Johann Low

日曜日, 10月 31, 2004

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Me,Myself and Irene. I think Jim Carrey was great in portraiting that tragic character. I do wonder to myself if I am like that person too - someone with a split personality. There are times I will feel normal and sometimes not so. I can simply snap when something provoke me and I can go out of control.

Like this evening while watching TV and munching on a packet of nice wafer cubes, my neighbour spray the foul smelling insecticide which spoil my enjoyment of the wafers, I got so pissed that I went to close the door forcefully. Feeling it was not enough to let them noe my anger, I opened the door again and slammed it really hard. I opened the door again and scolded them. Aint that similar? Am I a schizo?

Of course there are countless times I will snap at my mum for her non-stop nagging which is prob the catalyst. Anyway, it does not feel good.

These few days I am totally engrossed in PowerMac G5 and I even borrowed a book on OSX 10.2 Jaguar. Currently the latest version is OSX 10.3 Panther while the upcoming one is Tiger. All these different versions are more or less upgrades from the original OSX. Something like Win95 - Win98 - WinME. Anyway, Win98 and ME are simply crap OS which should nv be sold.

Being an Wintel user so long, I am too embedded into the peecee world and I realised Mac users are of a different league. For one, they do not upgrade so often like peecee users. Well more often they will up their RAM or HDD, while peecee users will change DVDROM, DVDWriters to diff speed,models but I think Mac users are not???

Anyway, Mac systems are beautiful and funtional. That's why it has its own "cult" of faithful followers and of cos more to come for those who can afford a Mac system. Most pple will think Macs are expensive, they certainly are not cheap if u only see the PowerMac series. PowerMacs are equalivent to high end workstations in the peecee arena. Powerbooks are the like the desktop replacement/Centrinos for the laptops. ibooks (G4) are normal lappies. A entry iBook is ard $1.8K, a normal laptop with Centrino will cost u $2-3K and will get obselete in 2 yrs time. Anyway, no one shld settle less than a Centrino for laptops. The rest of the chips like Celeron M cannot make it. I have seen people using G3 ibook and they r still running like new.

iPod is nothing that the rest of the world can come up with except mutated clones. To me, anyone who does not like an iPod is a peasant.

Apple unlike Intel/AMD do not come with a whole truck load of different chips to monopolise the market and confuse consumers. For the P4, there are A,B,C,E series. Each are different generations with different bus/clock speeds/cache memory. Just for the E series/Prescott, there are 2 different kinds of sockets. These chips run like ovens n their heat sink sound like jet engines. If this is not enough, Intel also made a EE series, Extreme Edition with a 2MB cache, mainly for the gaming market. Not to forget the workstation/servers, Intel has Xeon,Xeon MP,Itanium Itanium 2. AMD has more confusing chips as well, AMD Athlon 64, Athlon XP, Athlon 64FX, Sempron,Opterons,Athlon MP........so which is which?

Apple has G3, G4,G5. Main difference is that the G5 is a 64bit. The G chips from Apple can run on their Powermac, portables, and servers. Isn't this a great product? What for creating so many chips for so many things??

Another thing is Intel and AMD run on mostly on Windows=security flaws=virus attacks=trojan attacks=prgm crashes including built in stuff like Windows Explorer=freezeups=expensive.

OSX=stability=fast=great looking,cheap(half price of WINXP PRO) no nonsense like Pro version, home version, Media Center version,Jpn,Chinese,English,German versions.

I hope I can save enuff soon to get a PoweMac hehehehe.

elow at 11:28 午後 | (0) comments

金曜日, 10月 29, 2004

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One night while surfing, I happened to click one stupid page which contain a jpeg or some scripts with a hidden virus. YES for those who dunno, now in all windows system (except for those who updated to WinXP Svc Pack 2), all are prone to this security flaw (again) which allows a programmer to hide a malicious code/virus code in a jpeg and run in when a user view it.

Well jpegs was considered one of the safest formats on the net but now it is no more. Nothing is safe if u are a Windows user. For those who r rich and affluent, this piece of crap OS is ard $500+ for the PROFESSIONAL version and $250+for the Home version. All peecee users will have their experience of BSOD - Blue Screen Of Death - hang - freeze ups - system crashes. Even the Windows Explorer itself is very buggy and can crash esp if u r probing thru huge video files.

Yes the WinXP interface is a refreshing change from the grayish shit of the yester-years but nothing much as improved. Windows systems hve countless and never stopping security flaws. EVEN with the latest Win XP Service Pack 2, which M$ claim to vastly step up the security in Win XP, it itself also have a security flaw. So what the hell is this man??? Why will anyone buy such a piece of plastic for $500??? The Mac OS X 10.3 Panther only retails for $200+, it is Unix based,rock stable and is a 64bit OS,works better and looks better. Why will a lousy WindowsXP sell for twice the price of a better OS like XP?

Well besides security issues, Windows is vulunerable to tons of viruses. 99.5% of the virus are especially created for Windows users. How fortunate we are.

I am now currently saving up for a Power Mac G5 1.8Ghz (single processor) with 512MB RAM,80GB SATA HDD, ATI 9600 128MB card and the standard stuff, minus the 56K modem. This alone is gonna cost me ard $3k, -_-; But this is nothing compared to the ultimate Power Mac G5 with all the goodies thrown in which costs S$ 31,403.86 AHHAAHHAAHAHAH.

Here are the specs :

Dual 2.5GHz G5 processors (liquid cooled)
8GB DDR400/PC3200 RAM
2X250GB SATA HDD
8X Super Drive (standard) DVD-R/CDr/RW
Nvidia Geforce 6800 Ultra DDL 256RAM DDR3
2 Gigabit Ethernet cards
1 Fibre Channel PCI card
1 56K modem (standard)
Bluetooth module
Air port Extreme card
Bluetooth module Apple Wireless K/B + mouse
Creative Inspire 5700 5.1 speaker
2 X 30 inch Apple Cinema HD Display
.Mac
iSight web video cam
Air Port Express Base Station with Air Tunes
iPod 40GB

I wonder which cockster will buy this. If buy can use to make Finding Nemo 2,3.4, Shrek 3.4. n some fancy Hollywood block-buster. The other thing to improve is to get a professional 3D card which will add another $5000 to $10000? AHAHWHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAH.No intel system can fight this S$ 31,403.86 system. HAHHAAA.

Get a taste of Apple here

Working sucks

elow at 10:55 午後 | (0) comments

月曜日, 10月 25, 2004

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I dunno since when I have became an escapist. To escape from problems and such. Could be it my post depression days which caused all these side effects? Ever since army days, I got into depression and due to that, I gained like 10KG. Still now whenever I feel stressed or that ridiculous tinge of fear and uncertainty again, I will crave for food. Making my stomach full will at least give me a sense of well-being, at least it wil divert my attention away for awhile.

This is extremely visual if anyone notice my gaming patterns. EVEN when playing game, I am afraid of new enemies, afraid of meeting tough bosses, afraid of difficult stages. So in my collection (not many) of PS2 games, there are quite a no. which I never really completed. Mostly are RPG games which need quite a deal of patience,brains and strategy. Well I mst admit I am not a very brainy or street smart person, thus I might not be suitable for such games.

Even for action games, I will face difficulties more than anyone else. The most difficult action game I played to date is probably Ninja Gaiden. Yes I got an X-Box,Crystal Limited Edition from Starhub promo.hehe..It is because of Ninja Gaiden then I decided to plunge another 2 yrs contract with Starhub. Well this game's difficulty really put my patience to the limit.

I already replayed countless times when facing with the 1st boss. Of course countless times when facing other bosses. Now I am stuck in another difficult stage in some underground volcano area. But somehow something is pushing me to continue in this game, even when the odds is against me. I remember facing one boss, the skeletal dragon. Due to the earlier stages before this boss, I used up all of my elixirs, thus I am only with my pathetic life bar which is about 1/5 of the dragon. Well somehow I managed to defeat it and I feel so proud. HAHA.

And, tml is monday. I hate mondays because I need to face another week of working.

elow at 1:11 午前 | (0) comments

土曜日, 10月 23, 2004

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What deters a person's success in life? I believe self-confidence is a major factor and many a times, self-confidence is incalculated by parents into their children. With self-confidence, a person is willing to take up challenges and learn new things because he/she believe in themselves. It is a driving force behind them, a driving force to excel, to succeed, to believe in life.

However, not every child is blessed with such parents. Especially those parents who are raised in families where the mother or father will run them down when they cannot do anything right. I often think children are God's blessing to all parents but apparently not to some. Some parents will detest some of their or their children for some unknown reason. What has the little child done to evoke their hatred or prejudice?

If you look at those successful people in ur office or ur friends, u will often see them to be full of drive. They are willing to learn and take on new things. They are confident. Being confident will let one to have a sense of control over most circumstances especially difficult ones. They do not give up so easily and they know they can overcome their problems and not be overwhelmed by it.

Some children maybe introvert by nature. But if their parents manage to raise their child's confidence level, to let them know that they CAN do it. It makes a major difference in their life, be it in their studies,careers. Parents should take for granted what they can do, their children can also do. Every child is borned differently and have his/her own character, surely their parents will know their child's character better anyone else?

A parent should be as below, at least in my opinion:-

1) If a person can understand his/her own child and give them what they need to succeed in life later, then they can be parents.

2) Parents should discipline their children, cane them if needed. Those who adhere to bullshit like reasoning with ur 3 yr old kiddo is simply bullshit. Spare the rod and spoil the child. Spoil the child and he/she will screw ur life later.

3) Parents should not run down their child's confidence by calling them stupid,fat,ugly,useless. WHATEVER FOR????? they are UR children for God's sake. Why will any parents scold their own children as if they are not their own? Oke maybe that could be the reason.

4) Parents who had a bad childhood should not be parents at all. Because there is a high tendency they will use the same shit on their children. It is a curse which will run in the family for generations.

Well another thing is, parents should provide their children with good education. If a parent does not educate her/his child properly as the above, what rights does he/she have to be called a mother or father? It is the self-less sacrifice,love and care that make a person a mother or father even though the child may not be his/her own flesh and blood. Giving birth to a child but not raising him/her properly only makes the woman a biological parent. Credit is only based on the 9 months period in the womb. Raising a child properly is a credit which is forever.

Parenting=love=self-less giving. Not many people understand this, thus not all people can be parents.

elow at 10:11 午後 | (0) comments

日曜日, 10月 17, 2004

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There was a recent article on a local Chinese tabloid rumouring Fiona Xie to have depression. The repeated commercials on TV by Institute of Mental Health clearly reveal that 99.9% of local peasants do not have a clue on what depression is all about. Depression to them=see pychiatrist=siao/mad/mentally something wrong/shen jing bing.

I honestly cannot comprehend on why seeing a pychiatrist will label someone as what is described above. Are they simply plain ignorant or something else? It is sad to see teenagers commiting suicide when all these can be avoided IF their parents bother to properly think what is wrong with their children. Why their erratic behaviour etc. But as most parents are, they are afraid or even shameful to even consider that their children might need to seek consultation from a pychiarist. Oh wait, most Singaporeans do not like to watch documentories but like rowdy shows like Xi Ling Men. Thus the ignorance?

Finally got myself an Antec Smartpower 350W PSU(power supply unit) for my PC. I was reading in a forums with users all advising users to get a decent power supply for their PCs. Most will think that PSU are not important. Well it is definitely one of the most important components inside! The function of the PSU obviously is to supply power to the innards of ur PC. If a person uses a lousy PSU, the current going through will be irregular and will cause system unstability, freezeups etc.

One fine day the PSU decides to end its working life,if it goes quietly it is still oke. But there are times when it will take away some of ur important components too, such as ur harddisk. Imagine ur months of hardwork,ur gigabytes of mp3s,movies,photos all fried cos the PSU decided to snap. Well a HDD nowadays is cheap but what abt the info inside? If you have a $800+ high end 3D card and it got fried by a lousy PSU,if your nice TDK DVD16X writer got fried...how will u feel when all these can be prevented by spending ABIT more on a decent PSU.

Oke so i got my PSU, when I got home. I realised something was not right. My old cheapo icute PSU has 2 plug in it, one is from the main socket and the other is to power the monitor. THEN I also realised I did not get the warranty card stamped! So I made a trip down to the shop this afternoon. Came back fixed up everything, saw that there was no current going thru my PC, I dismantled the side panel again and checked. On power, no bootup..................guess what? before I fixed the PSU, I actually pluck out the 3 pin plug which connects to from the main socket to the PC. -_-II

I also bought another box of TDK DVD+R today. Its going really cheap! $17 for 10pcs. Abt 44GB of writable data. HHAHA. Usual price is $38, then went down to $25 (ytd), today $17.

Last evening I accompanied my ex-classmate/friend to simlim to get his ear plug phones as well as my PSU. FCUK, it was crowded. Later he brought me to NAFA new campus which look like a factory building. There was a mino exhibition in it before we went off. Before we went to Nafa, we actually took a look at our excoursemate's exhibition at The Scupltor Square. I was expecting something but all I saw was flickering lights and multimedia wall projections. Honestly I do not understand what he was trying to convey and I especially loathed one part where there were some naked men. It has a very strong sense of homosexuality element in it and to me, gays are worst than scum of the earth. they shld be skinned, disemboweled, chopped off their limbs, pry open their skulls, remove their eyeballs. Even if they r fed to the dogs, the dogs will find them too disgusting to eat.

Oke, so we walked to Plaza Singapura, where my friend realised his earphone cable was too short haha. There was this shop which sells fancy clocks and wall decorations, I was very tempted to get a nice rotating magnifying ball which u can rotate to show the clock or a photo. It is $49. there used to be a very nice metallic clock which shows the time with raised and depressed metallic rods. $200++ I remember..... -_- so exp.

I wanna get a men's analogue watch. Anyone knows of a good and reputable watch store?

elow at 11:27 午後 | (0) comments

木曜日, 10月 14, 2004

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Working in society is a viscious cycle. Some called it the rat race and EVERYTHING gets so routine. I like a routined lifestyle and not much drastic changes but I do not mind a few pleasant changes at times. Such changes include getting something new like a new gadget which will have my attention focused on it for a certain period of time.

However, getting too routine makes working life very dull. One thing for sure, weekends will end in fraction of a blink of an eye.-Poof- Here comes Monday - and all over again and again and again----non-stop, until your heart stop.

Well it depends on what type of jobs u are doing and of course how much u love ur work. To me working is just a way of getting ur stomach and wallet filled. Though designer trained, I lost the zest in becoming one. My photoshop skills are on par with one who just started learning, so is the same for my HTML, 3D. Working as a designer is quite a slavery task, to me at least.

As one of my friend had mentioned before, most designers are "graphics whores" crudely termed. They are labelled as skilled workers who are trained in the various software to produce what they (read the bosses and the often tasteless clients) want. Where have the creativity skills gone to?

Currently at my current work place I am taking over an IA student who had completed his IA term. As he was in charge of updating websites mainly, now I am taking over him in this area. As I did some updating of websites before, I thought things might be simpler. I was wrong. Thanks to this knnb site where the pages and everything are so messed up. the updates are endless and the best thing is of all of the PCs in my office, only 2 can log into their FTP where the rest CANNOT for some reason. The updates could not be seen on all the PCs except those 2 mentioned above. On the client's side, the same problem also. Worst, they can see only partial updates.

The pages are done in ASP. WTF man, they can be done in HTML! The website is badly designed as it took quite long to load the page. The changes to be made are endless and this is the first time I have work piling up which is something I dun like. some of the graphics need to be rebuilt from scratch cause there are no original source files!

All these boiled down to a word - N.I.C.E

Not to forget I also need to deal with email issues, intel inventory website updates which happen to be another endless messy task and misc stuff.

The only entertainment I have now is playing my Xbox (crystal limited edition free from MOL) At least I am making progress in the game whereelse at work, everything is moving like faeces in a constipated bowels. Speaking of moving bowels, there is a detox method in the UK in the famous The Hale Clinic. It maybe quite gruesome for some as this is how it works. They will pump alot of water into ur bowels via ur asshole to "cleanse" any stagnant bowels which might be stuck inside. Firstly, they will insert a tube lubricated of course into abt 2 inches into ur arse. Water will be pumped in at a certain pressure. After the bowels are filled, the pressure will be lowered and u will see ur shit flowing out into a container which will pass them to the waste pipe or something. the tube inserted inside has another smaller opening which allows the shit to flow out with the water. During the cleaning,some might release gases. Wonder how they feel when the tube suddenly gets popped out while the shit is being flushed out. HAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAaaaazzzz

I feel like detoxing now. NOT thru the above method of cos. There are others such as on a low calerie diet. Taking some kinda herbal drink which taste like drinking dirty sock cocktail. What is the best way to detox!!!!

elow at 11:11 午後 | (0) comments

木曜日, 10月 07, 2004

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For those people who adamantly think getting on a diet will help them lose weight. Here's a scientific reason why it will not.

The human body since prehistoric times has evolved to work like this due to inconsistent supplies of food then. Whenever there is a famine, people will starve and the human body will automatically lower its metabolism rate to conserve fats and energy. This goes the same now. When someone goes on a diet, this inherent function will kick into action. This means that the fat person who is on a diet is losing less energy as his/her metabolism is lowered. How can anyone lose weight in this way?

Besides, a normal human needs 1500 calories just to stay alive and our big brain takes up 1/5 of this amount just to make you stay awake. If someone just go on a crash diet, he/she is going to get into really bad shape as their body is not getting the least amount of nutrition just to function properly.

However,there is this proven lose weight technique which is better than going on a strict exercise. This method is to simply eat what a normal person usually eats MINUS the carbohydrates intake. Well not really reduce total carbo intake as we still need a mild amount to function.

This method works because when we take in carbohydrates, the first thing to start assimilating this stuff is not our stomach but our pancreas. Pancreas will start to secrete insulin which will turn these carbohydrates into glucose and the excess carbo into - FATS. So when someone cuts off or reduce his intake of carbohydrates, there will be lesser insulin being secreted and the body will turn to "burn" its own excess fats to get energy! A guy on this method lost 8 pounds in like 10 days. But it is not also advisable to totally cut off carbo intake, a subtle amount will suffice.

This method is almost the same as how slimming pills work. But without the side effects. I am not implying exercising is not a good way to lose weight. It is a healthy way to lose weight and on top of that, lowering the carbo intake and anyone who is complaining of their extra paddings will have no reasons not to lose weight.

Watching documentories have its benefits.

elow at 11:32 午後 | (0) comments

日曜日, 10月 03, 2004

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Its another night of charity show. This is the 4th this yr alone and its getting so systematic. The innards will be the same, just a facade change on the outside.From N*F to N*F for kids to Pres*dent Star Ch*rity to Singapore C*ncer Society.

Here's a breakdown on how charity shows are spawned from the mother of all charity shows N*F. Its a chip of the old block.

1) the comperes will be sad, with those "about-to-cry" eyes and speaking in a tone which sounds as if they are abt to break in tears.

2) the patients' sufferings,burdens and whatever shit they are going through will be shown to the whole of SG. Yes it is sad to see so many people suffering due to illnesses and also how poor some of them can be. But it seems to be that they are being "exploited" to raise funds.

3) then they will focus on the featured patients if they are in the studio itself with the compere in tears comforting them,encouraging them and "encouraging" us that with one call, we can help them.

4) performances by the various overseas artistes or local ones, with the infamous hand sign of a telephone.

5) this cycle repeats itself.

Well at least for this evening's show, at least we did not see the blood, rehearsed wringed faces and moans of agony and acts of pain fetishes. But fear not though for the pain and blood fetishes, next year's mother of all charity shows the N*F Charity show will be showing more blood as spectulated from recent trends.

They seem to have an obession for hot stuff, so there is a high possibility of seeing them dipping their hands into pots of boiling oil to raise funds. "Lelong lelong, F*nn Wong's deep fried porcelain fingers for $10,000 one finger joint" Not to forget the possibility of having some of them to eat shit,drink urine from the featured patients. If they want more blood, how abt piercing 1000 needles into boobsy Fio*a Xie's boobs. Acupuncture anyone? hear it can improve a woman's boobs size.

So next yr,I believed the cancer charity will spilt into various cancer shows with each featuring different cancer types. One each week, then in the coming years, each featured cancer type will be spilt into overseas artistes and local artistes. So how many cancer types are there? Starting from the head, brain cancer,eye cancer,nose cancer,mouth cancer,throat cancer,esophagus cancer,lung cancer,liver cancer,colonal cancer,cervic cancer,ovary cancer,prostate cancer,testicular cancer,breasts cancer,skin cancer,blood cancer,bone cancer. Anymore? 17 multiply by 2=34 charity shows.

So 34 charity shows next yr, one each week. JUST FOR CANCER patients alone hor ! Not to forget the N*F series. Children,elderlies and all associated diseases will have charity shows. Wow is this a gahment's campaign to show how "graceful and loving" Singaporeans are?

elow at 11:39 午後 | (0) comments

土曜日, 10月 02, 2004

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Finally I was out of my shell and out in the sun at Orchard this afternoon. Fcuk the weather was hot. On my way to Braddel to meet pig, I met one of my ex-CG mates. Her name is Rachel if I am not wrong with her husband whom I cannot recall his name. She has a sister called Serene. I dunno if I have something for remembering people's faces and names but they did not recognise me at all. But then back then I did have a "fear" that Rachel might recognise me. But they did not. So what does it mean?

- It simply mean FUCK U HYPOCRITES, FUCK U SELF RIGHTEOUS CHRISTIANS. ahaha

Hmmm..its been.......a year since I bought new clothes. AHHAHAHAHAAHHA..so this afternoon I splurged over $113 on 4 new shirts. 2 from Giodarno and 2 from U2. Then me and pig explored Wisma Atria Isetan and we went into a watch shop. I saw one uniquely designed Seiko watch and I asked the salesperson to let me see it. When I asked for the price it was.....$4950. -_-; for this kinda of price I ratheer get a Tag Heuer. Another one which I took a fancy costed $1300++++ -_-; but its made from titanium.

Forget it man, I will not get a fcuking watch for $1k. A watch is a watch. As long it's of some reputable brands,lasts long,then it is oke. But I do want to get a nice watch those I like mostly cost a bomb. I wan KINETICS!!!! ECODRIVE!!!! I dun wan batteries!!!! I wan a executive looking watch (Seiko,Citizen)!!!!

Now I shall nag about something most gals will hate - FATS. I know God is vastly unfair, He can make someone as beautiful as Michelle Reis and some as ugly as Abigail. He can make someone with Fiona Xie's curvy boobsy figures and He can make someone who resembles a cross between a hippo and pig.

Then again, there are some people who are concious about their own physical shortcomings (hairy legs,flabby arms,belly etc) and some people who are unaware. I seen countless fat monsters wearing halters,spags,sleeveless tops, hipsters. Fat people again there are 2 kinds, some are actually quite plesant looking except they r of bigger proportions and some others who are a cross breed between human,pigs and hippo. Most of the time, it is this hideous cross breed who decides to wear super tight hugging spags,revealing their cellulites,hairy armpits,coarse skin,dangling weights of accumulated lard.

Fcuk man, do they have a sense of shame? Or are they shamelessly confident? If one looks like a cross breed between human,pigs and hippo, how fcuking confident can they get? Well, maybe they can be confident of their intelligence or whatever but cant they wear more decently instead of revealing their extras pounds of flabby wriggling and dangling lard?

After lunch at the Indian prata restaurant made my stomach unwell again from yesterday until today's afternoon. My ass was burning! HAHA.

elow at 11:47 午後 | (0) comments