review, the inspector told the owner that the headlights weren't bright enough due to the headlight covers, so the covers had to be removed. So the owner took off for a few minutes and removed them (they literally pop on and off) and put them in the trunk so that I could put them back on after the inspection. The second inspection didn't even involve turning on the headlights, and was far less thorough, and really was quite pointless. But, it passed. Even though - as I found out once I started driving it - that the speedometer doesn't work at all, nor does the gas gauge. Minor details in the eyes of the Thai inspectors I suppose.

With all of the appropriate paperwork and the green stamp of approval on the inspection, the transfer was able to go through. The problem I then encountered is insurance. It seems that you can't get insurance without the "Blue Book" (ownership deed basically), but the DMV takes one business day to fill it out with the new owner information. And it's Friday. So at a bare minimum I have to drive the car from the DMV back to my house without insurance, then come back Monday without insurance to pick up the Blue Book, then drive from there to the insurance company (since I need the car with me when I'm getting the insurance) without insurance. But since it's Friday, it's highly likely that I'm gonna be driving it around on the weekend without insurance as well, because it's my new toy and I can't just let it sit in my driveway collecting rust. So I just need to be extra careful and watch out for mosquitos. I also need to get a custom bumper sticker, in English and Thai, which reads "Crazy farang driver. Pass with extreme caution."

Name That Thing

2008-11-16T23:59:00.008+07:00

I need some assistance from my loyal readers. I have two new things in my life that need names. Don't worry, neither of them is a baby (thank god!). The first is a cat. It's not really mine, but it seems to be a stray and I've been feeding it lately, so it thinks it's mine. It's around all the time and has taken to wandering into my house when the door is open and sleeping on my living room floor. Initially we were just calling it "Cat", but the other day Gregg checked it out, so now we call it "Girl Cat". I need something better. The only real criteria for this name is that it needs to be feminine (since it's a girl) and it would be cool if it was in Thai, or at least Thai-like. If you can come up with a good English name, this site might help to translate it into Thai for me. I use it a lot (it's how I found gra rok).

The second thing that needs a name is my new car. Well, officially it's a used car, but it's new for me, and it's the first car I've ever owned. The criteria that's involved here is a little more involved. It's gotta be an Autobot-esque name. It has to be unique, and it has to sound like he could roll with the Autobots (pun intended). I'm going to be putting a small Autobot logo on either the rear windshield or the spoiler. Though the spoiler is a little small, so I'm leaning towards the rear windshield. Also, I may get it repainted. Either straight silver or high gloss black. I'm really not all that keen on the Veilside stuff. FYI, it's a 1997 Toyota Corona XLi with crazy dark tinted windows, black leather interior and a racing steering wheel that's smaller than my old Logitech racing rig. It also appears to have an oversized airhorn and an oversized muffler. So, help me out with a cool name like Jazz or Sideswipe or Mirage or Prowl. All those names also represented the character's personality or special ability... and my car has neither yet. Bonus points if you can come up with a backstory including personality and special ability.

Halloween Party Update

2008-11-16T23:19:00.003+07:00

At the request of a friend, I'm providing an update on the Halloween party at Dos Gringos. For the most part it was a rousing success. However we did learn one major lesson - Do Not Invite Children! There were a TON of kids at the children's party which was supposed to go from 5:30-7, but which actually went until at least 9 as we didn't have a proper method of saying to the kids (well, to the parents really) "Get out now!". Also there was some guy who was in a great Hulk costume, but who took it upon himself to scare and chase all the kids around after they'd eaten a pinata full of candy, thus causing what could only be described as loud, screaming chaos. However, after 9 things got a little more adult and the margaritas started flowing. Halloween party pictures can be found here.

The Death of Kraft Dinner

2008-11-07T03:35:00.002+07:00

My buddy Gregg is coming to visit me in Thailand in a couple days, and he asked me if I wanted him to bring anything from Bermuda. I told him I wanted Kraft Dinner, though I'd settle for Kraft Macaroni & Cheese since true KD is only available in Canada. This began a heated IM debate wherein he claimed that KD and Kraft Mac & Cheese are the same thing. I, being the KD connoisseur that I am, argued the opposite and told him that Canadian KD is quite unique. Since he had nothing better to do, he called up Kraft's Canadian hotline and spoke with a product specialist. It turns out that there were 2 unique recipes (Kraft Dinner in Canada and Kraft Macaroni & Cheese in the rest of the world), but that in March of this year (2008) they merged the recipes and made KD the same as the rest of the world, thus adding 17% more cheese. And they have no plans to revert to the old recipe. Ever. So, without a chorus of angels and trumpets, or even an audible fizzle, Kraft Dinner died.

I will be in mourning for the next few days. And likely again after I try the Bermudian Mac & Cheese which is now trying to lay claim to the KD title.

Pinhole Glasses

2008-11-05T15:03:00.000+07:00

Ho-lee shit! Who'd've thunk it? These things actually work! I was at the airport in Singapore and browsing stuff in a drug store (since Thailand's personal hygiene and other drug store type supplies kind of sucks) and I saw these things on display. "What a joke" I thought... then I put them on. Instantly text on a sign that I was looking at sharpened up and went from slightly blurry to crystal clear. I don't understand how they work (though it's explained here), but they do. And I bought a pair. I've yet to use them for night driving (which is really what I want them for) but I can't see them hurting things. And if, long term, they improve my vision (which surgery can't do apparently) then that's just a bonus.

Currency

2008-11-04T18:54:00.001+07:00

Ok, this baffles me. But I really want to understand it, especially since I'm sitting on CAD but not living in Canada. So here's the deal...

As of today, according to Google Finance, the following is true:

1 CAD = 0.6640 EUR
1 CAD = 0.8470 USD
1 CAD = 1.2430 AUD
1 CAD = 29.6220 THB
1 USD = 0.7840 EUR
1 AUD = 0.6820 USD

So, if I spend 1 CAD I can buy 0.8470 USD. If I then take that 0.8470 USD I can buy 0.6640 EUR. So it's a wash.

BUT... if I spend 1 CAD I can buy 1.2430 AUD. If I then take that 1.2430 AUD I can buy 0.8477 USD. Or 0.6638 EUR. Or 29.6257 THB. So my question is... WTF?!?!

Can I somehow make money doing this? I'm sure the answer is no cuz there's bound to be a middleman taking a cut somewhere, which will likely be more than the 0.07 cents USD profit I'd make... but is there a way, perhaps using other currencies or specific, low cost trading methods, where this would work out for me? I'm sure there's some rounding going on with these numbers beyond the 4th decimal place, but still... it's very clearly an 0.07 cent USD discrepancy which only appears to exist (at least in the currencies I've chosen) between CAD and AUD. So let me phrase this more simply and remove all those confusing numbers...

CAD to AUD to USD = Profit
CAD to AUD to THB = Profit
CAD to AUD to EUR = Loss

Since THB is what I'm working with right now, how can I use this to my advantage? Is there a website I can visit that explains it? Is there someone I can talk to (that won't charge me anything, or at least if I trade through them would only charge me flat commissions)? Can someone shed some light on this?

Visitors

2008-11-04T15:22:00.001+07:00

Seems like I'm gonna be a popular guy over the next few months.

November 9th - Gregg arrives from Bermuda and is staying with me for 2 weeks.

November 19th - JP arrives from Toronto with his girlfriend and is staying for a few days (between traveling around the north followed by a jaunt to Vietnam and Hong Kong).

A little before Xmas - Davide (the guy I'm staying with in Singapore right now) is thinking about making a trip up for a few days (wow - Phuket is actually "up" from somewhere that's in the Northern Hemisphere; damn it's hot in Singapore!).

Sometime in January - Lewis is going to be joining me from Australia for a week or two - and has requested some ladyboy action, but only on Sundays. Guess that's his day of rest when he lets someone else do the work. (I joke... he really requested it on Saturdays.)

I should really figure out how to be a good tour guide... or at least figure out something to show these people other than the insides of bars :)

And, on a completely separate note, my Visa run seems to have been a rousing success (in and out quickly, no interview, 24 hour turnaround)... except that I applied for a one-year multi-entry B Visa, and I seem to have gotten a 3-month single-entry B Visa. I really don't understand this process, but hopefully Sean's lawyer can straighten things out.

Singapore Visa Run

2008-11-02T23:28:00.000+07:00

Well, here I am, back in Singapore. Had to switch up my visa from an ED to a B, so Iarrived in Singapore to do the deed this afternoon. Ken's friend Davide graciously invited me to stay at his place again, so this trip might actually cost me less than the Penang one. AND I got to eat a Cowboy Burger - that is a REAL bacon cheeseburger with BBQ sauce. "Real" meaning both bacon (as in pork not beef) and burger (as in normal not weirdo Thai-style). Oh, and drink Oatmeal Stout. All in all a great start to my 2nd long-haul visa run. If you have to choose between Penang and Singapore, based on day 1, I'd have to vote Singapore. Let's see how smoothly the actual visa process goes tomorrow though. Knock wood.

New Nickname

2008-10-22T04:42:00.000+07:00

It seems that I have a new nickname. This isn't a frathouse nickname, but rather a gf / Thai nickname. And it is... drumroll please...

Ling Noi

Which means "Little Monkey" (Ling = Monkey, Noi = Little). I told her that I'd prefer "Ling Yai" which means "Big Monkey", but "Ling Noi" seems to have stuck. But no matter. Because her nickname is "Gra Rok". Which literally means "squirrel", but really the attempt is to call her a chipmunk. Cuz she has chubby cheeks like a chipmunk packing nuts for the winter. But there is no Thai word for chipmunk, only for squirrel. Weak, I know. Though it seems that when she tells her friends her new nickname they all laugh and find it appropriate. So "Gra Rok" works. Good on me and my uber Thai language knowledge (and the Internet for providing all of it to me).

Drive Fast, Be Careful

2008-10-20T14:00:00.002+07:00

I've seen a number of funny signs here in Thailand, and this one definitely takes the cake so I figured I'd share it. This is when you enter Beach Road in Patong, which has got to be one of the slowest moving streets I've been on, due to Tuk Tuks, pedestrians and mosquitos (that's my car driver's slang for "people on 2-wheeled vehicles").