Exploring Mac

I'm currently started to explore Mac OS. I've been impressed by the graphical parts of the operating system long time ago. I not consider myself as an apple fans, but just would like to know more about it. Everyone likes something cool and impressive, right?
It's a totally new field for me to explore and I think, it will be challenging as well. I hope I can get through it. Another reason why I'm exploring Mac OS is that, I will be having a presentation on mobile computing around mid of Oct this year. I would like to present on something related to iOS, maybe something related to apps development . So to start off, I think Mac OS is the right path to go...

I don't have Mac Book, how I gonna start to install Mac OS on my PC? Fortunately, there is a great article describing how it can be done in PC. The link to that article is http://www.sysprobs.com/install-mac-snow-leopard-1063-oracle-virtualbox-32-apple-intel-pc. Basically, by following the steps provided there, you can successfully install Mac OS on your PC (running on VirtualBox, a virtual machine). My RAM usage hitting almost the peak when I'm running the VirtualBox. Damn.... Out of resources... I'm force to repair my old PC which I left off for more than 1 year... After that, I will reinstall the VirtualBox together with Mac OS on that PC. Hope it works...

The source that I have is not the latest Mac OS Lion though, but I think it would be sufficient for me to get started. I've just finish this first step, and there are more to come. Hopefully, there will be some output by the month of Oct.

Putrajaya Hot Air Balloons Fiesta 2011

Yesterday, I went to Putrajaya Hot Air Balloons Fiesta with my colleagues. This event has been held for 3 years at the same location. For those who don't know what this event is all about, you can visit to the event's official website at http://www.myballoonfiesta.com/.

The main purpose for me to go there is to shoot photos! But, unfortunately, it was a bad weather yesterday. It rain from the morning until evening. Even though the rain stopped in between, but the sky was dark and there is no sunlight. It is a pain for photographers because without efficient light, it is hard to capture nice photos.

The only thing I'm glad of is the rain stopped at the right time. When the hot air balloons are going to be flied off, the rain stopped. My colleague and I were able to go in to the area to shoot some photos. However, that area is guarded by security and only people with DSLR is able to get in. Yes, only DSLR!!! Can it consider as a privilege to the DSLR owners? Hahaha... For those without big cam, can still capture the photos from outside that area. You can also queue up to buy ticket for a ride in the hot air balloons or even helicopter. But the queue was very long and 1 of my colleauge which went earlier, queued for half an hour and the person in charge told them the tickets are SOLD OUT!!! Anyway, those balloons that you are allow to get in are tethered and they don't fly high.

We didn't manage to shoot all the participated hot air balloons because it took quite some time to prepare for the fly. Some featuring hot air balloons like star wars and doraemon were set up late. When they finally set them out, the sky turned dark and people who without flashgun like me, can only sigh... But I'm glad that we did wait until the rain stopped to shoot some photos. 1 of my colleague gave up and went back earlier.

Ok, here's some photos from the event:

For the complete set of photos, I've uploaded them to my photo sharing site here http://myd5000photos.shutterfly.com/

文章分享 - 12 项事情让你学会不Emo-ing

在面书上看到朋友分享的。感觉很悲，但却很真实。

1、学会冷血，只对对我好的人好，对某些人，简直就是浪费感情又浪费时间。
2、学会比以前快乐，即使难过，也要微笑着，让别人看不穿你的伤心。
3、学会孤独，没有谁会把你当宝护着，要知道世界总是孤单的，地球也只有一个啊，它都寂寞那么久了，我们算什么。
4、学会坚强，其实一个人也可以活得漂亮，笑给别人看，哭给自己听就好。
5、学会忍耐，该闭嘴就闭嘴，该沉默就沉默。
6、学会珍惜，知心的朋友已经不多，如果再走，就真的只剩下自己了。
7、学会视而不见，恶心的东西选择忽视，厌恶的东西选择屏蔽，不会再有人让我不快乐。
8、学会满足，所谓知足常乐。想想小时候一颗糖果就可以开心一整天了。
9、学会独立，不能再一味的麻烦别人，自己的事自己做。
10、学会长大，不能再那么任性，那么幼稚，那么孩子气，多了会惹人厌的。
11、学会认真，认真的对人，认真的对事。
12、学会慎重，不该认识的人不要认识，不该插手的事不要插手。

Photos - FGS Dong Zen Temple - Lit Up The Lights

Last night went to FGS Dong Zen Temple (東禪寺) located at Jenjarom. It is a very famous Chinese temple and tourist spot and to me, it is like the Kek Lok Si temple at Penang.
Every time during Chinese New Year, the temple is decorated with very beautiful lights and lanterns with a theme. This year, the theme is 巧智慧心. Not surprisingly, when I went there last night, the temple was crowded with people who came to take photos and for praying as well. I took some photos too as that is my main purpose going there =]

Other photos can be viewed at my photoblog here

iPhone 4 Tips - Remove Photos Imported From PC

Last few days, I accidentally imported some unwanted photos from my dad's pc into my iPhone4. There's around 590 photos imported. The annoying thing is that those photos cannot be removed like any other photo taken using iPhone4 itself (I'm using iOS 4.2.1). However after some googling, I found a solution in a forum discussion.

Basically, what we need to do is just to re-sync our iPhone using iTune by choosing some settings as highlighted in image below:

After selecting the settings, go to File menu on the top left menu and choose "Sync ..." and that's it. The photos are being removed!

Just wonder why those photos cannot be removed the same way as the photos taken using iPhone itself. A little bit annoying and disappointed.

Photoshop Tips - Photoshop Action

Photo editing can be very time consuming especially when you have hundreds (or even thousands!) of photos that you took during gathering with friends, events or any other photo shooting functions. Sometime, I'm so lazy and kind of phobia when see the raw photos out there waiting for post editing. But recently, I found a very useful feature inside photoshop. That cool feature is called photoshop action (when you save it, it will have .atn extension to the file). This feature is really awesome!

With photoshop action, you can save up a lot of time on the post editing. It basically record down your steps / actions performed when you editing the photo. You can then save the steps to an .atn file, which you can use it to process series of photos with same effect, same tone and same feel. Besides saving the photo editing time, you can standardize the photos tone, or the theme that you want for particular event. Let's say for example, you are taking photos for wedding event, you can create an action file with memorable sepia theme (credit to the tutorial author for the memorable sepia feel). You can then apply that same action to the rest of the photos for the same event by just play back the action file you created. Simple and easy huh?

Happy photo editing!

Summary of Year 2010; Targets for upcoming year...

Year 2010 will be ended in less than 2 weeks from now. What had I done in this year? A lot...

Early this year, I'd posted an entry of my plans for this year. So now, let's review and see what have I achieved. >.<"

Work
Do I meet my own expectation that I'd set for this year? Honestly, there is not much changes or improvements that I can see for myself. In fact, no improvement in IT field is bad. It is very hard to advance to next level if we stay at current position with what we have got. But, the rapid changing of technology make it hard for the developers to learn with same pace. I've seen some of my friends quitting this field or stop to do programming. I do not know how long I can stay in this field, and how many new things / technologies I can absorb. Sometime, I was thinking of what can I do if I quit this field? Currently, I can't think what else I can do to survive besides programming, so, what I need to do is keep learning. Hope that in the coming year 2011, I will be better than this year.

Family
My sister get married this year. Being her brother, I really very happy and I always wanted her to live happily. Now, she has her husband taking care of her and protecting her. I hope good health will always be with her and all my family members, and wish that she can fast fast born a cute cute baby next year. That will be perfect! Haha...

Relationship
Too bad that I'm still single this year. Hahaha... But I think it is OK though. Recently a girl told me that girls are not hard to entertain, but they want people to care and what so called 哄 in chinese. Is it true? What if the guy who care for you is not the one you like? Will a girl still consider him? She also said that I still need to read more books if I want to win a girl's heart. I don't know what will happen next year, but sometime I also hope that there is someone that I can share everything that happens on me, and that someone, will be the one that I love, the one that I want to care for and probably will be my last one. I know that I can't always ask for more but will try to take initiative instead of do nothing and just wait for the result.

My Wish List Items
I've got what I wish for this year. My first DSLR camera and a smart phone =] This is my greatest achievement for this year? OMG! I would rather I achieve something else from my career or relationship instead of this... >.<"
Anyway, greediness is a natural behavior of human beings and it is also a motivation towards a better tomorrow. I also have something in my mind that I would like to own next year, but let's just not list it out here. Let's see how next year end XD