Quetzalcoatl's Random (Incoherent) Mumblings

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

2011-12-25T20:01:00.002+07:00

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year!

To Our Most "Honored" MPs

2011-04-11T23:11:00.003+07:00

To our most "honored" MPs who:

- want to build a new "palace" while thousands of schools are literally in ruins,

- watch porn while on a parliament sitting,

- insist that "comparative studies" must be done abroad on a regular basis,

- have the nerve to say they represent the people.

Please,

Merapi - The View From Over Here Part 3

2010-11-06T12:56:00.003+07:00

Total blackout again last night. I had a lot of text messages and phone calls last night with contradicting news, but confirmation shows no signs of worsening conditions. On the contrary it seems Merapi has calmed down a bit, but news still say that the worse may have yet to come.

Being just outside the 20 km danger zone, some of my neighbours have opted to evacuate for the night for fear of expanded danger zone and lack of news (having no electricity). They have come back home again this morning, but we're all ready to evacuate if things get worse.

I've got people asking about the residents of Panti Asih, Pakem. Well, I've just got news: they're all safe. They were evacuated to a seminary just north of Yogyakarta's Ring Road (Anging Mammiri Seminary). There were 72 people. 51 of them have since been taken home by their families, which leaves 21 people still taking refuge in the seminary.

Merapi - The View From Over Here Part 2

2010-11-05T10:17:00.003+07:00

Last night we had the largest eruption so far. We had a total blackout until this morning, and it rained sand and ash. The rumbling of the mountain can be heard until dawn. Danger zone is increased to a radius of 20km. My friends who live higher up have evacuated already.

Masks are highly recommended now.

~~I had taken some pictures, but with internet connection being totally unstable and slow, I'll upload it later.~~

Update:

Pics uploaded. You can clearly see the ash buildup from Thursday night's ashfall. And this is mild compared to other places.

I went for a ride through the city at Friday afternoon (had to take my parents to the train station), and it was like driving through the desert. Ash and dust everywhere. Visibility is limited, although not too dangerous yet, and lots of vehicles look like they've just been through a cross country rally. Rain helped to settle the dust, but once it dries up, it's going to get dusty again.

Merapi - The View From Over Here

2010-11-01T10:18:00.003+07:00

I just took this picture a moment ago from my room balcony:

Here's a closer view, where you can clearly see the mountain spewing volcanic ash into the air:

While my neighbourhood is still lucky enough not to receive hazardous volumes of volcanic ash, the people in the city have not been as lucky in the past few days. Therefore I'd recommend anyone traveling to the vicinity of Yogyakarta to have a mask handy, just in case.

Mid-Brain Activation, Full Brain Deactivation

2010-09-18T15:15:00.008+07:00

Last week, a message came through my IM from my cousin. He asked a simple question, "Do you believe in this mid-brain thing?". I've read something about it, because it seems to be all the rage nowadays here in Indonesia, and I replied (always the sceptic), "No, looks completely like hokum to me." He agrees.

His question did spark an interest in me to investigate more on this matter. So I went to thelocal mid-brain activation organisation website, and read about their claims of creating little geniuses, with their proof being the ability to read blind-folded (BFR for short, and includes coloring pictures while blindfolded) and Dermo-Optical Perception (DOP). Well, coincidentally, I've done some (totally unscientific) experiments of my own a few years ago about DOP (I'll share the results later on).

In short, they claim that humans only use 3% (THREE!!!) of their brain, and activating the mid-brain will magically increase that number. See here for the source (in Indonesian language. Bad Indonesian language. Bet you expected a bunch of geniuses to be able to write well, huh?). Synopsis in English: Outrageous claim here, outrageous claim there (all claimed to be very scientific, of course). Add some misspelled names of some experts that have nothing to do with it to add credibility. Add some more outrageous claims of success all over the world (for which I haven't seen a single proof - not even one linky). Basta!

Now, of course all those claims don't mean anything without pics. You know, the interwebs demand it (Pics, or it didn't happen!), so here we have some nice pics, courtesy of Indonesia's finest forum. I wanted to take some from their own gallery, but they seem to have taken every pic out of their site. Anyway, here you go:

Blind-folded bike riding.

Coloring pictures while blind-folded

Using the computer blind-folded

Notice anything strange in the pictures above? *Wink, wink* I bet their accuracy would drop to nearly 0% if you exchange their blindfolds with opaque-painted swimming glasses. It seems all they "activate" is your child's cheating and lying skills... Wow! Teach your kids how to lie and cheat, only for $350! That's a bargain...

OK, then. Now to my experiment about DOP. Far from their claim of being able to "sense" color with their fingertips, I found out that I could "sense" light not just with my fingertips. The downside is that it must be done at night. It doesn't work in bright daylight. I could sense a small lightbulb with my skin from about 1 metre away. Or a bright LED light from about 2 metres away. No sensing of colours on a piece of paper though. How does it work? The small light bulb in my experiment emits heat and light in a focused direction. Therefore, my skin is able to feel the small heat radiated by the bulb, and the bright LED light is bright enough to penetrate my eyelids, so i see a faint light, even when I close my eyes. No fancy tricks needed, no brain activation needed (and it's certainly not DOP in the literal sense).

Regardless of what these self-proclaimed "experts" say, I use 100% of my brain (no activation needed, thank you). Just not all at the same time. That's why you won't see me reading, writing, solving a math equation, inventing the next best thing since sliced bread, playing football, and reciting Cicero's Catiline Orations all at the same time. Not that it would be a pretty sight to see anyway...

Quo usque tandem abutere, Catilina, patientia nostra? Quam diu etiam furor iste tuus nos eludet? Quem ad finem sese effrenata iactabit audacia?

How long, O Catiline, are you to abuse our patience? And for what long duration will that madness of yours mock us? To what end will you throw your unbridled audacity around you?

iPhail, Mr. Jobs?

2010-01-28T20:53:00.003+07:00

Got an e-mail from Apple this morning. The same that millions of others also get, iSuppose. Apple's launching the iPad. I've heard (or read) the rumours about it for quite some time. It was supposed to be the next best thing since bread came sliced. "This Will Be The Most Important Thing I've Ever Done." said a certain Mr. Jobs. "Our most advanced technology in a magical and revolutionary device at an unbelievable price". O, rly?

Reading up about this magical and revolutionary device that has Apple's most advanced technology (at an unbelievable price to boot!), iFound nothing magical or revolutionary about it. It's nothing more than an oversized iPod Touch. Yep. Mr. Jobs said this thing was supposed to be better than a laptop at doing several key things and better than an iPod Touch at everything. iDon't think so. Unless the key thing is weight, of course, but then it wouldn't be better than an iPod Touch (which weighs a lot less than the iPad, obviously).

I haven't had a hands-on with this thing (nor am I even interested), so I've gobbled up some points from the interwebs as to why iThink this device is an iPhail.

1. Name.
Whoever in their right mind would name a product iPad? Do they even know what people would associate it with? And the way Mr. Jobs said it's more "intimate"... So, iPad and "intimate". What's the first thing that comes to your mind? MadTV's spoof from way back in 2006 seems to have it bang on. Time to hire a new marketing team, Mr. Jobs? Maybe look for someone who actually does research before deciding on a product name?

2. No multitasking.
One question to 1 Infinite Loop: Why? iCan't work while listening to music and having IM applications running in the background? Or maybe not even be able to work effectively at all?

3. Keyboards.
'Nuff said.

4. Storage Capacity.
Wait, isn't this device supposed to be "the best way to experience the web, email, photos, and videos"? Where do I plug in my memory card from my camera? Where do I save my 8GBs a piece HD movies?

5. No Flash support.
I hate flash. But the fact is, almost every site on the interwebs uses flash. So, the best way to experience a flash ridden website is to not show it at all. Way to go, Apple! Apparently, even Mr. Jobs' keynote showed error boxes instead of flash animations when he opened up The New York Times.

6. iTunes.
How does this work? Can i sync other devices from the iPad, or is it just a giant, oversized iPod that syncs from a computer?

7. Price.
Yep, it's unbelievable, alright... In the sense that iCan get a netbook for half the price and do more with it too...

8. Etc...
Google, anyone?

All in all, it's a beautiful device. But it looks like that's all it will be. Beautiful. I'm not an Apple hater. iHave and use a MacBook Pro. Before that iUsed an Acer TravelMac. I even have Mac OS X running on my AMD desktop. But that doesn't mean iHave to be a Jobsian fanboy who buys everything that 1 Infinite Loop churns out.

The iPad is nothing more than an oversized iPod and e-Book reader to me. Nothing more, nothing less. I'm sure Jobsian fanboys will bash me and say that the App Store will add more functionality to the device, just like it has done with the iPhone and iPod Touch. Sure, but just like the iPhone, why buy a half-baked device at an "unbelievable" price and spend even more for apps that add capabilities that should have been included in the first place? iThink I'll pass, thank you.

As an end note, iThink Youtube Hitler sums up the iPad nicely... ;)

=p~

2010-01-07T18:15:00.004+07:00

Never thought I'd drool over a keyboard, but this one is f***kin' awesome! Go check it out. Too bad it's too far from affordable to me... :(

Your room is not a good workplace.

2009-05-23T16:03:00.006+07:00

Some reasons why your room isn't fit to be a good workplace (at least, not from my experience).

07:00 - Wake up, take a shower to freshen up, eat some breakfast.
08:00 - Turn on the PC, play some music.
09:00 - Start working.
12:00 - Stomach starts to rumble.
13:00 - Grab a bite, it starts to rain outside.
14:00 - Stuffed. Get back to work.
14:15 - Feel really stuffed (ate a bit too much for lunch), plus it's really raining hard outside.
14:30 - That bed starts to look more and more tempting with each passing minute...
14:45 - Zzzzzzzzzz...

I really need to move my working space out of my room...

General Election and Overall Indifference

2009-05-06T11:27:00.001+07:00

It’s been almost a month since the election for Members of Parliament, and since the results started to take shape a few weeks ago, we can clearly see what a total joke the whole political & election system in Indonesia is.

From the fiasco of the voters list to the behaviour of failed candidates, from the campaign period to Election Day, everything is one big joke. The only reason I voted was to keep those radical parties out of the parliament and government.

The list of voters published by the Election Committee left several million people stripped of their voting rights. Although I doubt that it would have severely altered the election results, it is still a problem that needs to be fixed before the presidential election. Otherwise, the Election Committee would lose all credibility they have left (which, at the moment, is already at a record low). And to show how indifferent people are about this election, even 40% of those registered as voters don’t show up to vote. Go figure…

And then we have the whole campaign period with every political party and MP candidates revealing all their programs and promises. Of course, it’s not like everyone believes what they promise anyway. But beside that point, this country’s government runs on a presidential system. The MPs have jack sh*t to do with deciding what the government programs will be. That’s up to the president and his ministers to decide. Those candidates can promise all they want, but none of them will ever be possible unless they get elected as president. Even if they do get elected president, it’s not as if they will live up to their promises anyway.

The candidates… Aaah… This is one touchy topic. Every candidate promise heaven on earth, but how true are their promises? To date we have seen failed candidates committing suicide, failed candidates going into shock and cardiac arrest, failed candidates signing up at mental facilities, and failed candidates repossessing the gifts they’ve given out during the campaign period (which ranges from computers to water pipes to mosque carpets). Not to mention candidates that have been caught red-handed being involved in theft, extortion, fraud, robbery, etc during the campaign period. Again, there is no indication whatsoever that those who DO get elected into office are any better. And those same politicians wonder why everyone is so indifferent about elections.

This country is moving closer to being a failed state with each passing day…

Once upon a time...

2009-02-20T22:33:00.004+07:00

... I had a 384kbps internet connection that didn't have an unlimited quota. Somewhere along the line, the ISP decided to upgrade the connection to 1Mbps for the same price. And it was good, except that their price for unlimited quota still sucks (about US$75/month).

Thus I went and signed up for another ISP (in addition to my existing connection), because sometimes I needed to be online for longer than 50 hours/month... Okay, that's a lie. Not sometimes, always... :) And since it was a wireless connection, I could bring and use it anywhere I want. It's also cheap (by internet rate standards here), at around $10/month ($11 if you include VAT) for unlimited usage, although the speed varies from 64-256kbps (256kbps for the first 2GB of usage). And it was good... At least for the first few months.

Then came along the need to download MySQL Server 5.1, because the old 5.0 version that I had lying around in my hard drive didn't work so well with Mac OS X 10.5.6, which comes to no surprise because it was a 10.4 binary package. Since my usage is well under 2GB, I figured I'd better use my wireless connection, rather then let it go to waste. It's cheaper anyway, and I'm not so much in a hurry to get said database server. And while I'm at it, I'd better download the 10.4 binary too, because some of the systems I work with still use 10.4.9.

WTF? It should run at 256kbps! OK, maybe the server is overloaded, let's try again after a few moments...

A few moments later...

OK, that's much better, but still, I don't have a whole week just to download a database server...

WTF? It just timed out. *Hit retry*...

Timed out again? !@#$%^ *Hit retry again*...

5892379862397 retries later...

It just seems there won't be cheap (quality) internet here in Indonesia at the moment... *Sigh*

(Disconnects wireless connection and turns to broadband cable connection)

Between Hamas and Israel.

2009-01-28T01:21:00.001+07:00

Ever wondered why it's so hard to have peace in the Middle-East? No, not just between Israel and Palestine, but in general. We have seen so much bloodshed, not just on the Israel-Palestine front (or other Israel-Arab conflicts), but also between Arabs themselves. Look at Iraq and Lebanon for recent examples.

This is just my personal observation, but it seems to come down to a few things:

1. Every warring faction in the Middle-East (not just the Arabs), view their faction as the only faction with the right to rule (and most of the time, they bring up stuff about a divine right to rule the lands they claim). All other factions beside their own are viewed as infidels and demons.

2. The Middle-Easterns have no concept of defeat. Every conflict ends in a "major victory" for everyone. Sounds too good to be true? It is. Just look at the history of conflict in the Middle-East. To mention some of the recent ones:

The Israel - Hezbollah conflict of 2006 ended in a victory for Israel, because they don't have anything to destroy anymore in Southern Lebanon. And for sure, Hezbollah also claimed major victory, they claim that despite the destruction of Southern Lebanon, it has not weakened Hezbollah (of course the destruction doesn't count).

The recent Israel - Hamas conflict also ended in a major victory for both the Israelis and Hamas. For the Israelis it's the same reason as above, for Hamas it's the same reason as above (and of course, the total and utter destruction of Gaza doesn't count).

But you don't have to take my word for it. It has been like that since the 6-day war of 1967.

In short, everything in the Middle-East easily results in religious zealotry and a "major victory" for everyone. It might be easy to claim "major victory" for all the leaders who sit safely away from all the conflict areas. More than just claiming victory and creating more conflict, they should go to the affected areas to see for themselves what their "victory" looks like up close.

My heart lies with all Israeli and Palestinian citizens alike who have been victims of all these conflicts for decades.

Can't they all just make some compromises and get along?

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-24T22:00:00.003+07:00

Merry Chrismas!
Selamat Hari Natal!
Vrolijke Kerstdagen!
Frohe Weinachten!
メリークリスマス！
Feliz Navidad!
Buon Natale!
Békés Karácsonyt!
Bonan Kristnaskon!
Joyeux Noël!
Natale Hilare!

My blog isn't worth jack...

2008-12-12T23:46:00.001+07:00

...and I don't care. I'm not in it for the money anyway. If I were, I'd put some ads here. :p

My blog is worth $0.00.
How much is your blog worth?

It is forbidden to have accidents.

2008-12-09T00:50:00.003+07:00

On a recent trip to Surabaya with my friend, we noticed two peculiar banners. One says "Anda memasuki jalur dilarang kecelakaan", and the other "Dilarang mati karena kecelakaan".

I already can hear you (who speak Indonesian) laughing.

For you who don't know Indonesian, the translations would be: "You are entering an 'accidents forbidden' zone", and "It is forbidden to die because of an accident".

And to make things worse, those are official banners put out by the police (the latter was put right outside the police guard post). Well, it gave us quite a chuckle on our 7+ hours trip.

And judging by this picture, it seems those aren't the only ones... :)

Well, lookie here...

2008-12-03T21:09:00.004+07:00

No, that's not my car.

Back home in cozy Yogyakarta.

2008-11-06T19:34:00.003+07:00

It's been a year since I last went to Jakarta, and boy, does that city remind me why I love Yogyakarta so much. It just happened that there was a meeting that I had to attend in Jakarta a few weeks ago. And because I've been to the place of meeting so many times before, I'm confident enough that I know my way around there. Riiiiiiiiight... Well, guess what? In Jakarta, you can never be sure... At least, not in my case.

So there I was, in Jakarta. Borrowed my cousin's car, got on my way at 8 o'clock, stopped by at my uncle's office, and left the office to the place of meeting (which took place at 10 o'clock) at 8:45. And surely, at 9:30 I was already near the place of meeting. Sort of... Got the right exit from the highway, turned the car around in the right direction, and remembering the road to go (after exiting the highway, turn around, go straight at the first intersection, take the turn in front of the mall, and I'm there).

And then came the first intersection where I should go straight. Only, I can't go straight. I can only go up, or left. WTF? Going up would, I presume, get me back on the highway. I don't want to do that, I'm almost there. So I turned left, and then made a U turn, and then... WTF? Where am I? OK, stay calm. I know where North is, I know where I need to go (NE), so since I can't go North, I should go East first, and then find a road that goes North. All's well, right? Riiiiight... Welcome to Jakarta. Since my best bet is to go back to the place where I started, I turned back South, and turned left at the first intersection. WTF? Taking the leftmost lane didn't get me eastwards, it got me on a flyover ramp that turns back south. @#$%^&!!!

Needless to say, I spent the next 40 minutes cruising the roads less than 3 kilometres away from my destination, without actually getting to it. I finally called my aunt who lives nearby to ask for directions.

It's good to be back in Yogyakarta, where you can't get lost (as long as you know where North is). There's no place like home...

Heisei Fuuzoku Daiginjo: Fantasia in Japanese style.

2008-10-13T20:34:00.002+07:00

Shiina Ringo - Heisei Fuuzoku Daiginjo.
A collection of animation videos for Shiina Ringo's songs. Highly recommended. This is high quality dope. :)

A few clips from the DVD:

I won't post any links to illegal stuff here, but in case anyone is interested to download it, it's available on the web. Just google for it. [Hint: Shiina Ringo - Heisei Fuzoku Daiginjo (First Press Limited Edition)].

More Power Woes.

2008-09-27T23:06:00.003+07:00

It happened again. Yesterday and today. Makes me wonder... Sigh.

Can't imagine if it happened in our neighboring country tomorrow. Then we would have the greatest tragedy in F1.

Students 'Hijack' KLM Airbus.

2008-09-08T16:04:00.003+07:00

Last night, a KLM Airbus A320-200 was 'hijacked' by students. The airplane was 'hijacked' from the miniature Schiphol in Madurodam. The students apparently broke in the night before, 'hijacked' the plane, and landed it in the Q-Music radio station studio in Hilversum. Somehow, they also succeeded in 'destroying' the plane to some degree during landing (the wings were taken off, the rudder was broken, etc.).

Needless to say, a lot of people were upset about this stunt. Personally, I was surprised at those students. They brought the 'hijacked' plane to the studio, talked on the radio about how they did the stunt, and were proud of it. WTF? Proud of stealing something? Are they on pot or crack or something? What's even more surprising is that the Madurodam Security didn't knew anything was wrong until the radio station confirmed the 'hijack' to Madurodam.

You can read the original news (in Dutch) here and here.

This is sick...

2008-08-27T20:52:00.005+07:00

While usually I find the pictures at the English Fail Blog rather amusing (and some even hilarious), this one is just sick. Apparently some sick f*** decides to write a children's book where daddys (sic) marry their little girls and have babies with them. That alone deserves an epic "WTF"? The writer and whoever agrees with him (I think it's highly unprobable the writer is a she) should be shot on sight and the books incinerated.

It's all about attitude.

2008-08-26T21:50:00.006+07:00

Last week I saw a matchmaking show on TV. Mind you, it's not that I enjoy watching such shows. I usually abhor reality shows (so much for their "reality"), but this time, one of the guys really got me stunned (and please, don't jump into conclusions yet; I'm perfectly normal).

In the show, the guys and girls get matched in any combination possible and they have to push a button if they want to choose the guy/girl. With only 2 girls left (he apparently wasn't chosen by the other girls), he begins to look desperate. When he got rejected (again), the girl was asked why she didn't push the button. She said, "Who would want to go out with such a selfish and self-centered guy?" And then he made a comment that really made me think "What the *beeep*?". His particular comment (to the girl) was, "You're gonna regret not choosing me. I'm the perfect guy. You won't find another guy like me." Well, needless to say, I do agree with his last sentence. You're not likely to find another guy like that... Thank goodness...

When finally he got rejected by the last girl (which at this point comes to no surprise to me), he made another comment that once again stunned me (and even more so), "Why didn't any of them choose me? What am I lacking? I'm handsome, tall, perfect... I just don't understand what's wrong with these girls." Get a grip, dude. It's all about attitude. I thought the other girl was clear enough with the "selfish" and "self-centered". And he wonders why he can't score... Apparently, this guy needs "dense" and "emotional control difficulty" added to those traits.

OK, enough bashing. My principle about bashing is if you can bash other people about something, make sure you don't do the same thing. So what about me? Well, I certainly won't EVER say I'm a perfect guy. Sometimes my ego comes in and I can look like being selfish and self-centered myself, but most of the time, I try my hardest to be considerate and think about others. It doesn't always come out the way I imagined, but at least I don't try to put myself as the centre of the universe. About being dense, I'd leave it to others to decide, because if I'm dense, I probably wouldn't notice it anyway. As for emotional control, I've learned over the years that letting your emotions go unchecked will cause more harm than good, and I can say that I've learned to suppress my emotions when needed. Not to the point of suppression like the Vulcans, but adequate (I think)...

Q is good for you.

2008-08-10T20:50:00.001+07:00

Well, at least, it's good for me, as you might have guessed from my first post. :)
Quis, quid, ubi, quibus auxiliis, cur, quomodo, quando?
Answer: Q-music.nl, radio station, Hilversum (NL), it's good for you ;), it beats the boredom for me (OK, I admit, I'm "contaminated". I don't like the hits they play on the radio here - all local, Indonesian. Rarely do they play non-local tunes, and the programmes aren't top notch either.), tune your player to icyx://live1.prostream.nl:8000/qmusic.aac or icyx://live2.prostream.nl:8000/qmusic.aac, whenever you want ('cause it's 24/7).

And if top hits aren't your thing, try RiseFM or Smoothjazz.com, two more of my favorite stations. RiseFM plays Dance 24/7, almost 100% Italo Dance, and Smoothjazz.com is... well, the name says it all, I guess...

Enjoy!

Bored sick.

2008-08-05T09:59:00.002+07:00

It's Saturday, you're bored sick at home, no good places to hang out in your town. What would you do? I called a friend of mine who happens to be also bored to death at home with another friend. And then? The three of us went out all the way to Kaliurang (about 20km from my place) and back just to get a cup of warm drink. That must be the farthest place I've went just to get a drink. I must be out of my mind...

Back to everyday life routine.

2008-08-01T20:56:00.003+07:00

Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art... It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival.
-C. S. Lewis

After being busy with students from Leeuwarden, Holland for a month, it's finally over yesterday, and I have to get back to the ordinary everyday life routine. In the last month, I've become accustomed to going out with quite a large group (23 of them, and around 8 of us) almost every single day, so I really start to feel bored being home...

And like C. S. Lewis said, although friendship has no survival value, it is one of the things that gives value to survival, so once again I'd like to say a big thank you to everyone (in no particular order: Aida, Sheilah, Ninah, Caroline, Piet, Maaike, Ineke, Orne, Sandra, Frank, Beeuwkje, Sanne, Richard, Liese, Anita, Monica, Joan, Mirna, Renske, Hennie, Robin, Daphne, and Jetty) for all the friendship and the experience. We had a good time that won't be forgotten so easily, and I also had a good chance to practice my (rusty) Dutch again. For the ones that go back, have a nice trip back; for the ones going on vacation, have a nice vacation! I sincerely hope we can meet again some day. In the meantime, we will surely miss you. Well, at least, I surely will... :)

More Mac Intro Movies...

2008-07-21T20:18:00.002+07:00

Just found more Mac intro movies.

Music featured:
10.0 to 10.2 (Cheetah, Puma, Jaguar): Kruder & Dorfmeister - Sofa Rockets
10.3 (Panther): Röyksopp - Eple
10.4 (Tiger): Weevil - Bytecry
10.5 (Leopard): Honeycut - Exodus Honey

Looks like Apple has an ear for electronic music.
Couldn't find (legal) download links to the songs from 10.0 to 10.4, so just remember that Google is your best friend...

Leopard's Intro Theme, Exodus Honey

2008-07-19T11:02:00.006+07:00

After you install Leopard, the first thing you will see is its opening movie. I found the opening theme catchy enough, and with a little Googling, I found the full track. It was from a song titled "Exodus Honey" by Honeycut, a small band from San Fransisco's Bay Area. If you're a fan of electronic music, just like I am, you may be delighted to know that it's available for download.

And don't worry about illegal mp3 downloads. Although at the iTunes Store and Amazon.com it's priced at $0.99, it's totally legal and free to download here.

Aaah, nothing beats quality music, especially when it's free... :)

One more thing, the original intro movie and sound is located in /System/Library/CoreServices/Setup Assistant.app/Contents/Resources/TransitionSection.bundle/Contents/Resources/ on your Mac (Tiger and Leopard), named intro.mov and intro-sound.mp3.

Motorola E6 Flash

2008-07-14T22:52:00.004+07:00

Unlike my first Motorola phone, which I have already flashed 5 times within the first week of ownership, I went easier with my current phone. But after more than a half year, I just couldn't resist the temptation. So, last week I finally flashed my Motorola ROKR E6 for the first time, and upgraded the firmware to a newer version. And I don't have any regrets, because the phone became more responsive, faster, and sounds better, too.

I guess that the main reason why it took me so long to finally flash it is Motorola's EZX. As you might already know, it is Motorola's version of Linux for their mobile phones. The first thing I did after getting the phone was get a console app for it, and of course, you could already do a lot of modifications and customising with the console app, without the need to upgrade to another firmware. So, I guess I was content with meddling with the phone's settings through the console for a half year.

I don't think that's something you can get with any Symbian phone, so a big thank you to Motorola for bringing Linux to the world of mobile phones...

Now, if Motorola would somehow release their SDK to the masses, that would just be... superb...

Grooooowwwl... GMA900 and Leopard

2008-07-07T19:29:00.004+07:00

Far and wide I have searched in vain for intel GMA900 drivers for Leopard. Until last week, when I found a thread on InsanelyMac, where user Andy4Life found a simple but effective way to enable support for GMA900 on Leopard.

I finally got Leopard up and running with full hardware acceleration on my trusty old Acer TravelMac 2423NWXMi. A few months ago, when I first installed Leopard, I was appaled by the lack of support for the GMA900, which means that I can't run applications that require Core Image and Quartz Extreme (that's like 50% of apps on the Mac), thus rendering it almost totally useless. Since I'm already limited by the CPU only doing SSE2, while SSE3 emulation isn't 100% perfect, having more apps rendered useless is a big no-no. That's why I've reverted to the old, trusted, aging Tiger, where I was only limited by the lack of SSE3.

Well, back to the topic. Andy's fix was to edit your drivers to include intel's GMA900 Vendor and Device ID (which is 8086-2592 in my case).

To make things short, you just have to open /System/Library/Extensions/AppleIntelGMA950.kext/Contents/MacOS/AppleIntelGMA950 file with your favorite HEX Editor application, and replace all occurences of "86 80 A2 27" with "86 80 92 25". Once you've done that, delete the /System/Library/Extensions.mkext file, and restart. Done!

One thing to note is that there are some artifacts, but they are minor, and I can live with that.

Almost forgot to mention. If editing the AppleIntelGMA950.kext file wasn't enough, try replacing AppleIntelIntegratedFramebuffer.kext with the one attached it the forum thread mentioned above.

Wiki-what?

2008-06-30T23:20:00.005+07:00

Bored of Wikipedia? Looking for a different breed of ~~encylocentipedia~~ encyclopaedia? Then visit Encylopedia Dramatica, an encylopaedia with a twist.
Be warned, though: there are some mature content. So if you're easily offended, please, forget about it and steer away from this page. Or maybe a few quotes would help:

This article is crap. You can help by completely re-writing it.

This article is a crappy stub. You can help by completely re-writing it. Be sure to make it longer, girthier, and more pleasurable.

WTF?

Somebody call the Waaaambulance!11!
This is a blatant attack article about a person nobody cares about. It was most likely written by a butthurt emo with a personal vendetta against the subject.
You can help by proving me wrong.

PLZ ****ING KILL THIS ARTICLE. If you think this is worth keeping,
spam the goddamn talk page.

How much more twisted can you get?

Grampa Aragones is yay!

2008-06-30T23:18:00.000+07:00

Last night's final match of the 2008 UEFA Euro Championship was great! Congrats to Spain for their victory after a long 44 years of waiting. And good luck to grampa Aragones who will be coaching Fenerbahce.

What the beep is that?

2008-06-29T23:36:00.009+07:00

Ever wondered how people who don't pass their English tests do at work?

After my sister found the infamous Valentina Hasan and her hit single, "Ken Lee", a friend of mine showed me this page, where you can see masterpieces of English failures in full glory.

So, if you're easily annoyed and at the same time amused by bad English (as in "they don't speak english", not the band, which I actually like), then by all means, please take a look.

And please, if you can't use English properly, then don't (unless you live in an English-speaking country, of course), and save yourself from embarrasment by means of worldwide humiliation. Yes, that includes you kids, who try to act cool with your bad@** english.

This can't be healthy...

2008-06-28T17:39:00.002+07:00

The European Championship of 2008 really messed up with my sleeping hours...
While I usually sleep around 1 or 2 a.m. to around 8 a.m., my sleeping hours for these 2 weeks have shifted to around 6 or 7 a.m. to 12 p.m., just to be able to watch all the matches. This can't be healthy...

Fortunately, it's only until the 30th, and hopefully, I can get my sleeping hours back to the right time again.

OK, that was horrible.

2008-06-22T15:37:00.004+07:00

I don't know what happened last night, but it seems that the team that was so brilliant during the qualifications is just gone. They played horribly during last night's match against Russia.
Well, what's done is done, so congrats to Mr. Guus Hiddink. His team was excellent last night. As for Mr. van Basten, I hope you have more luck in your new career training Ajax Amsterdam. I'd love to see Ajax take some titles again after so long.
And last, but certainly not least, I'd like to offer my condolences to Mr. Khalid Boulahrouz for the loss of his daughter.
(In case you didn't know yet, that's why the team wore a black band around their arm during last night's match).

Violent society.

2008-06-21T19:16:00.005+07:00

If God listened to the prayers of men, all men would quickly have perished: for they are forever praying for evil against one another.
-Epicurus

It seems that despite all the technological advancements, society hasn't evolved even a little bit. We are still as savage and barbaric as society was in the dark ages. When will we learn from the past, and learn that violence is an endless loop, unless one is willing to stop the circle.

Caller: I want to talk about spanking.
Lazlow: Oh, God, not another one...
Caller: I think spanking kids is the only way to teach them right from wrong.
Lazlow: So, you think that teaching kids at an early age that violence is the solution to problems will make them valuable members of the society?
Caller: Exactly!
-Lazlow Jones and unknown caller in Chatterbox, one of GTA3's radio stations.

Use your head.

2008-06-18T19:17:00.004+07:00

Just something I found. Click on the image to enlarge.

My Dutch is dwindling to the Nether(land)s...

2008-06-16T20:54:00.003+07:00

Lately, I've found it increasingly difficult to write in Dutch. How come? Dutch has been my second language for more than 10 years. But it seems that in the 15 years since I left the Netherlands, English has slowly but surely replaced Dutch as my second language. Don't get me wrong, I can still read Dutch without any difficulty. It's just the writing that's been hard. It seems to take an eternity to find the right word or term when I'm writing in Dutch.

Ik denk dat ik opnieuw Nederlands moet leren...

Absolutely brilliant!

2008-06-14T17:19:00.002+07:00

Hats off for Mr. Marco van Basten. It seems that he kept his word from back in 2002, when he started training the Dutch national team. At the time he claimed that we would see the results of his training in 4 years time. For you who have seen the first 2 matches of the Dutch, you would have seen how brilliant their game was. They played absolutely impressive (if not outstanding) against the two finalist of the 2006 World Cup, and netted a win of 3-0 and 4-1 against Italy and France respectively. It looks like they are on a whole different level. If they can keep this up, we could expect to see the Dutch winning this year's UEFA Euro Championship.

Once again, it's absolutely brilliant!

OMG, I can't stop laughing...

2008-06-09T21:46:00.000+07:00

OMG, I can't stop laughing...

For you, english speaking folks:
Sorry, but you're out of luck, since that site is only available in Indonesian.

A little test of (in)sanity.

2008-06-08T12:58:00.001+07:00

Yesterday I stumbled upon a page called elgooG, and I thought, what good would such a website be for. For what (in)sane purpose would one create such a website? After thinking it over for some time, it seems that apparently, it could be useful in some cases. Some probable uses for it includes (but is not limited to):

1. to see how much of a nerd/geek you really are.
2. to be used by conspiracy theorists to find secret messages and codes hidden throughout the internet.
3. to help you on that secret language you've been working on with your friends.
4. to circumvent government-controlled internet filters.
5. to get past your college's/office's internet filter.
6. to help kids fool the internet filter that their parents put up.
7. to drive you insane.

Moral of the story? To all parents, administrators, and governments, I hope your lists of keywords to be filtered are spelled both ways.

BTW, the site should have come with some kind of warning:
".ytinasni ot dael nac etis siht fo esu evisnetxE :gninraW"

Online community for any (civilised) discussion.

2008-06-07T23:34:00.000+07:00

A few months ago, I came across this particular forum. I don't remember how I got 'lost' there. To say the least, it turned out that getting 'lost' there wasn't something that I came to regret. Unlike other fora on the net, which centers on a particular topic, this one is sooooo much different. It allows any member to talk about any topic. To make things less confusing, they developed the ingenious concept of interests. Upon registering, you get to choose some topics that might interest you. At your home screen, discussions that fall in the category of your interests are shown, either by date, or by the discussion ratings (yep, you get to rate the discussions).

Of course, as in other fora, there are the occasional trolls and flamers, but apparently there are less of them here then in other fora. Maybe it's because the system allows you to rate not just the discussion, but every individual post. Thus, senseless discussions from trolls and flamers can be kept in the darkest corners of ~~hell~~ the forum, if enough people rate the discussion negatively.

You can sign up here.

Oh, almost forgot to mention, one added bonus is that besides being able to have a good (civilised) discussion online, you get paid for it too. No, it doesn't get you $100s a month, but that's not what we are looking for, here. Riiiiight? :D

What Colour Are You?

2008-06-06T22:55:00.000+07:00

White
You value law, order, community and light. You love to protect the social order and the rule of law. At your best, you are just and protective. At your worst, you are authoritarian and dogmatic. Your symbol is a sunburst. Your enemies are black and red.

http://www.wizards.com/magic/playmagic/whatcolorareyou.asp

Musical Voltage

2008-06-05T18:01:00.000+07:00

Just found some fun stuff while reading some info about Tesla Coils. Who knew that Tesla Coils could be used as musical instruments... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1O2jcfOylU

Cheers.

Can I sue the state for this?

2008-06-05T16:19:00.001+07:00

OK, this has officially gone too far. It seems that once in a few days (like once in every 2 or 3 days), the state-run electricity company decides that my neighbours and I don't need electricity for the remainder of the day. What the *beeeep*??? I work as a freelance programmer, and how the *beep* am I going to get my PC up and running without electricity??? It gets even worse considering the current attitude of customer service in Indonesia (that's where I live, folks...) of "You don't like it, you can kiss my *beeep*". Or in more polite language, "If you are not satisfied with our services, you are welcome to stop your subscription any time".

Again, what the *beeeep*??? In a country where electricity distribution in monopolised by the state-run electricity company, from which other obscure source can I get electricity? Go figure...

Of course, I could learn to build a Tesla Coil to distribute power wirelessly (even if only at small distances), but with the current state of technology that depends mainly on electromagnetic waves, a device which emits electromagnetic radiation like the Tesla Coil would be disastrous for at least any PC and cellphone in the vicinity (with the worst case scenario, the malfunction of any electrical device with ICs inside them).

Then again, how am I supposed to finish my work without a reliable source of electricity? Can I sue the state for this? If not for the unreliability, then at least for the loss of productivity?

Finally, a Blog...

2008-06-05T14:32:00.000+07:00

So, after contemplating for some time whether I'd want to create my own blog, I've come to the conclusion that it might be fun to do so. Thus, the journey begins. I've been searching far and wide for a place to put my blog in, but couldn't find a nice place to settle.

First journey was looking for nice hosts. Setting up my own host would be out of the question, so I searched for good blog providers, and came across some page called wordpress. Since some of my friends have already settled there, I thought it would be nice to do the same. After some registration procedures, I found that to date, I haven't recieved their confirmation e-mail in my inbox (which is conveniently hosted at Gmail), although it was stated that it would be delivered at most 30 minutes after registering. So, the journey continues, and I found this page. Registration was simple, and I could create my blog within minutes after registering (or so they claim).

Fine then, on to the second journey of finding a name. I have always liked the letter Q. Don't know why. Maybe it's because it's the rarest letter that you can find in a name (the only modern name with the letter Q is, according to my very limited knowledge, Quentin and its derivatives). Since as child I've always been fascinated by archaeology (and space travel, but that's another story), I decided to get a nickname from the forgotten realms of history that started with a Q. I came up with Quetzalcoatl, the feathered serpent from the Aztec Pantheon, during my college days. Apparently, I wasn't the only one who had a fascination for Quetzalcoatl, as I found out that it was already used in most fora, webmails, and instant messaging apps (although it seems that http://quetzalcoatl.wordpress.com/ and http://quetzalcoatl.blogspot.com/ haven't been active since 2001. Can I use it instead? Pleeease?). OK, maybe just Q would do, although it was already used by Mr. Bond's gadgetman. Guess what? Wrong choice, because it seems that many people are also fascinated by Mr. Bond's gadgetman. No Q's available...

What to do, what to do... Then I came to the ingenious idea of using my Student ID Number after the nickname. That ought to do it, I thought. And surely, there was no one in the entire world who had used the name Quetzalcoatl2435.

Hence, welcome to Quetzalcoatl's Random (and sometimes incoherent) mumblings. Enjoy your stay.