Patriotic

Cross-processed

Giving VLC a new look

Quicktime on the Mac doesn't let you playback popular Internet video files such as Xvid or DivX. Although there are plug-ins available for Quicktime such as Perian to support these files, I think the best and least problematic solution is to install VLC.

Most of the time, VLC works much better than Quicktime on my iBook G4. If there was one thing I wish I could improve upon VLC is how it looks. And thanks to the information at MacThemes, I can now turn the plain VLC from this:

to this - the Black Pearl skin.
Installing the skin is easy. First, download the zipped file from MacThemes. Unzip the file and you'll see these 2 directories.

This pretty much explains everything. Now go to your Applications directory where you've installed VLC.

Then right-click on VLC and click Show Package Contents.


Then just replace the files as instructed in the zipped file.

The skin still works on the latest version 0.8.6h VLC. And if you want to revert back to the default skin, just reinstall VLC.

Guardian of the door

Lomofied RAZR

These shoes are made for walking

Lomofied 838pro.

Today

I am disgusted by how work has taken priority in our lives. Yes, I realise we work for a living, but it's becoming clearer that we are living for work. Today I am told about a question posed by an interviewer at a certain multi-national company.

She said, and I'm paraphrasing here, "Do you plan to have children? Do you realise that many people who have children do not have the commitment at work. They have longer lunch hours, go home earlier and cannot put in the time for work."

This is clearly discrimination. How can our worth be judged by how much we can sacrifice for work?

Lomo - Got the film!

Back in SP's home town, and she found some film for my LOMO LC-A. The film is pretty dated... expired in 2002. Anyways... it's still worth giving it a try.



It took me a while to load the film... I guess I'm a little rusty. Now the film is in the camera, and it's time to adjust the ISO on the LC-A. I decided to go for ISO50 to compensate for the deteriorated film. Maybe it's gotten less sensitive to light, so setting a lower ISO might help out a little.

Next... to take some lomographs.

Old friends at Telok Tempoyak

SP and I arrived early, so we went on the wooden bridge that extends way out in the sea. Both of us don't swim, and I was really nervous about walking on the bridge. It didn't help that as we went further out into the sea, the wood seemed more worn with numerous gaps where wooden boards have rotted away.




Quite possibly the last shot we took before the sea turned rougher, and the sky got darker. I thought a storm was coming, but as most things in life, what you think might happen may not happen at all.

6 years ago - Top of the world

Moments like these come rarely - when you're struck dumb by the awesomeness of life.

Trying something new

This is a poor attempt at recreating what Heather Champ has done on her site.

LOMO LC-A - Finding myself

I am a different person from who I was a few years ago. 3 years ago, to be a little more precise. Back then, I was tearing down hilly slopes on my mountain bike with nary a care in the world, and every thing around me was an exploration of my artistic eye to be captured on film.

I'm not going to talk about who I am today, but I do know that I want to recapture that zest that I've lost. And my first step is to rummage through my closet to find a long lost friend, my LOMO LC-A. This was the camera that rekindled my love for photography, and led me to buy my first digital SLR. What better way to find myself than to start from the beginning.


The LOMO LC-A is no longer made. At least not in its original form. Even so, I'm not really sure how "pure" is my LC-A. The LC-A stood for LOMO Compact - Automat, a compact, unassuming, simple automatic exposure camera from St Petersburg, Russia. It would have probably faded in history if it were not for the marketing skills of the people behind the Lomographic Society. They made the low-tech camera attractive to people who have gotten jaded by Japanese automatic cameras that produced sharp, focused, accurately exposed photographs. Retro was cool, and the LC-A with all its retro gears and capacitors became cool.

However, all good things must come to an end, and the LC-A is no longer made in Russia. Like many of today's corporations, the production of the LC-A has been moved to China and is now called the LOMO LC-A+. The "+" is added because some subtle tweaks have been added. One addition is the MX slider for multiple exposure shots. Multiple exposure is possible with the original version, but is made much easier on the LC-A+. Perhaps the most radical change is the support for lens accessories on the LC-A+ with the addition of grooves on the camera.

Now that I've dusted off my "original" LOMO LC-A, it's time for me to exercise my artistic muscle. First, I have to get some film, and that's my first obstacle. Film...

A quick trip to Tesco and I came back empty handed. Tesco used to sell store branded film, and I wanted these since they should be cheaper than the branded ones. Nope, no luck. Tesco doesn't sell film any more. A peek at the Kodak Express store, and I balked at the RM11 price tag on the Kodak Max 200 film cartridge. It seems that film prices hasn't dropped at all. I guess I should be thankful that prices haven't increased because so few people use film nowadays.

I try looking around in KL on my next visit. Maybe I'll score some cheaper priced films there.

Converse and Pallas, a tale of two shoes

The purple Chucks.

The last time I wore canvas shoes was in my primary school days. Then came Nike and Reebok with their high tech shoes fitted with pumps and air cushions, and slowly canvas shoes weren't so attractive anymore.

Fast forward some 20 years and I find myself wearing a pair of canvas shoes - the Converse Chuck Taylor All-Stars, or as fans would call them, Chucks.

I didn't specifically look for Chucks. I actually wanted a pair of Pallas shoes, that in retrospect, look very similar to Chucks.

As I'm wont to do after any purchases, I did some research online and discovered the rich history behind Chucks. It seems that many Americans grew up wearing Chucks and today, they're still attracted to them. It's probably due to nostalgia, but it could also be because Chucks have a down to earth appearance. It's simple and reminds people of simpler times. It also doesn't hurt that many famous people wear Chucks and that Chucks appear in many movies.

This led me to wonder. Why didn't the Malaysian made Pallas shoes achieve similar status in Malaysia? They look like Chucks, even down to the pattern on the soles. Most Malaysians would have probably worn them when they were young. Perhaps the only difference is that no rich and famous Malaysians wear them.

Chucks on the left, Pallas on the right.

It's quite a shame because the Pallas Jazz-Star is every bit as attractive as the Converse. It's definitely not as well made nor quite as comfortable, but at RM24, it's a good compromise.

My red Pallas Jazz-Star

Maybe it will take 100 years, as Converse celebrates its 100 year anniversary this year, before Malaysians begin to appreciate our very own, home grown, ever fashionable, ever humble pair of canvas shoe - the Pallas Jazz-Star.

I did my part. I bought a pair of Pallas Jazz-Star to complement my Chucks, and enjoy wearing them every day at work.

Wish I was back there

Putting up the tree

Getting a head start on the Christmas decorations this year. 

Putting up the Christmas tree has always been something I look forward to every year. This year however, is the first time I'm putting up the Christmas tree together with my wife. We decided to keep things simple, and I think it looks pretty good.

Now that the tree is up, what's left is to fill up the empty space under the tree!

Let it Snjor

Christmas is just around the corner, and what better way to bring some festive cheer to your desktop than having it snow!

Snjor, that's Icelandic for snow, lets you do just that. Once it's running, little white blobs will slowly, almost hynotically, fall across your desktop. You set the snow to lazily drift about on your screen or wreck havoc by bringing down a blizzard.

Leopard's Stacks - here's how to make it better

One of Leopard’s new features is Stacks. Stacks let you place any folder into the Dock and clicking on it will spring the contents of the folder in a Grid or a Fan. It’s quite visually pleasing, but it’s gotten some flack because you can’t assign an icon to a Stack. Instead, the icon would be of the latest file in the folder. And that makes it rather difficult to distinguish between different Stacks.

So... how do I tell which Stack is my Downloads folder?

Thanks to Optica Optima, my Stacks now look like this.

Visually distinct Stacks, and the translucency is very attractive.

Here's how we do it. Before we proceed, we should define the Sort behaviour of the Stacks. So right click (or command click) on the Stack, and sort by date modified.

Get the icons from this link. The page is in Japanese, but you shouldn’t have any problem finding the link to download the icons.

Choose the icon we want, and place it into the Downloads directory. In the example below I’ve renamed the icon to download_icon. Since we want the latest item to be displayed first in a Stack, we’re going to use the Unix touch command to set the modification date to somewhere in the future. So fire up Terminal, and enter the following commands.

cd Downloads

touch –mt 202001010101.01 download_icon

This will change the modified date of the download_icon to the year 2020, January 1^st, 1:01:01 am.

You can do this for other Stacks in the same manner.

I found out about this from Daring Fireball.

Update:

There's a second set of icons for Stacks. And this time, the icon's modified dates have already been set to the year 2010. So all you need to do is to sort the Stacks by modified date, and forget about the Terminal.

All the icons can be downloaded from optima-optica.

WriteRoom for distraction free writing

The month of NaNoWriMo is upon us, and budding writers around the world are prepping themselves to complete a novel within a month. The pace is fast, the enthusiasm is furious, and the writer has to be ready not to drift from the goal.

To do all that, all forms of distractions must be eliminated, and that's where WriteRoom shines. WriteRoom's tag is "Distraction free writing" and that's what you get. At first launch WriteRoom goes into fullscreen mode and all you get is a blinking green cursor and a black, empty background. No desktop, no browser, no email clients in sight. Just you and your text. It can't get any simpler than that.

WriteRoom in fullscreen mode.

WriteRoom in window mode.

There is a free version of WriteRoom and that was the version that I used all the while. I thought it served my needs - that's until I tried the shareware version. In my opinion, a great application is an application that caters to needs that I didn't even know I needed. The shareware version provides many more customisation and tweaks that really helps to improve the transition of your thoughts onto the screen.

Just take a look at the customisations you can make to WriteRoom. I really like the "typewriter scrolling" option so your focus is always on the middle of the screen while the rest of the text scrolls upwards. You could also change the text and background colours but I like the retro green text on black background theme. It brings be back to the days when I first set my eyes on my first PC.


You can also use WriteRoom from other applications. There's an "Edit in WriteRoom" which is an Input Manager plugin. I'm not sure if this still works in Leopard since I've read Leopard doesn't support Input Managers any more. But if you're on Tiger, installing this Input Manager will add an "Edit in WriteRoom" menu item into the Edit menu of other applications. So if you're blogging in Safari, you can click the "Edit in WriteRoom" menu item, the text in the current web form will be transfered into WriteRoom for "distraction free writing". And when you're done, just save and close WriteRoom and the text you edited will be copied back to Safari. Pretty neat! Since this feature is not officially supported in Leopard, I can still use the Services menu. WriteRoom lets me copy text and use the Services menu to send the text to WriteRoom for editing. And when I'm done, it's just a copy and paste action. Quick and easy.

I did notice one inconsistency. Whenever I change the font in the Preference, the existing text in the document does not reflect the new font. I had to restart WriteRoom before the new font is properly displayed. Other than that, WriteRoom works great for me.


I've written this review in hopes of getting a free WriteRoom license. Hopefully I'll get it, but even if I don't get it, I had a great time reviewing the application.

Serenity shows her spots

Installed Leopard into my 1.33 GHz iBook, Serenity. Against my better judgement I chose the Erase & Install option, and it's a lot of work getting everything back to the way I like them. 

So far no show stoppers... 

Temeraire

Temeraire, a historical fantasy set in the Napoleonic period, by Naomi Novik - my current favourite book. What is it about? Think of Lassie, toss in Russell Crowe from Master and Commander, and blend together the historical fantasy of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials, and you get a rough idea of what Temeraire is about.

Temeraire is a story of Captain William Laurence, an up and coming Naval officer engaged with a beautiful fiancee, rising up society's ranks and highly praised officer in His Majesty's Navy. And how he gave everything up to be an aviator, an outcast of society, all for the friendship of a fighting dragon he named Temeraire, after the ship HMS Temeraire.

It doesn't take long before the story of the friendship between Captain Laurence and Temeraire seized my attention. Stories of dragons and people fighting together is not new, but Naomi Novik takes this premise and puts a new spin to it. Dragons and and their captains in her novel have such a bond that either would give their life for the other. And the story is set in the Napoleonic period, although I know nothing about the war, the sense of urgency and loyalty to King and country comes clearly through the prose. The story is quite easy to follow, so don't worry too much about not knowing anything about English history.

I was also pleasantly surprised by how dragons were used in the war. I assumed the dragon would have a rider and that was that. It was typical in most of the books I've read. But in Temeraire's world, dragons were like living flying ships. There would be the captain, his first officer, handlers, and crew. The crew would do their combat maneuvers on the dragon while in flight, secured to the dragon's harness by carabiners and leather straps. Delightfully unique!

Temeraire is the first in a series of books. The US edition has a change in title, Temeraire: His Majesty's Dragon. I rather prefer the simple title of Temeraire in the UK edition. I got my UK edition from Borders for a pricey RM40, but SP found books 2 and 3 of the Temeraire series from BookXcess in Amcorp Mall for only RM20 each! And the books SP bought for me were the larger versions, so I'd expect they would cost more than RM40 in normal bookstores.

Temeraire is a fun read. Pick it up if you find it. I'm already starting on the second book - Temeraire: Throne of Jade.

And something I recently discovered. Peter Jackson has gotten the rights to the Temeraire series, so a movie may be in the works. I can't wait.

Manly men wear kilts

I was listening to Buzz Out Loud at work when I heard something that caught my attention - Utilikilt. What's that? A kilt? For geeks? A quick Google search and I found Utilikilt's website.

Give the site a visit and get a mighty dose of testosterone. I can't blame the site for pumping up the macho macho manliness of wearing the Utilikilt because lets face it, not many of us would wear a kilt in public. Especially in Malaysia. We'd probably be stopped by the police for public indecency.

Still, I am intrigued.

At the back of my mind, the Utilikilt seemed familiar and no wonder! I've seen Patrick Norton from the old TechTV Screensavers wearing such a kilt. Much digging later my suspicion was justified. Here's a picture of the Screensavers team wearing kilts, taken from Dvorak Uncensored. image taken without permission... much apologies.

Montblanc? No, Tesco!

I remember like it was yesterday. My dad brought me to our local supermarket to get my first fountain pen - a red Sheaffer. It must have cost quite a bit, but I was too young then, and today, I've no idea where's the fountain pen my dad bought for me. Too bad.

But my dad's actions so many years ago led to my fascination of fountain pens of late. After lying dormant for years, a spark of interest was struck on that fateful day in Amcorp Mall, 2 years ago. SP and I were browsing the stalls at the weekend flea market, and we were about to leave when something caught my eye. It was a tray of fountain pens, and a silver Montblanc stood out among the rest. Sure it must be a fake, but for RM10 I couldn't resist.

The Montblanc served me well these past 2 years, but I had trouble with the ink flow. It flowed too freely, forcing me to write much faster and larger than I like. But it was smooth and didn't give me any leaks.

But what's that got to do with the title?

A colleague of mine discovered that Tesco sells fountain pens, and they cost RM2.90. And each pack comes with 4 blue ink cartridges. What an amazing value! So today I rushed to Tesco and got one for myself. And I'm pretty happy with it.


The pen is made of smoked translucent plastic, with a rubber grip. I'd compare the quality of the plastic to be similar to what you'd get from a normal ballpoint pen. There's not much weight to it, but it's comfortable enough to write with.


The pack comes with 4 blue ink cartridges, but I'm thinking of swapping it with a piston filler. I think it will fit. The bundled ink is blue with a hint of purple - it's a nice "perky" blue.


The pen has an iridium tipped stainless steel nib. It's a little scratchy, but I think that will improve in time, when the ink reservoir is completely filled. Currently, the ink flow is less compared to my Montblanc, and that makes this pen suitable for my Moleskine. The ink doesn't spread onto the next page, and I can write at my own pace and write in my usual handwriting size.


Maybe fountain pens should make a comeback. Now that everyone is conscious about the environment, fountain pens make a good alternative to disposable pens. A bottle of ink should last much longer, and probably cheaper, compared to ballpoint pens.