Dead Silence

After watching the movie, I am sure you have lots of questions. Before I go on, PLEASE DO NOT READ THIS POST if you have not watched the movie, cos the following clips will totally spoil all the endings.

Before you scream (ok, not a good idea) about the ending, do know that there is an alternative ending which show much more :



And who would have guessed, there was an alternative starting as well :



And actually, they had meant to have something more to the story, which can be seen in the deleted scenes :



It wa a pity the movie did not do so well. The atmosphere was quite well done and although the story was a bit twisty, I kinda guessed it halfway... Still, it a lot better than some of the others around this year.

Ghost Story 2

Ok, since I am really in the mood, here is another one.

Ther ewas this small road from somewhere back to Kluang. I also can't remember where the uncle came from. Anyway, it was not the big main road. After driving for hours, the uncle was really tired and thought how come Kluang so long still not reach...

Then, there was light along both side of the road. Wau, there is a Pasa Malam ahead. OR something like that. He slowed down to drive carefully in case someone was walking along the road. Usually in a event like this people do not pay much attention to car and walk wherever they want. Therefore, it was pretty dangerous if you do not slow down.

There was lots of store selling fruits, food etc... There were even store selling candles, paper money etc... then the uncle remembered it was the 7th month already. Aiya, these Pasa malam sell those stuff really old, but this one really cannot make it la... they do not even have florense lights, its those gasoline lamps. He sign and pay attention to the road again.

Then there was this 2 girls running on the road. He froze and panic. He should step on the brakes. but that didn't come into his mind. He simply did not know what to do. With his own eyes, he saw the car slam into the girls and there ... SILENT.

No bang, no sound. He quickly brake then and got down. Turn to the back of the car and see hows the girls... no girls... The road was pretty dark. There was only this big tree standing tall and strong beside the road. There wasn't even light around. Wait a minute, where is the Pasa Malam... It was not there anymore...

He walked (actually he wanted to run, but his legs were already like jelly) slowly. got on the car, and drove like mad out of there... Yes, I guess the term Run Like Hell applies here.

After some chit chat at the neighbour, he found out that the place he passed was actually a graveyard. And there were accidents back in the years where people saw the same thing as him, then slam the brakes and bang right into the big tree there. Some of the survived, but many did not. Its a unoffical high accident area (espeically this 7th month).

Ghost Story 1

Since, its 7th month, might as well share some REAL ghost story here. This is retold by a friend who happens to be a malay and does not really understand the 7th monthy culture.


It was one of the early nights last year in 2006. She was walking home and there was lots of praying along hte road. There were food and incense leave on the roadside. Well, she is pretty skeptic about this anyway. Often then not, these ends up in wild dogs or begger's mouth. Then she notice there was a kid taking those food to eat...

she may not understand the whole meaning of the 7th month, but at least she understand the food are not meant for our compsution. So, she quickly call our to the kid :

"Hai, boy boy, those food cannot eat... don't..."

Before she can finished, she stood like a stone there. Eye frozed and cold swear dropping from her forehead.

The kid is no more there....

Taking Ownership in Vista

Ever happen to find some of the files you cannot access (not because of ANSI or unicode)? That's because there are information embedded in the NTFS format. This is especially true if you copy over your files from your WinXP because the upgrade to Vista.

Sure, you can access them as Administrator mode, but you do not want to click ok several timesfor each file. Even worse, you will find that you cannot even save bookmark if you copied your favorites directory over.

Microsoft has anticipated this and has provided a tool know as takeown. To verify you have this problem, right click the file and look at security tab. You should see that there is a unknown owner who has some strange number (that was you on the other OS). Anyway, you can manually change this for EACH of the file or you can use takeown.

The format is as such :

TAKEOWN [/S system [/U username [/P [password]]]] /F filename [/A] [/R [/D prompt]]

Description:
This tool allows an administrator to recover access to a file that was denied by re-assigning file ownership.

Parameter List:
/S system Specifies the remote system to connect to.

/U [domain\]user Specifies the user context under which the command should execute.

/P [password] Specifies the password for the given user context. Prompts for input if omitted.

/F filename Specifies the filename or directory name pattern. Wildcard "*" can be used to specify the pattern. Allows sharename\filename.

/A Gives ownership to the administrators group instead of the current user.

/R Recurse: instructs tool to operate on files in specified directory and all subdirectories.

/D prompt Default answer used when the current user does not have the "list folder" permissio
on a directory. This occurs while operat recursively (/R) on sub-directories. Vali
values "Y" to take ownership or "N" to sk

/? Displays this help message.

NOTE:
1) If /A is not specified, file ownership will be given to the current logged on user.

2) Mixed patterns using "?" and "*" are not supported.

3) /D is used to suppress the confirmation prompt.

Examples:
TAKEOWN /?
TAKEOWN /F lostfile
TAKEOWN /F \\system\share\lostfile /A
TAKEOWN /F directory /R /D N
TAKEOWN /F directory /R /A
TAKEOWN /F *
TAKEOWN /F C:\Windows\System32\acme.exe
TAKEOWN /F %windir%\*.txt
TAKEOWN /S system /F MyShare\Acme*.doc
TAKEOWN /S system /U user /F MyShare\foo.dll
TAKEOWN /S system /U domain\user /P password /F share\filename
TAKEOWN /S system /U user /P password /F Doc\Report.doc /A
TAKEOWN /S system /U user /P password /F Myshare\*
TAKEOWN /S system /U user /P password /F Home\Logon /R
TAKEOWN /S system /U user /P password /F Myshare\directory /R /A

As you can see the simplist way is to run takeown /f * /r to assign all files and sub folders in this directory to you. Well, if you find errors, start your command prompt in administrator mode and access the user id in takeown.

MS Home Server Backup Server Error

One of hte backup in the night failed cos it was done over a wireless connection... And I ended up with a red icon in the morning saying there was some database inconsistency...

Here is once solution I found, and I think good to share. However, I have not sad down to fix it yet...

Sometimes the Network will go red and report critical, in the console, and the details will say,
"Backup server error"

"A possible database consistency problem has been detected in the backup database."

As others have noticed you can run a manual backup, mark it for deletion and then manually run "cleanup now" which, if successful will reset the error.

However, as some have posted, sometimes the cleanup fails, as it just sits doing nothing, and here's how to fix it if nothing else works:

(NOTE: you will lose all backups)
1) Exit then uninstall the connector sw on the client(s)
2) RDP to the desktop and run the Windows Home Server Console
3) In the computers and backups section, remove the client(s) (this will claim to delete the backups but it wont)
4) Open Windows Explorer and navigate to D:\folders\{00008086-058D-4C89-AB57-A7F909A47AB4}
5) Manually delete all files
6) Reboot WHS
7) Log back into the WHS Console and select Settings - Backups then run "Cleanup Now" (this will reset the error)
8) Navigate to \\YOURSERVER\Software\Home Server Connector Software
9) Run setup.exe to reinstall the connector software
10) From the connector console select Configure Backup for each client installed.

881 Soundtrack : One Person One Half (Nemesisv's Translation)

W. E. P. Follow Up

Rememeber I talked about this script I wanted to work on. I had finally finalized some of the concept. I had introduced a japanese female character called Miyako who will battle the Overseer in the final scene. Because I had feel the need that a female character will eventually save the day was important rather than having it in the all macho style.

Some of you may remember I go by the nickname BloodRain... It comes from a chinese phase 腥风血雨. I had always wanted to create a sword fighting scene where the blood freezes in the air like a cloud of rain or snow. I hope this will be the scene where Miyako will fight against the Overseer.

However, that leave the question whether I am goingto kill off all the 200 over people on board the plane? I guess not, I am going to kill off half of then at the start :P That to be realistic considering I wanted a massive gun fight before the plane crashes.

I have concepturied the trailer as well. I will post that later :)

881

Just caught the movie. Although I feel there is space for improvement, its still pretty good. Much better than Jack Neo's movie actually. Royston Tan, if you do not recall, was the director behind the BANNED Fifteen: The Movie, which was award winning and Singaporean never gota chance to watch. That aside, this one is very different.

Well, I am not even going to talk about the movie, just watch the trailer and catch it in your nearest cinema!

Brainless Security : Epilogue

Well, this is simple. If I am a bad guy, I just need to grab a few more item and all throw into the big bag since its already open anyway.

The packagere will then just take everything inside and repackage it into smaller bag for me. thus making them perfectly legal. I can even walk around the mall after that without any issue.

Now, tell me if thats brainless or what? I do hope nobody pulled this there. :)

Brainless Security

Major store closing down in the east. Yes, I am talking about Metro. I was there to do some last minute shopping yesterday and the experience was like, well, any other shopping trips except with hell lotsa people. But thats not hte point.

Metro has used the rubber tighten security as seen in many Malaysian shopping malls. After you purchased your item, they will tie it up with the rubber strip and then you carry the ugly looking plastic bag around like there was a head inside (due to thte shape it was forced to take).

Anyway, this Metro one was kinda stupid. First, the packager decided that size does matters. So she took the largest bag she cna find and put all my clothes in. I told her maybe its better to use 2 bags instead. And she did not agree. Watever happened to "customer is always right?"

So I took the big bag little stuff out and realized its too long and was draggging all the way around. Moreover, I can split the load between my 2 hands. But anyway, I opened the bag to count the items and verify it one more time just in case. I went back to the cashier and ask for 2 smaller bags. Guess what? I can't have it? Why? security reasons!

Oh hell to security (don't quote me on this). But I need to bring back the original bag for her to repacked as part of security. I tolh her its pointless since I had already opened the bag. She say its ok.

Now, before I go on telling why this is brainless, I would like you to guess what if I am a BAD person. How would I make use of this? And why this has totally silly.

Hint : Remember, she is goingto just take out all the things inside my big bags and split them into smaller bags.

Supreme Commander

Just completed all the 3 campaigns in Supreme Commander last night. Anyway, make sure you see thtrough the whole credits because the credits are different for each of the 3 factions and you will also get more info on "They are coming"... What are they? The Seraphim? Was this all a set-up?

Anyway, Supreme Commander does have a good reflection of our poor world today. Aeon represents the religion fanatics out there, the Cybran representing the pro-genetic side and UEF represent the all-natural side of human.

Does all these need to fight until an external threat to come in before they can united? (BTW, Supreme Commander : Forged Alliance is coming soon...). This storyline somehow is not so bad. However, it is typical. There is some good and bad people from each factions and some betrayal along the way.

The game play was pretty solid. With AA guns to counter air forces, Point guns against ground forces and missiles against sea. There is the one unit counter another rules in this game. This make you need to combine and enforce your force during engagement. There is no one super unit in this game, not even the experimental units. And again, I like this because the AI is pretty good. They know howto defend each other, assist and cover transports, help build and repair faster etc... There is very little micro management in this one. Which is good for me. :)

Anyway, althought this is 8.7 compared to Company of Heroes's 9.0, I still like this much much more.

(Almost) car-napped in Malaysia

Firstly, sorry for the long time that passed between entries. Had been busy with other things. Anyway, also a bit in and out of country for a while. I would like to relate an incident that could had turned out to be a lot worse. Again, unlike some peopel who would make up news to see front page, I don't do that BS.

I was with my cousin pumping up the petrol at a petrol station. Our parents were in the backseat. My cousin got out to talk to the petrol guy and I too got out to pass him some cash for the petrol. Then out of a sudden, a old man start walking towards the car. As both of us were on the wrong side (opposite site of the driver seat) we can only monitor him. Then he looked at the window at the backseat and suddenly ope nthe front door and jumped in. Then there were some talking in the car. I thought our parent knew this guy...

Then I open the door to the front seat and to a shock realized that nobody KNEW who this guy was. He suddenly say "sorry sorry" and got off the car. WTF??? We then saw he walk towards another car (same color, but very obviously different build) one lane away andgot in and drove off. My cousin return to his seat soon then we hear the part about what happened from our parent.

Seems like our parent got a worry he was a bad guy and may drove the car off of something and they challenge him who and what is he doing in the front seat. And both of us let our guard down and thought our parents knew this man. If this man is indeed a bad guy, something bad could had happen. OK, maybe it would be a bit hard to drive off with the refilling happening (I wonder if it would explode). But this incident is truly scarly if you put some thought into it. We should had locked the door whe nwe got out...

Anyway, just out of curiousity, we too drove on and followed that car from a while... nothing new. But I bet following him closely should give him a scare as if we would go after him or something... :)

While nothing happened here. Something could had if it was someone else. I just hope to share this story so that I can remind you to lock you car when you get off to pay the bill, top up or whatever.

CEC FDW Test

http://cec.sp.edu.sg

Yes, this must be absolutely a joke. I applied and took the test without even reading the material. Actually, I even did it one eye closed. And I got flying colors. Almost perfect score. That say so much about the value of this test. Do that make me a better employer? I dun know, I am not even the one hiring the FDW.

I, Deathbringer

I do not know what sort of chances is it, but the last few days I seems to be bringing accidents around me. Was 2 days ago, when I had no choice but to take the MRT. Guess what some accident had happened and later on I found out was a fatal MRT accident that killed a old woman in Clementi. Well, but the least I was not affected.

Then I was changing the bus to my client's place. And guess what, just at the junction, a bus bumped into another vehicle in front while crossing the junction. It was an immediate jam there. But luckily again, my bus turned out of the way and was not affected.

After the meeting, I was on my way back. And then the MRT suddenly stop while travelling at high speed, sending some of the people to the ground (flying). I was again lucky because my hand was close to a pole and I grab on it by instinct.

That was someday. I had a break yesterday at the zoo, so I do not forsee major accident there anyway. And I thought it was all over. Was it?

Today on my way to BB, guess what? Near the school, one car by the side, one upside down like scrap metal in the middle of the junction. I guess it has began again. Just what is going on?

Paloh Railway Station

This is the play where the trains brings me for the over the last 30 years. Althought the train station has changed a lot, it hasn't really changed for the better much. Its still the classic look with the classic feel. Anyway, these are 2 of hte pictures I had taken with my Canon 400D.

Buying a 70/75-300mm Lens Canon vs Tamron vs Sigma

I was shopping for a 70-300 or 75-300mm lens for my Canon EOS 400D. In the end, there was only 3 good choices :



1. Canon ORIGINAL EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6 III












http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/controller?act=ModelInfoAct&fcategoryid=150&modelid=7445



2. Sigma 70-300mm F4-5.6 APO DG MACRO



















http://www.sigmaphoto.com/lenses/lenses_all_details.asp?id=3303&navigator=3



3. Tamron AF70-300mm F/4-5.6 Di LD Macro 1:2

















http://www.tamron.com/lenses/prod/70300_di_a017.asp


At first, from the review, I neve thought of buying an original Canon because I was always thinking of the USM which cost like $2000+. Then I was introduced to the normal non-USM lens from canon which roughly is $300+-.


My research from the web has given me 2 choices, Tamron and Sigma. Tamron being $100 cheaper. Its of course rated value for money. Now, you will never believe how I choose the lens. Besides than the negative remark I saw and hear about Tamron not performing at 250mm beyond, I rely on feeling and where it was made.

Sigma - Japan. Cool.
Tamron - China. My friend in USA has warned me about China lens. OK, out of the question.
Canon - Malaysia. Err... Better than China, but its nothing compared to the Japan made ones.

In addition, the canon does not have Macro (which is good for me at this stage since I do not have a macro lens yet). So the choice was simple for me. Sigma is the winner.


I will be collecting it tomorrow. I am so sorry I still have no time to post my photos. I will up them tomorrow before I leave for another short trip to Malaysia this weekend.

Microsoft Hardware Warranty

I wonder how many people actually needed this. J once had a mouse that did not work out of the box. Sent it to the SLS shop for replacement. Took about 10 days. BUT I just realized there was a better way to RMA with Microsoft. And you will never believe this.

It was little known that Microsoft actually has a support number for hardware. Well, its the same number to activate your software actually. So I called, but only after returning the retail shop and realized that I can't return to the shop. But at least they gave me the Microsoft contact number, so I am not going to bad mouth them. :)

I called and asked about hte RMA procedure for the Microsoft Mouse. Well, here is the surprise. I need ot be in front of a computer... where I was not. Anyway, what will happen is actually they will ask you to run some checks to ensure that the software is not the fault... Things like not plugin in the USB properly, driver not installed etc... Anyway, once they confirmed its a hardware issue. They will ship you the NEW hardware via courier. Cool right? How come nobody told me about this?

Anyway, I will post the Singapore Microsoft support number here for future reference. BTW, I had tons of Microsoft keyboards and mouse. And this is the only time I had to RMA.

Microsoft Support (Singapore)
6882 8899
800 852 3543

Achieva vs Acecom

Hard disk bought in Singapore is usually covered 3-5 years by 3rd party instead of the manufacturer. I had been a customer to Acecom (http://www.acecom.com.sg/) for years. I believe I had at least exchanged 10 HDD with them (some of which not my own even...).

Now, the new HDD I bought happens to be from another company Archieva (http://www.archieva.com.sg/). Well, its just another company, maybe a bit further from my place... but thats about it. but wait, if you recalled, I had post about this place before when I was conned to collect the "Executive Desktop"...

Now, I finally had to replace one of my harddisk because it has KO. the motor stops for reasons and bad sectors growing all over. Its a 200 GB Seagate HDD. I was there early in the morning, hoping to exchange the HDD since its barely even 2 years. And according to their terms, they can replace with a different model etc... Standard stuff... Guess what?

They CANT replace it. They claim that its EOL (end of line) product. They will send it back to Seagate... Err... WTF? I should had just asked my friend to exchange it for me since he works in Seagate... Whats the point of having a 1-1 exchange warranty when down the road 2-3 years the HDD will definitely be EOL so to speak? Is this not a con job?

Let me tell you what's the difference at Acecom. A few times, they did not have the stock I needed. Guess what? They upgraded the HDD for me... From 80GB to 120GB or 160GB to 200GB. I had never got to wait. I get my replacement on the spot!

Obviously, Achieva does not provide such standard of warranty! They did not even ask me if I prefer a replacement of a different brand or build? Well, so be it. They say it may need to wait for 7 days or so... Thats mean another day lost , another trip down to collect my harddisk. Well, I feel like taking out all my HDD from achieva and ask the mto RMA on my next trip since it will take 1 week. Better RMA them in advance cos I can't get a replacement in time :P

Next time, I will insist on Acecom warranty. Achieva should really close shop I hope.

Acecom vs Archieva RMA Experience

• 
  
  Acecom sucks! Do not ever buy hardware which they support!


• 
  
  Achieva sucks! I will not buy any hardware supported by them!


• 
  
  Both of them sucks! I hate them all!


• 
  
  Both of them are good. I totally love to RMA!


• 
  
  Whatever. I do not care, both of them are ok.


• 
  
  I never RMA my stuff. I just throw them away.

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仍是深爱你 ~ 魔刀侠情主题曲

Here is my remix for you! Limited period only!

Malaysia - Truly Rape-sia

With the recently rape cases that took place in JB Malaysia, it brought my attention to some stats I read somewhere... Something like having 3 cases of rape per day... Well, it turns out I was so damn wrong... and so outdated... According to the 2006 stats, its 2435 cases which comes to about 6-7 cases per days... assuming they rape on Sat and Sun as well... Thats horrifying shocking... consider Malaysia is Islamic ruled .. OK, maybe it just backfired. Thats a possibility.



Whatever the case, let's take a look at how bad rape and other crimes are in Malaysia. I think its not hard to project this years result...

http://micpohling.wordpress.com/tag/malaysia/