Wednesday 31 August 2011

Rant 842 / 42 Drumlets

Those NPCs in Deus Ex: Human Revolution are so twitchy during conversations. They either nod too often or they keep turning left and right more frequently than real people.

What's up with that?

As for gameplay, I like the stealth play. I've gone past Sander's attack on a Sarif plant, took the hub from the morgue and did a few sidequests.

What I really like about the game at the moment is that I really do have more than 1 way to complete my tasks, and I've been picking the sneaking/talking method all the time. Took a few reloads but I've earned the Silvertongue award both times when I was given the chance to talk my way through.












Trolling my terrapin.

It's still scared of me. I wonder how long it takes before it finally gets used to my presence up close.

The best I can do is get it to eat something hanging from my fingers - I don't want to risk getting my fingers bitten off.










So the plumber came and charged the highest price possible of S$250 for clearing the clogged pipe with a motorized snake. Seems like it was blocked by some oily stuff. From now on I should probably pour boiling water down the drain every month or two.











So I've just printed out seven coupons for free Mexican Drumlets from Burger King. Unfortunately I could only find 3 of the 20 emails I made for such purposes.

None of the terms and conditions stated that only one coupon could be used per customer, and it even stated that they are transferable, so it's going to be perfectly okay for me to redeem 42 drumlets at one go.

Feels so good.

EDIT: Just managed to dig up another 6 of the emails. Woot!

Rant 841 / Deus Ex: Human Revolution Is Like The 21st Century Remake Of RoboCop

Deus Ex: Human Revolution starts out kinda like Robocop - guy working in the security field meets bad guys, sustains injuries that should have killed him but is saved by machine parts that effectively turns him into a cyborg.

Except in DEHR, the cyborg protagonist is much more human than RoboCop.










So E.Y.E. Divine Cybermancy is a game based on the Source engine. I can feel the Source everywhere in the game, from the loading screen to the sound of the footsteps.

Not a bad game. Like in the trailer, there are always multiple ways to get to your objectives if you made your "avatar" more than just a fighter.

Then again, there are at least 2 ways you can complete your missions with brute force - guns or the blade. There are 7 types of weapons and a whole bunch of bladed weapons to choose from, so it doesn't get boring.

Furthermore, there are entire lists of psychic and hacking abilities to choose from if you decided to make your avatar more of the thinker.

So far I've only completed the prologue where I left the dream and got back to the base or something. There was no need for abilities due to the ease at which the rifle I chose picked off the enemies.

Might get harder in the future definitely, so we'll see how useful my psi abilities can get.

At the moment I've only tried using the Polycloning ability that is the sci-fi version of the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (aka Shadow Clones) from the Naruto anime. If I heard right, the game even uses the same sound effect for it.

I'm mainly a psychic guy right now but my class is listed as "Equilibrium Fist" which means my stats are rather evenly spread. Everyone begins with this class despite the Gene Fusion thing when I created this guy.













I wish I had a "faggot dog" like that :\

So cute, so... troll-ish.









My drain clogged. Okay, it's not my personal bathroom's drain but the one next to my turtle and washing machine. It's choked and not draining at all while everything else is fine.

My plunger broke from my heavy usage today.

I also bought a plumber's snake (manual type) but whatever is clogging it seems to be pretty hard.

It's weird. It's definitely not caused by my turtle; I always pick out the hard stuff like the translucent shedded shell pieces and larger foodscraps like vegetables (I don't worry about bread) before changing the water.

Weird. I have no idea what could be clogging it. The drain even has a filter on which I mentioned in past rants (about cleaning it) so it's also not the washing machine.

Anyway, I'm currently looking at random plumber websites on Google. Not so good. Apparently plumbers here, though cheaper than those in other countries like Australia, aren't always reliable. Nevertheless I'll need one. Probably will cost between S$60-100 since it cannot be a major problem.

For this issue, I have to list a number of things I consider myself fortunate for:

1) No stick of fecal matter floated out when I used my plunger/snake. I saw that once back in NS when I escorted the handyman to clear a clogged sewer. It floated up, an entire stick, up into the pool of clear sewage water that had backed up the drain, then slowly moved back into the drain.

I will never forget it for my entire life even though it's not exactly the most disgusting thing ever. It was just... so damn weird. I can still recall how everyone just stood there and watched in utter silence.

2) It did not stink. I know how terrible things can smell when it comes to sewage. Also from experience during NS. Half a pump room filled with sewage and left to ferment over a weekend. Enough said.

3) None of the other parts of the sewer pipe was clogged. Both the bathrooms and the kitchen sinks are perfectly alright.

I'm glad about all these. Got to be positive in life, ya?























So I decided to make full use of the skincare samples finally.

On my face, of course. Did you really think I was serious about using the Hado Labo moisturizer on my balls?

My first time rubbing such stuff on face for sooooooo long like a sissy. Or a girl.

First was the Bio-essence Nutri-Collagen & Whitening Advancer.

The directions stated that I was supposed to massage it on my face till it was fully absorbed.

Holy crap that took so long I thought my hands were going to peel or swell.

I've also heard that such stuff was supposed to be rubbed between my palms for a few seconds to warm it up to allow for easier absorption. Did that too.

Next was the Hado Labo thing. Same treatment. There was so much of it I spilled some, but I don't think they would have put multiple doses in a single packet. But I have to say there was too much of it, probably enough for 2 faces.

During all the massaging, one question did come to mind:

Does static electricity affect the chemicals in the products? Electrolysis or something?


Also been taking a stick of this Avalon Fish Collagen sample for the last two nights. Three sticks, one per night. Tonight's the final stick.

Not easy to swallow. That powder sticks to my tongue so hard that it cannot be swallowed dry.

No effect so far of course. These things aren't frickin miracles; I'm still as fugly as ever.

But nobody was going to use them. Tried giving one of the samples to my bro and his gf, but they're not into these things like me.

Tuesday 30 August 2011

Rant 840 / WTF Happened To My Youtube Videos??

So Blogger messed up my embedded Youtube videos. Now the ones in 839 and 838 are all jumbled up.

Previously, the issue with embedded Youtube videos was much less significant - they merely disappeared after I opened a saved draft. My solution, if the page no longer existed in my "Recently Closed Tabs' menu, was to simply remove and forget about it.

I know there's the possibility that my account was hacked and someone is having some harmless fun with this blog, but I'd rather go with the first since that's easier to deal with.

I guess that's how the human mind works, huh?

I'm not sure I want to go through the trouble of copy and pasting all the embed codes to rearrange them.


EDIT: Was it my browser? Why is everything back to normal? What is this I don't even...














Usain Bolt made a very obvious false start in the 2011 Daegu World Championships in South Korea.



It's amazing that a world-renowned champion whom everyone is betting on made such a noob mistake. FYI there is no second chance for false starts in this competition.










Munchkin is a nice game. Very lax on the rules and humourous.












Just realized which stall HX was talking about which was famous for its thosai in my neighbourhood. It's one of the stalls that I never bothered to look at due to its long queue, just like one of the stall that sells char kway teow.

Plus I'm not very interested in thosai anyway.












ZOMG ZUFALL! #1956

Wait what? Automatic circumsizers?

Original song:



I'm aware of how old this is.









Died on day 17 in Die2Nite. Top town, undeniable now. We're the only town involved in the first Mega-Meta Jump (MMJ) to survive this long.

Fck yea!

But I have to admit the camping is much harder now. In the last town, I didn't die until the third day, and that's only due to dehydration. When I died this time, there was over 30 water rations still in town that everyone could go back to get.

Also, I just learnt that the mechanism that was introduced this season to limit mega-coalitions works by limiting the number of coalitions that can join each town.

That's why the MMJs set the number of coalitions joining in.

Btw the second MMJ will be held on the 2nd September (or 1st for Americans) at 00:10 server time, or 6.10am for Singaporeans. If your Soul Points exceed 100 and you're interested in playing seriously, just join a random town at that exact moment and it's quite likely you will be playing with a lot of veterans from the coalitions. In fact I was lucky enough to have several top players in my town. I wonder if I will be this lucky on Friday.











Dr Mundo is harder to use than Mordekaiser IMO. Spells that are spammed the most often for each:

Mundo: Cleaver
Morde: Siphon

Since I often use Siphon of Destruction as Mordekaiser, I noticed that it requires minimal aiming due to its conical area of damage. Hence, the further they are, the easier it is for me. In fact, I could just aim at the general direction of the enemies and immediately swing my cursor behind to ready for the click to turn back after hitting them (harassment).

Hence I could just keep doing hit-and-run attacks all the time.

With Cleaver, I have to watch which way they're going and aim ahead of them because it takes a split second for the cleaver to fly over there. Hence I keep missing. Moreover, normal creeps can block my cleaver. Nothing blocks the Siphon; everything in the way gets hit.

What offsets these disadvantages is that other than the difference in damage, the cleaver also slows the target down.

Great for chasing people down. As Mordekaiser, I've always had a hard time chasing people because the only thing I can use to slow the enemies is the Summoner spell, Exhaust. It's a little annoying to see the final survivor of the enemy team running away from me after a large battle. Dr Mundo doesn't have this problem.

In addition, Dr Mundo has Burning Agony which reduces disabling effects on him and does AoE damage to everyone nearby. As Morde, I've always had to rely on my Siphon which does AoE damage but it's the low damage and quick reload sort of ability. Against large groups of creeps, Morde just isn't as effective.

It's true that Morde has the Creeping Death aura ability that also damages everyone like Burning Agony, but Creeping Death has a much longer cooldown and raises my magic resistance which makes me save it for important occasions.

Finally, Mundo's ulti really takes some getting used to after using Morde for so long. It's so different in its purpose.

Morde's Children of the Grave drains HP from the target to me, not to mention if the enemy dies while it's in effect, I get a clone of it temporarily plus all the stat boosts. This means I'm used to using it during battles and when I'm in need of healing.

In contrast, Mundo's Sadism damages me instantly (20% of total HP) then gives me a significant movement speed boost and HP regen. To use it effectively, I need to cast it before entering a fight to give it some time to heal me somewhat. If I use it during a fight, there's no time to recover any of the lost HP, effectively turning it into a helpful ability for the enemy unless they are unable to stop me from running.

Even when taking the movement speed boost into account, I cannot use it as a last resort for escaping. If I have to run, I definitely don't have the 20% HP to spare.

Therefore, this means if I get caught by surprise, I have to keep my finger off the ulti instead of on like I do when I use Morde.

Saturday 27 August 2011

Rant 839 / Because Rot

EDIT: I have no frickin idea what just happened to my blog. The order of the Youtube videos are all messed up. How did the codes from a previous rant even end up in the newer rant?












Currently reading his second book, the Art of Intrusion. Finished his first book, the Art of Deception, long ago.

Unlike his first book, the Art of Intrusion is mainly a collection of true stories of hackers and their accounts of some of their exploits.

Although I've not completed the entire book, I'm already convinced that even SID isn't secure enough if nothing has changed since I left.

And that is despite the fact that I recognize a number of the precautions described in his books and that there are many security measures that they take there which I do not see outside of Mindef Gombak Base.

It's that scary.

In fact, if SID is one of the most secured places in Singapore, then nowhere on this island is truly safe.

What concerns me most is the social engineering, that a lot of the stories showed that hackers do not use hacking alone to accomplish their goals.

Social engineering can often make employees reveal useful information that may not seem sensitive to the employees themselves.

Like Kevin Mitnick mentioned in the above video, "all it takes is just one person inside the company to make a bad decision, and the hacker is in."

A very basic mistake that I used to make was to assume that anyone who knew the number of our phones had to be one of us and most likely had the security clearance for whatever he/she is asking.

It's quite embarassing, really.

Hopefully they've corrected this mistake at the very least.

On a more positive note, at least we never allowed anyone to scan their passes to let someone else enter unless it was a special guest whose clearance has been checked beforehand. No holding the door open for another person. That mistake was mentioned in both books which leads me to believe this is a pretty common one.

In a story that involved this in the Art of Intrusion, the intruder held the door open for the employee when they left the cafe after lunch, so the latter did the same for him in the office. Once he was inside, he only needed a fake pass that looked real and he had free access to everything.

From what I've read, I think the best precaution to take against social engineering is to be unhelpful. I know it sounds bad for any working environment, but most of the social engineering tricks described in his books actually rely on the instinctive urge in people to be kind to each other and to reciprocate kindness.














Nothing to see here. Just some maids passing through.













It wasn't hard because the cable was almost as wide as his feet. The only possible difficulty was a fear of heights.












Wait what?











Poor guy. Even his boss is laughing.














10 hours of just the good part of the song, Run Away. Original song below, but you aren't missing anything anyway.



The violin part's good too but I guess it's less popular and harder to loop.










I herd u liek phones, so I put a phone in ur phone so you can phone while you phone.












Began camping on Day 16 in Die2Nite. We're now down to 16 after 8 of us died last night (and 5 terrorised).

Since there are now less than 20 of us, the total number of zombies attacking residents inside the town will no longer be limited (though the number of zombies attacking the town will remain unaffected). Staying in the town tonight is going to be suicide - over 4000 zombies are expected to visit us at 00:00hr later.

The above limit is a new change in Season 3.

We've now formed groups of 3-4 and hiding in buildings because Season 3 also heavily penalises the survival chances in open zones with no buildings.

However someone who camped in the open now suggests that this penalty only applies to devastated towns, ie what our town will become after tonight, because his chances tonight are still "decent" which is the highest grade possible.

If true, then we've just reduced our survival chances for tonight needlessly, although my chances are also "decent" despite being the last to hide (first to camp in their hiding spot gets better chances, gradually reduces for each successive campers) out of the three of us.

Nevertheless, we have plenty of defensive objects (DOs) in town which we can bring (1 per person) to improve our chances everyday, and over 40 water rations in the bank, so we can survive indefinitely.

The only real problem is that our chances of camping is reduced for every night we spend outside of town.

Despite of this, we're now the top town in the game and it does not appear as if we're going to drop anytime soon. The town which was previously first had a poorly organized camping strategy involving spreading everyone out in the open, resulting in lots of death the first night. They probably thought the penalty for camping outside was lesser than the penalty for having everyone camping in the same buildings.

Well, we'll find out the truth tonight, but we're sure our strategy is better.

It's so awesome to know I helped by never failing to bring either a DO or jerrycan back to town everyday. We were so good at scavenging we had over 30 jerrycans on Day 13 or 14 and they were discussing whether we should bother to use them since we weren't short on water anyway. In the end, we thought we might as well use them just for the heck of it.

Hence the 40-something water rations in the bank.

...

Survived! The town now has 555 points, way more than the current second best town.

Thursday 25 August 2011

Rant 838 / Red-Eared Sliders Don't Eat Banana Skins







Just discoverd The Cat Empire :D













ROFLMAO!












I did consider buying a baby companion for my red-eared slider (South American terrapin) but I was concerned about whether my pet would just eat it.

After all, it's like a baby - it tries to eat anything I put into or even near the water, even my fingers. Gotten bitten by it once back when it was still small, and it was already pretty painful then. Now if I get bitten by it, I'll probably lose a fingertip.

But anyway, after googling about it, I learnt that I was right. Oh well.

I have to admit I wasn't the one that took care of it until recently. My mum's been the one who did the feeding and the part-time maid was the one who did the changing of water (once per week).

We've never had to bring it to the vet despite the dirty water.

Ever since my cousins came and tried to play with it, I'm starting to have an interest in my turtle again.

Been feeding it and changing its water. I used to change the water only when I can't stand the smell that permeates my entire home whenever it shits a lot (probably after eating a lot).

Its meals are quite irregular, you see. My mum used to feed it with scraps when she cooks, and she doesn't cook often.

Fortunately, terrapins are pretty tough creatures that are able to handle weekly meals (though we rarely did that) and sleep in its own wastes.

I don't allow that now.

Still, I feed it with mainly vegetarian food, like bread, crackers, fruits and vegetables. Tuna too, once in a while, from a can of tuna-in-water. It seemed to reject the vegetables I threw into the water after I fed it with a big chunk of tuna.

And it's a little picky. It rejects banana peels even though they're perfectly edible, and bread when it's not very hungry. The one time I tried to feed it a piece of banana peel, it sniffed it for a while and turned away.











I do not agree that this is the end of the PC era in the sense that PCs are going to be extinct.

But I do agree that PCs are no longer the sole medium of computer activities, such that it's no longer necessary for people to own desktops these days to do computer stuff.

In fact if you're not into PC gaming, video editing and other activities that require loads of computing power, there's really no need to get a desktop anymore.

Casual gaming, social media and work documents can all be handled by tablets, perhaps with accessories like bluetooth keypads and such.

Furthermore, the end of HP's PC division doesn't signify the end of the PC era, but the end of an era in which people bought PCs like a set meal that comes with a specific set of components.

It no longer makes sense to buy PCs like that other than for the customer service.

In Sim Lim Square in Singapore (from which you should buy nothing but PCs), I can get a computer built with any commercially available parts and it always come with 2-5 years of warranty (depending on the individual shop's policies) that allows free servicing if I bring it back to the shop.

What I mean is that companies that sell whole PCs are being replaced by those that sell PC parts that also offer a PC-building service.











Steve Jobs is resigning. All that crap about how he built an empire or whatever is just that - crap.

Apple wasn't shit till they came up with the iPad. Whatever innovations he came up with, they didn't succeed, did they?



























The founder of Paypal is going to build a new country. Just kidding. He's going to build a floating platform that will be home to 270 in the beginning. Reminds me of Brink.

The main thing is that this platform will be a bigger and better version of Sealand, and it moves.

Is this going to be a genius move or just insanity? Will people describe him as an extraordinary leader like Steve Jobs or an eccentric wealthy person like all these people?

Technically, it can possibly be recognized as its own sovereignty if things are done right.

Wednesday 24 August 2011

Rant 837 / I Thought I Saw. Now I See More.

SUN/MON:


A 5-hr masturbation marathon from 9am to 2.30pm, with a short warm-up at around 6.50am to 7.15am before going on a 2-hr meth break.

I'm impressed.













He's right, y'know?















There was a point where I thought if the political leaders of Singapore take a pay cut, it might make them more popular.

Then I realized it would just fuel the hatred.

The supporters would think they're just trying to please the opposition supporters.

The opposition supporters would say they are desperate for votes, that they have finally admitted that they are undeserving of the high pay in the first place, and they should return a large portion of their salaries from previous years too.

Cutting their own pay down to what is considered "normal" in most countries would be worse than keeping mum about it.


Not that I agree totally with our current leaders, but I guess it's just normal to want to stay with the familiar.

For example, everybody knows it's nonsense that their policies are for the good of the people. That's not the whole truth. That's never the whole truth.

Their policies have always been beneficial to both the people and themselves. They always try to go for the win-win solutions, despite the fact that these are less effective for the people than those that don't benefit themselves.

Whether that's a good or bad thing, I don't really know because it's so subjective. For a country as a whole, yea that's a good thing. For the needy specifically, no way.














Whoa! The CEO of S&P is going to step down and be replaced by the CEO of Citibank on the 12th of September!

Officially he said it has nothing to do with his company's lowering of the credit rating of the US, though I can't help but notice the timing is way too much of a coincidence.









TUE:



I've heard that Wendy's burgers aren't that great, but I don't fully agree.

The beef patties are definitely better than Mac's but slightly inferior to BK's. If we look at the price, I should probably compare it with just BK.

Was at Holland V today for work and passed by the Wendy's there, so I thought I should get some burgers for lunch today and breakfast tomorrow.

I like their 3/4 pounder burger. Maybe it's because I like pickles because their pickles were more sour than those used by Mac and BK.

The shrimp burger was also pretty good. Can't compare with BK because it doesn't have this.

The fish burger was average.

The grilled chicken burger was nothing spectacular either.

Also ordered a spicy chicken burger but I haven't tried that yet.

As for the fries, nothing special. It had some potato skin but I'm not about to discuss the health issues regarding potato skin when it's french fries that we're talking about.

And no, I didn't eat everything, but I did ask those who ate them for comments.










We survived another night in Die2Nite. Lost 3 people the night we completed All-or-Nothing and wiped out our bank (but not before we saved most of the important stuff in our homes) and then 5 more last night.

The main thing that saved us was the new game rule that only a portion of the town gets attacked no matter how many zombies enter the town as long as there are over 20 residents in their homes.

Better players have died while I survived. I feel kinda sorry.

I didn't even get terrorised last night, ie not a single zombie came to my House.

For tonight, there are 2000 zombies coming while we have about 980 excluding temporary defenses and 29 of us to build and scavenge for materials (we lost everything in All-or-Nothing).

Yep, we're screwed. Tonight will likely be the final night we're staying indoors.

Before I forget, I was wrong about All-or-Nothing. It's a permanent structure.












Maru is a cat that's able to rest in any cardboard box. Nothing can stop it from sleeping in a box.












I like the first half of the video, especially the first minion's death at around 1:00, but the boss was not as cool as I expected. Also, some of the acting/effects were bad, although I should probably cut them some slack for not being professional actors/directors.

The music's nice here, but I don't like the original piece. While I listened to it (embedded below), one word surfaced over and over again in my mind: overdone.

Too many effects or whatever they're called.



EDIT: I don't dislike it anymore after a day. I guess watching Dubstep Guns made me expect something quite different.
















I'm tempted to use part of the instrumental version for my ringtone.

Monday 22 August 2011

Rant 836 / Shopping At DealExtreme

Recently bought a few more items from DealExtreme.


1) A male-to-male HDMI cable
2) A (most likely fake) leather casing for my Nokia N8
3) 2 pairs of disposable anaglyphic 3D glasses


Ok, I don't actually know whether it's cheaper than what I'd be able to find at Sim Lim Square, but I'm too lazy to hunt down all these.

The HDMI cable costs US$4.67, the leather casing costs US$2.91 and the glasses cost US$1.14. So even if they're more expensive than what I can locally, I don't believe the difference can exceed a single dollar per item.

The leather casing for my phone is necessary because I realized that I cannot keep my phone inside my pocket without fogging up the camera if I walk a lot. That casing would protect the screen when I put it inside my bag.

Btw all the links for DealExtreme above contain my referral ID. It benefits me if anyone registers a DX account via these links and buys stuff there. I'm not in need of money, but neither will it it harm anyone to use those links.

Just mentioning this because it seems some people see it as dishonesty when a referral link is used in place of a normal URL.

Don't hate me for liking freebies because I know you do too :)

















It is indeed a strange phenomenon that zebras have yet to be domesticated even though we've domesticated horses for so long. Zebras and horses look so alike, yet they must be very different.












Did you know that North Korea has a Youtube channel? I had this bookmarked a long time ago but never mentioned this here until now. It doesn't have much, just some propaganda videos from the DPRK.











Trying Aika SEA because some friends are playing it.
 
Lots of names are different from what I can remember from my days in the Aika US open beta. For example, boars are called "Max" in Aika SEA.

Don't ask me why.

Another difference is that Riflemen are Snipers here. Strangely, the word "sniper" is censored.

It too completely baffles me that they are censoring an innocuous word that is also the name of one of the classes.

Also got 2 prans after a bit of farming at lvl 10, a Water pran named "Genitalwarts" and a Fire pran named "Syphilis". Initially, I wanted to name my Water pran "Genitalherpes" but it kept saying I have invalid symbols inside. I guess that's Aika's way of telling me that the name's already taken. Tried "Oralherpes" too, same result.

But apparently Water prans are useless for Warriors, so my guild may eventually ask me to get rid of my Genitalwarts.

Oh well, at least I'll still have Syphilis.












It's day 11 in my town in Die2Nite and things are going to be very bad very soon.

We're barely able to handle tonights attack consisting of 844-875 zombies with our 784 defence points just six hours away from tonight's attack.

Then again, we're just 7APs away from completing the Saniflow Macerator which adds 50 defence points, boosting the total to 834 points. Still 10 short of the bare minimum.

Last night we were 3 points short but no one died, fortunately.

As for town points, which determine our place in the official rankings, we're second at 379, 4 points below the champions.

Damn. We were first in the beginning but we were quite unlucky in our hunt for the Searchtower blueprint, causing us to drop to second place several days ago.

Still, the top town may also be screwed tomorrow, according to rumours. Their homes are mostly Tents and Hovels (there's a structure that adds extra defence points for each House, the level 4 home upgrade) and they can barely handle tonight's attack.

Moreoever, they do not have the All-or-nothing blueprint that we have as our final resort, which adds 1 defence points for every item in our bank. It's a temporary defence which will wipe out everything there overnight.

We're currently discussing if we should spread out our defensive objects in our homes or let them all get consumed in the All-or-nothing.

Tomorrow, we'll be having an insane spike in the zombie attack with an estimation of 1650 to 1975 zombies. There's no way we can double our defences without resorting to All-or-nothing.

Nevertheless, it won't be over. At worst, we'll get out and begin the camping in Chaos mode, which is initiated when everyone staying in town at night is killed by the attack.

Sunday 21 August 2011

Rant 835 / Overwhelming Underperformance



Oh wow I must have been lucky that I didn't end up like that when I finished Shivering Isles.












http://sg.news.yahoo.com/blogs/singaporescene/borders-closes-flagship-store-wheelock-163750813.html

The Borders att Wheelock was closed because, officially, due to a late rental payment.

My bullshit sense is tingling. Pretty hard.

It's been there since I was a kid, so obviously a late payment should not harm their business relationship.

So my conclusion is that this is merely an excuse. Something else is happening there. Maybe the landlord wants more rent but was unable to get it from Borders due to various reasons. This would make a legal reason to kick Borders out and get a store that's willing to pay a lot more for the huge space, or multiple smaller stores.

More likely the latter is a plan.













GABE! You've got to make these toys! Like NOW!












Back during the '97 financial crisis, I didn't understand what was happening. More specifically, where did all the money go?

They can't just disappear, right?

I did ask my friends but nobody gave me a satisfactory answer. The adults, I couldn't expect an answer that I could comprehend from them.

Now I understand.

Money can really just disappear.

What I didn't know was that circulating everywhere in the global economy is a whole load of imaginary money.

One economic theory which I've mentioned long ago explains that when a bank loans money that was deposited into a savings account, the money exists in both the hands of the borrower and the bank since a savings account comes with a guarantee that the account owner can withdraw his money at any time.

The moment the bank lends a person the same $2000 that another had deposited, $4000 now exists in the economy even though only $2000 were ever issued by the country's central bank.

I guess the same could apply in all situation where a person pays a debt after a period of time, whether through loans or credits or trade contracts. It would be as if the money is already in the debtor's hands and still in that person's hands at the same time.

In other words, the economy is based on trust and faith. If the depositor didn't have faith in the bank, he'd not have deposited his money there. The bank then wouldn't have the $2000 to lend someone else in the first place.

If lots of people stop trusting the bank and stop depositing, the bank will not have all that money to lend. Worse if they all started withdrawing their savings.

This looks just like a religion, doesn't it?

It works only because people believe in it.

And that is the cause of economic troubles. People just stop trusting others and just hang onto whatever money they have.

Money seems to disappear only because people no longer produce imaginary money to spend.

It was never about all the things people talk about; it has always been and always will be about confidence in the economy.

It doesn't actually matter whether a country is heavily in debt.

It only matters whether everyone trusts everyone else to pay up on time.

I believe that is actually the crux of the whole story.

And it paints such a strange picture compared to the one I'm used to.

Like the current depression, if it is one. Money didn't disappear. All money that was printed and minted is still there but people just aren't spending or borrowing anymore for fear that they won't be getting more money for whatever reasons.












Ok, I've adapted to the camera of Fable 3 somewhat and I just discovered the first major bug: the dog's pathfinding AI.

It's horrid as fuck.

I have no idea why it has to loop around absolutely nothing on the dirt path, or get stuck behind a circular pillar.

If the dog was just an eyecandy I wouldn't mind, but I have to rely on the dog to find treasures that I miss or buried items that a human cannot detect.

Another thing is how long it takes to raise the relationship level with everyone to earn Seals, a currency used for buying abilities and certain game features. I don't like how I have to hold buttons and watch the entire animation over 9000 times for each place just to make friends with everyone.

Who makes friends through purely making heroic poses and whistling random tunes anyway?

More importantly, who the heck doesn't get creeped out by some dude who just jumps in front of you out of nowhere and start shaking your hands as if you're some long lost buddy of his?


As for the camera issue, it's solved. Apparently I could solve it by turning off VSync and mouse smoothing. Now my guy just simply takes time to turn, but it's not a serious problem.

Still there is that slight issue of the camera turning to where the guy is facing when I'm making him move sideways. What I mean is that when I want to look to the right without having him to stop moving, I turn my camera 90 degrees to the right and make him move 90 degrees left of my camera's direction.

When I do that, the camera would try to face his direction instead of stay in mine, making me move my mouse to the right constantly just to hold it still.

I dislike that.











Watched a few games of DotA 2 on Steam. It's a remake of DotA with most, if not all, of the original DotA heroes and abilities. Just new graphics, animations and probably some tweaks that the developers probably wanted to do but couldn't on Warcraft 3.

Nice and should probably attract a lot of DotA players.

And it better be free, although I'm not going to bet on that.

F2P with item shop is probably the best way to get Asian players to try it and get the thousands of players over from Garena. "Thousands" just from the Singapore Rooms alone.












I feel like buying mooncakes from two well-known shops at Chinatown: Tai Tong (大同) and Da Zhong Guo (大中国)。

My mum said Tai Tong sells Teochew mooncakes which won't suit my tastes, but I just feel like trying them just to see what makes them different.

Usually in the past we just buy from the shops in my neighbourhood because I only started liking mooncakes last year. My father was the only person who liked mooncakes before that, so those were bought mainly as offerings.

Anyway, I'm planning to buy them about 5 days before the Mid-autumn Festival on the 12th of September. Since long queues are expected, I'll go during the afternoon of a weekday. That's why I'm not going to ask any of my friends to go with me. I'm probably the only person who's able to get out during that time of the week.

Furthermore, there's a shop at People's Park Complex nearby which sells our goods where the buyer isn't aware of who I am, so I'll probably just walk in and take a look.











If you somehow amazingly noticed that my blogs are getting longer, it's because I'm more bored than before.

That, in turn, is because I've decided to stop browsing the EDMW forum for good.

It's kinda like the SG version of 4chan /b/, except infinitely milder and owned by our state media, SPH.

My reason is simple: the seemingly free speech has been polluted by people hell-bent in persuading netizens to support opposition parties.

Sad.

It's now apparent to me that there are people who dedicate themselves to smearing the image of our authorities in any way available to them, to the point where they are digging up 30-year-old news reports to try to ruin the reputation of the presidential candidates.

C'mon, think about it. If you've made a huge mistake 30 years ago, obviously you have to be smarter than that by now, especially if you were intelligent enough to become a political leader in the first place.

Yet there are people who are convincing others that if they vote for one of them, he's going to be as bad as the news report proved he was.

Worse is that there are people who seemed to believe the illogic. It is sad that there are so many who want to believe that others are always dumber than they are. I said they "want" because it is a universal truth that people will always see what they want to see.

That is just example of how these trolls create an illusion of a problem out of what is actually nothing.

Based on my observations, there are people who are really getting trolled and brainwashed by the online propaganda that is not necessarily completely true or false.

Or perhaps, the trolls aren't really trolling.

Whatever the case, there are now xenophobic Singaporeans who hate our political leaders no matter what they do.

That didn't use to be normal. Everyone used to be so nice to us back when we first came to Singapore even though we barely spoke any English and were very bad at Mandarin. My bro and I even used to play with the local kids at our block and some others.

It is a sad state of affairs, something I hope Singaporeans will recover from.

But they won't if they keep listening to the biased words of the trolls.

Yes, biased. Just like how our local media phrases their words to suit their purposes, so are these trolls on the internet.

News reports are supposed to be objective, and our state media is mostly that, except it loves to omit tiny parts of the truth and subtly manipulate the phrasing of their words.

Yet the ones on the internet are worse. Seriously, they just openly inject their personal opinions into the reports and mention things that are almost unrelated and would incite unhappiness.

For example, any news report regarding an incident with a non-citizen will always include a mention of how our government is inviting lots of foreigners into the country every year.

The latter serves no purpose but incite unrest.

Freedom of speech is a respectable ideal, but like someone I met once said, it's a whole different story when the right is abused.

Creating problems out of non-problems is tantamount to an abuse of this right. So is the exaggeration of minor issues.

And inciting unrest where the people are generally content?

Call me paranoid, but I have a sneaking suspicion that these trolls aren't even Singaporeans.

What good would significant unrest in Singapore do for other countries?

Lots of things, but that's a box I'm not going to open.

Saturday 20 August 2011

Rant 834 / Bipolar Market

ROFL! Abercrombie & Fitch is going to pay one of the guys in the MTV reality show Jersey Shore to NOT wear its products.

We are deeply concerned that Mr. Sorrentino's association with our brand could cause significant damage to our image.

This is so frickin hilarious.

How bad do you have to be to get paid to stop being associated with a brand?

And to make things even more embarassing for him, Abercrombie & Fitch isn't exactly known for its clean image.

Abercrombie & Fitch is also no stranger to controversy. The all-American retailer has come under fire in the past for a range of topics ranging from negative stereotyping to sexually explicit material and employment practices.

It's kinda like a soul so evil even Satan wants it out of Hell.













Been trying out Fable 3. I know, old game, but I just never got around to trying it.

Now that I have, I can't say I'm impressed.

Granted, it's got a nice system, bug-free so far and good good graphics for its age, but if there's anything I should complain about, it's the camera.

I am annoyed by how the camera persistently resists my controls. I don't want to face wherever my character is facing! I want to scan my surroundings often without having to turn my guy around.

Other than that, pretty nice game.














The economy is scary.

I expected a straight freefall days ago. I was wrong.

When I saw the headlines on Reuters last night (morning in the US), I thought I'd see the fall today. I was wrong again.

It's strange. It just keeps falling and rising.












My mailbox was particularly full on Tuesday and it was not due to the usual junk mail.

My cards and several of the samples I registered for on Facebook came on the same day!



From the 2 pink bottles, clockwise:

- Sunsilk Silky Smooth & Manageable Nourishing Conditioner (Co-Creations, Yuko Yamashita) and Shampoo 30ml each

- Presidential Elections 2011 polling card, reverse side shown

- 250 name cards from VistaPrint that arrived 2 weeks early, name card's reverse side shown, plus a shiny new metal card holder that I'm not using after I realized that the shiny polished surface is easily blurred by my fingerprints (currently using the one I got as a gift from Lingnan University's Toastmasters Club).

- Mentholatum Acnes Sealing Jell (tube) and Mentholatum Acnes Medicated Creamy Wash (packet)

- Hado Labo Super Hyaluronic Acid (SHA) hydrating face lotion, ie moisturizer with a bloody fancy name

- Bio-essence Bird's Nest Nutri-Collagen & Whitening Advancer

I'm sorry for everyone who's been circumsized. You'll never have a minty-smelling, acne-free, baby-smooth, wrinkle-free foreskin like I'm going to have.

And screw everyone who protests my use of skincare products on my nether region.

Oh right, and not to mention my silky smooth and manageable ass hair.

According to the printed description, the shampoo and conditioner will give "optimal coverage of hair fibre, to align every inch of  hair strand, for smooth and manageable (ass) hair".

Awesome!










I'm concerned with my lack of taste. Not only in my sense of humour but also in my work. Honestly speaking it is likely that I will not being doing winter wear for long when I take over.

I don't know if this is something that can be learnt. It just takes more than an ability to spot patterns in everything.

The main reason I blogged before about a design that was going to be used was because it was like one in a million. Every single design that I thought was at least decent has been rejected so far, except for that particular jacket and one other.

Therefore if I rely on my own eyes, I'm quite possibly going to be screwed.

I could hire someone to do this for me. Money can buy anything, even taste. The problem is that I know nobody with such an ability whom I can trust. After all, it is entirely possible whoever I hire will just set up his/her own business after a while.











The election is coming. Our next President will be chosen on the 27th this month.

I don't actually care who I'm voting for because there is nothing to indicate that he does anymore beyond what we can see, which is nothing.

But I will be voting.

I know it is illegal to say who I'm voting for, but I'll leave a little hint here: I'm voting for Mr Tan.

I know this joke's old and stale and has been retold all over Singapore several million times, but I don't care.













Y'know, I've never really understood why airships never got popular.

Maybe it's too slow, or maybe people are scared that if something punctures the balloons, there won't be anything they can do about it.

Most likely, high inertia. It would probably take forever to accelerate and decelerate.

Logically speaking, they have to be so much cheaper to run, mainly because they don't need high speeds to create lift.

All each ship needs to move is a couple of fans aka propellors. If the airport is full, the airship can just stay still in the air and not waste fuel just to keep it in the sky. Furthermore, it makes life easier for the air traffic controllers.

Even in the above video, it's mentioned that the new ships can just stay up there (2000ft) for as long as 3 weeks.

You could practically have a floating hotel.

Hmm... a flying hotel sounds like a really luxurious idea.

I wonder why nobody is doing it.

Maybe you can't enjoy outdoor activities at those altitudes. Low air pressure and strong UV radiation.

Yea, I guess it would be kinda boring.












So the Aircool people came over to clean our air conditioners. For $45 ($15 per unit), they cleaned all of them plus the part that is located outside the window (condenser?) and sucked out the water from the pipes with a heavy duty vacuum cleaner similar to the one we have.

But there was a problem.

Because we haven't had the units serviced for about 1.5-2 years, two of our units were in extremely bad conditions and the 3rd was almost as bad. So the technician convinced us to have a "complete overhaul" (that's what was written on the receipt anyway) for a slightly discounted price of $150 per unit (U.P. $180) and we agreed to an overhaul for the two units.

This "complete overhaul" meant they removed the entire unit and cleaned it in our bathroom plus chemical servicing and etc.

End result?

I didn't know my A/C was this strong. It's been so long, I don't even remember how powerful it was supposed to be.

On the whole, we only had a $15 discount for the two units assuming they were honest. The complete overhaul definitely includes everything that was supposed to be included in the "normal maintenance" that the vouchers were for. In total, we paid $165 for the servicing for each of the two units.

So it wasn't worth it.

Even the first result I get on Google offered a similar service called "Chemical Overhaul" for $150 U.P. and another result offered $130 for the same if I have it for 2 units.

Oh well, I didn't know, but now I do.











So US$360M of the Americans' tax money actually went to the very people they were fighting in the Middle East.

Compared to the thirty-one billion USD "in active contracts" that the US government has signed with various contractors for all kinds of work there, that's nothing.

Except, logically speaking, guns are cheap.

Think about it. Most of the parts in a rifle are large. They don't need complex machines or special environments to create the way electronics do.

Furthermore, militants in the Middle East can very easily buy their weapons from Eastern Europe.

Therefore, US$360M can translate into quite a lot of weapons over there.

Ergo, the US is funding the war in a way that it's not supposed to be doing.

Now, was it deliberate?










Kudos to the Scotland Yard for their impressive work in catching the people involved in the recent riots. Over a thousand have been charged among the 1733 arrests made so far.

It's been what, about a week or two now? According to Wikipedia, the last day of the riots was the 11th and today is the 19th.

That's eight days so far, so they're averaging over 200 arrests per day with 500 officers working on this.

The coffee industry in the UK must be making a fortune.

Wednesday 17 August 2011

Rant 833 / Magazine Plant Pot

A girl called her mum while she was being eaten alive by a bear and its three cubs.

Olga Moskalyova, 19, gave an horrific hour-long running commentary on her own death in three separate calls as the wild animals killed her.


Her mother Tatiana said that at first thought she was joking. “But then I heard the real horror and pain in Olga’s voice, and the sounds of a bear growling and chewing.”

She died for an hour and her mum had to listen to her slow, painful death on the phone.

I don't know how much time it would take to turn this particular tragedy into comedy.

“Mum, it’s not hurting anymore. I don’t feel the pain. Forgive me for everything, I love you so much.”















Real Madrid vs 109 kids. The 12 guys won.












Didn't I have like 3 followers for this blog like earlier this year?

I'm surprised that it has 6 now. The things in this blog aren't even always completely accurate, which I only realize some time after I publish them, and I usually don't bother to change them.
















This is interesting. Perhaps I can do something like that with my old National Geographic magazines. I have about 2 years' worth of those that I never got around to removing.

Just got to cut a hole and put in a layer of waterproof material and I'll get a nice pot like that.

Maybe I'll use the old plastic files I used to use.











How is the jerky motion of a bird's head efficient?

It moves rapidly and stops suddenly.

The inertia would be pretty strong in both cases, right?

Anybody who has tried shaking his/head vigorously would understand what I mean.

Two things.

First, the inertia of the head. How does it accelerate and decelerate so quickly? Is the mass that low compared to the strength of the neck muscles?

Second, why don't their brains hurt when they move their heads at those speeds? If it did hurt they wouldn't be doing it, right?

It's the same with other animals like squirrels and many reptiles.

And it has to be quite different from how our eyelids work simply because our eyelids are practically just pieces of skin.

This rapid movement can't be an efficient use of energy (mainly because they have to spend energy to decelerate IMO), which only means it's evolved to sacrifice efficiency for power, which in this case probably is a necessary trait in preys. Being able to move the head that quick has to be great for scanning their surroundings.

So how are they not getting headaches from the almost instantaneous turning?










Recently bought the Indie Bundle #3 which came together with #2 because I paid slightly over the average, which was about US$4.35 at that time if I remember it correctly.

Never got around to mentioning it because the games inside were, honestly, not particularly memorable.

Got an extra copy of Atom Zombie Smasher but it didn't allow me to gift specific games within the bundles.

From those 2 bundles I got Cogs, VVVVV, And Yet It Moves, Braid, Crayon Physics Deluxe, Hammerfight, Machinarium, Osmos, Revenge of the Titans, Steel Storm: Burning Retribution... and Atom Zombie Smasher.

So for about S$5 I got 10 games. Pretty good deal I'd say.

But... most of them aren't very interesting. A lot of them are puzzle games and I'm really not that into games that require lots of thinking.

My mommy says I am speshul.

On a more serious note, the best game among the eleven is still the one that I already have - Atom Zombie Smasher.

Anyway I haven't tried And Yet It Moves, Revenge of the Titans and Braid yet.

Let me go through the games I have tried one by one.

Cogs is a game in which you move blocks around till your system (could be gears or pipes) is set properly.

VVVVV is kinda like Super Meat Boy, except pixelated and 8-bit.

Crayon Phyics Deluxe is a puzzle game in which you solve puzzles by objects you create simply by drawing them. The moment you let go of the mouse, whatever you have drawn becomes an object, be it a curve line, a square block or a ball.

Hammerfight is an annoying game I dislike in which you control some kind of aircraft to duel AIs controlling similar machines. These aircrafts have only one weapon - a giant chain from which a large piece of rock (or metal) hangs. You attack by swinging the aircraft with your mouse to smash the rock into the enemy. It's like like a flail, except there's no handle.

I dislike it because it took me very long to realize the mouse sensitivity the game gave me in the beginning was crap. I should have used the maximum level instead.

Machinarium is a point-and-click puzzle game similar to the Monkey Island series except it's gloomy and has little conversation.

Osmos is simple. You control a blob that grows in proportion to the smaller blobs you absorb when you touch them. You then avoid blobs bigger than you lest you get absorbed by them, until you grow bigger than them. You accelerate by ejecting your mass in the opposite direction so you need to balance between speed and loss of mass. To add to the difficulty, there are special blobs like one that is repelled by other blobs like a magnet.

Steel Storm is a top-down shooter in which you control some kind of hovercraft to fight other hovercrafts in your quest to save the world or something.

And let's not forget Atom Zombie Smasher. You smash zombies with various weapons, including atomic ones, while evacuating civilians. One thing I like about the game that seems to be added for flavour is the hilarious comics.

All of these would make great games on portable consoles or mobile phone though IMO. I wouldn't mind playing these when I'm bored as hell on the train or bus, but on my desktop, I just have so many better options to choose from.











Gold prices are just rising and rising. It's at the same time both amazing and frightening.











I'm actually finding myself seriously considering adding AdSense into this blog. In addition, if I do add it for the income, I'll also implement all the other widgets associated with other social media.


For:

- At this age, I should probably try to create sources of income in any way I can, and this is practically free money.



Against:

- I feel that seeing ads in a blog makes it less personal and probably less sincere.

- I blog on all kinds of topic, which makes it hard for me to make the ads more relevant for visitors.

- I may get much busier in the future, which will make me blog less, which in turn will definitely reduce the number of people visiting this blog, which will render this pointless.

- I prefer to keep this low profile because I don't want to get reminded by some random new visitor of my mistakes I made like 3 years ago in some rant. Furthermore, getting noticed may somehow remove my anonymity, which allows me to speak freely without fear of consequences.

- This may start an urge in me to maintain the number of visitors, creating pressure. Blogging is not and must never feel like a form of work to me. I stop blogging for a while whenever the latter happens.



The number of reasons don't matter. The strengths do.

I am unable to decide.

I should probably give it a few days.












Notch, the creator of Minecraft, challenges Bethesda to a duel to settle a copyright issue. The matter at hand is that he is developing a new game called "Scrolls" which Bethesda considers an infringement of their trademark of "The Elder Scrolls".

Therefore,


I challenge Bethesda to a game of Quake 3. Three of our best warriors against three of your best warriors. We select one level, your select the other, we randomize the order. 20 minute matches, highest total frag count per team across both levels wins.


If we win, you drop the lawsuit.


If you win, we will change the name of Scrolls to something you’re fine with.


LOL! On the other hand, I don't think their lawyers are going to agree to this, not if they believe a lot of money is at stake here.

I am serious, by the way.

Odd way to do it. Might generate a lot of publicity for both parties though. Maybe Bethesda will take this into consideration.











A girl got raped twice and her school forced her to apologize to her rapist. Now she's finally suing them. Yea, after the second rape. Wow.

Surprisingly, this didn't happen in the Middle East but in the US.

According to the lawsuit, school officials did not even bother to look at the girl’s file, which explains that she is “conflict adverse, behaviorally passive and ‘would forego her own needs and wishes to satisfy the request of others around so she can be accepted.’”  The school has declared that the suit is frivolous and unfounded, but it seems undeniable that the girl was raped at least once by the boy, and on school property no less.

I wonder what their side of the story is like. Was she known as a liar before?












Trolling all SNSD fans.

Tuesday 16 August 2011

Rant 832 / The Inbreeding Of Minds

A lot of people don't seem to understand why Singapore wants to buy those dinosaur fossils from the US.

They say spending the $8M for some old bones isn't practical.

Practicality is overrated.

I used to consider myself a practical person, but I'm starting to see that practicality is not exactly a useful trait, but more of a kind of blindness to the immaterial and unquantifiable benefits of things.

For example, is it practical to spend money on ice cream for your child on a regular basis?

Yet it is a good thing because of benefits that aren't truly practical. In fact, it can be more practical to just buy a board game or something that can entertain the kid longer for a lower price.

But can you imagine a childhood without ice cream?

In the developed world, of course.


It is not a waste of time and resources to make someone happy regularly using different methods, yet it is impractical and seeminly inefficient to use methods that are more expensive or time-consuming.

Oh, and that spending of time and resources only works to a certain degree that one must judge for oneself. Beyond that, it is indeed a waste.

Being practical merely means you're less able to appreciate the invisible effects of things, therefore making you focused on the quantifiable and visible ones.











I'm currently also looking for ways to set up an online store.

In addition, I'll keep an eye out for stuff I can sell when I go to China in the near future.

If this works out, life could be simpler than expected.

If not, well, it's as expected.

So far, I'm really interested in Google's online store feature together with its payment system, Google Checkout. It's the kind of interest that sets the heart pumping.

Mainly because it looks so simple. Furthermore, Google +.



I'll then be able to take advantage of what readership I have here by adding the store gadget on this very blog... Nah, better to keep personal stuff separate from money stuff.

As for fees, they merely charge US$0.30 + 2.9% per transaction. That's a pittance compared to what we're paying our buyers now, albeit without the various benefits like the branding and the salespeople.


That is going to be awesome.

If Google + doesn't fail and I find something to sell, that is.

It can't be this easy to make money online... can it?




As for China, I heard Yiwu is a good place to consider, but I don't believe the lower prices, if at all, will offset the significantly higher transport fee I will have to pay.

...


Oh wait... FUUUUUUCK!

The Google Checkout online store is only available for users in the UK and US! Dammit!

...

Maybe Shopify is still the best option. Maybe. 30 bucks a month and 2% of my transactions. Then there's the shipping, the storage and how I'm getting the goods.

I'll probably be able to handle shipping on my own, maybe via SingPost. Storage is already available in our office, and the income will need to cover my plane tickets and hotel stays in China. The hotel stays won't be expensive, probably about $100-150 per trip. My air tickets and taxes will take the bulk of the cost for that part.














Oh wait.. have I posted this before?









The Singapore Government is going to make it harder for employers to hire foreign employees.

Stupid stupid stupid.

Honestly, freedom of speech is going to destroy this country. (Or maybe we're still learning how to not abuse it.)

Idiocy breeds when the masses talk.

I just don't know why intelligence doesn't.

This will only result in short-term gains in exchange for long-term pains.

Now Singaporeans are going to think it's going to be easier for them to get jobs.

Honestly, how many Singaporeans were really retrenched to make way for foreign talents?

Nonsense.

From http://www.mom.gov.sg/statistics-publications/national-labour-market-information/statistics/Pages/unemployment.aspx

"Resident" refers to citizens and PRs.

As you can see, unemployment among Singaporeans has not risen particularly much in the recent decade. In fact it even dropped last year after the spike in 2009.

Sure you can say it's because more employed foreigners gained citizenship during that period, but seriously, do the math and see the complete absence of sense in those words. How many new citizens will need to be added to reduce the unemployment rate by 1.2%?

From http://www.mom.gov.sg/newsroom/Pages/PressReleasesDetail.aspx?listid=373




Did everyone think prices didn't drop despite the cheaper foreign employees was because the fat capitalist pigs were keeping all the profits?

If they're so smart, why can't they also see how China is jacking up the prices of almost everything in the world?

You think we'd sell our jackets at what may seem to be exorbitant prices because we want the extra $5-10 from each sale regardless of the reduced number of sales caused by the prices?

Don't be stupid. My parents didn't make the business last for over a decade by being morons.

The reason why most hire cheaper foreign workers even though their products do not get cheaper is because the reduced cost of the employees barely offsets the rising costs of the products themselves.

If you dislike working or talking to people whom you can barely understand due to their accents, what makes you think the employers like it?

For all the talk about how the PAP wants to prevent populist politics, this move sure proves that wrong.

Don't misunderstand me, I don't blame them.

I blame the spreading idiocy.

It almost feels like some kind of inbreeding of minds.

And now that employers are going to have to spend more on employees, guess what the masses are going to whine about harder.

Sunday 14 August 2011

Rant 831 / Because Sniping While Freefalling Is Standard Practice

So Facebook advertisements are age-specfic.

No wonder I don't see ads when I log on to FB.

Being a centenarian is awesome.











http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_world/view/1146785/1/.html

I like the ideas. Cutting welfare handouts and subsidized housing for the rioters should be implemented ASAP. No point in helping those who are taking the aid for granted.

Even dogs don't bite the hand that feeds them.

It's so sad. Even the well-educated and supposedly upstanding members of society were among the rioters.

More than 1,200 people were arrested during the unrest. One London looter, 24-year-old Natasha Reid, turned herself into police because she could not sleep for guilt after stealing a television, according to her defence lawyer. 
In another case, Chelsea Ives, 18, one of thousands of people enrolled as "ambassadors" to help visitors to the 2012 Olympics, was identified by her mother who saw her on television after allegedly throwing bricks at a police car. Ives denied charges of burglary and violent disorder.

Courts have sat through the night to process those accused of crimes ranging from assault to stealing a bottle of water.

Offenders include a millionaire's daughter, a charity worker and a journalism student, though most are unemployed young men.

I guess the British have been spoilt too much.

Anyway, I've never understood why it's alright to be a complete douchebag when you're young even if you become a great person when you're older.

What's the logic?

You were an ass. Period.

Youth doesn't make it alright to be stupid enough steal and hurt others. Plenty of people around the world aren't like that.












Whoa! I didn't know Facebook has all the numbers in my phone!

Shiiiiiiiiiit....

Removed it just now.

Apparently if FB has your number, it syncs with your list of Contacts and downloads all the phone numbers.

Solution:

Account, Edit Friends, Contacts.

On the right there is a link that you can use to deny their right to record all these data.



I don't care if I'm the only one who can see this list. If the list is in FB's servers, it's where it's not supposed to be.













I think I screwed up my namecards. When enlarged, the card was the right colour, but I now believe the colour of the logo darkened when shrunk to the proper size for printing.

On the positive side, it's going to be delivered way earlier than expected - by Monday - for some reason they did not explain.

Who cares?

I'm getting express service for free!

But if the colour is wrong, the cards will be used to build pyramids when I'm bored.

And I'll have to spend a lot more to get new cards.

Despite the 50% discount I'm being offered, it's still much less than the 67% discount I used initially, plus since the $25 was wasted, the total cost of the new cards, if I order them, will really cost me 50% and $25.

I'll have no choice but to treat this $25 as the price of the lesson.

Although, hopefully I won't need to.












The second layer of superglue on my earphone didn't work. The glue got stretched so thin it got torn when I touched it.

The third layer seems to be working though. Removed the second layer as much as I could but tore a bit of the hook's plastic off accidentally.

The new layer is much thicker and hence much uglier. I wanted to keep it as smooth as possible but that was proven to be impossible.

It's still stretching but after 24 hours, I'm beginning to think either enough pressure has been released or this layer is thick enough.












I never thought about it this way. I've heard that bodybuilders' bodies aren't really good for work, but I've never compared them with those guys who are actually strong.

So it's really just for looks.













WHAAAAAAT?!?

DID I JUST SEE WHAT I THINK I SAW?!?

Did he just leap out of his plane, snipe a dude from the sky beyond the range of that giant mounted gun, and somehow land right back on top of his plane's seat?






My mind just exploded from the awesomeness of this video.







He was like "I'm tired of killing enemy planes with my plane," so he leaps out with his bazooka, blasts the enemy to smithereens and conveniently lands back onto his seat.

And you thought the Terminator was cool?














Electronic tattoo that can monitor your body's status?

Sounds epic.

A team of US scientists led by John A. Rogers, the Lee J. Flory-Founder professor of engineering at the University of Illinois, has developed an “electronic tattoo” that could make a huge difference in monitoring patients’ heart and brain. The tiny electronic sensor can be attached to skin like a temporary tattoo; it can bend, stretch and wrinkle and not break, says the BBC. The skin-like circuits could replace bulky equipment like wires, cables, monitors, pads coated with sticky gel, are much more comfortable to wear and “give the wearer complete freedom of movement,” says Science Daily.

What’s more, the tiny electronic sensors can be placed on the throat and are able to recognize differences in words such as up, down, left, right, go and stop. Researchers were able to use them to control a simple computer game but someone with muscular or neurological disorders, such as ALS, could potentially wear one of them circuits and use them to interface with computers.


Does this mean I won't need to go for body checkups anymore in the future?

And people with certain conditions that require constant monitoring like hypertension or diabetes will most likely find this very... annoying. And useful, yes.

Saturday 13 August 2011

Rant 830 / The USD Is... Rising?

The new unmanned aircraft that could fly at Mach 20 lost contact with control during its last test flight.

Not that I mind. I mean, sure, it's fast, it could mean we would be able to fly to the other side of the world in mere hours, but the weaponry it could spawn makes me uneasy.

If they got into the wrong hands, anyone could fire it from some remote location in a random desert across the world, confirm the hit (maybe with GPS) and disappear before anyone could even evacuate, let alone figure out where it was from.

Moreover, he/she would also have plenty of time to clean up.












Limbo is such an emo game.













Believe it or not, the debt of the US versus its GDP isn't really that high, as I've mentioned in another rant.

In fact, if we believe in the statistics from the IMF, in 2010, the US is only ranked 11 in the world, after countries like Japan and even Singapore!


Or if you prefer to trust the CIA's data, the US is ranked 37, way below countries like China and Canada! 


And the world's average.

So it's not that bad.











The third season of Die2Nite seriously forces players to cooperate with random strangers.

No longer can eight 5-man coalition join the same town. I don't know the exact restriction nor do I care enough to sift through walls of text for it, but what I do know is that the best way for a mega-coalition (which is another way to describe eight 5-man coalitions working together) to join the same town is to have everyone join a random town at the same time.

We failed.

Over 20 of us (a lot of were unable to go online at 0010 server time and about 8 of us were Heroes who would choose the town) got split among about 5-6 towns, and in mine there were 4 of us.

Oh well.

But we're staying because it's too much work to organize another mega jump.

I have no idea what happens next. I suspect they'll organize another one once enough of us die, but we're going to lose a number of members just because mega-coalitions aren't as viable anymore. At this rate, simple coalitions may be the better idea.

Anyway anyone interested in joining a town with a mega-coalition will have better luck doing it at 0010 server time, preferably with over 100 Soul Points in order to join ranked towns where the veterans are.

As for the rest of the game, things are so much harder now.

For one, many important structures like the Factory and Search Tower now require Blueprints which can only be found by camping overnight. The highest possible chance of survival of doing so is 90%, so there is a significant risk of losing important active members early.

Another is the reduced availability of food and water. Food is harder to find while fewer units of clean water can be processed from each jerrycan of raw water. This practically changes everything in the list of priorities for each building. For example, this gives us a stronger reason to avoid building water-based defences despite the fact that defence points are now harder to obtain from defensive objects.

On the upside, the Hacksaw seems to be much easier to find now. The two towns I've been in so far got one within 48 hours. Another item that I noticed that is discovered more often from my auto-searching is the manbag. In fact I just found one on my first day in my second town.











The Jagged Alliance series is going to have a new game next year: Jagged Alliance - Back in Action.

Fortunately they are keeping it a strategy game but instead of a turn-based tactical/strategy game, it's going to be a "RTS game with turn-based elements".

My guess is that it's going to be kinda like Dragon Age: Origins and have the same feel as the VATS system in FO3 and FNV where it's all real-time but you can pause at any time to give commands.

Another difference is that from the screenshots, they don't seem to be using grids anymore.

Not that I mind all these changes.

IMO it's too easy (and probably tempting) to make a shooter game out of Jagged Alliance, so I'm glad they're staying close to the original genre.

Case in point: Front Mission Evolved.