Devoid of Anything Useful

Sorry for a lack of updates, but I see social networking and microblogging has largely eradicated the need to use a blog to tell others what you are doing.

Also, Robocup has been keeping my ass up all the time.

But it's coming tomorrow! The OS that will mark my first anniversary of Ubuntu usage. And somehow I feel like doing what most otaku do with their waifu, and eat cake in front of my laptop, with a pic of either Tux or the Ubuntu logo.

DoAU (not referring to the posts I made on s--n--s) is slightly under one month over one year old. Quite a mouthful there, but goes to show that I forgot I set this up during one fine NJRC training session. Or I couldn't be bothered enough.

This also means I have been crapping for almost that long.

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Feeds have already been expo-imported into Google Reader.

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On a side note, I've just realised that only this year I've needed to interact with 3d. Through DS somemore. FML?

22/09/2009AD (Tue) - 27/09/2009AD (Sun) :
- Preparation of feeds to import into Google Reader
- Finish writing script to autocheck Gmail, Twitter and FB (optional)
- Organize reading materials currently in school and at home

28/09/2009 (Mon) - 04/10/2009AD (Sun) :
- Mugging commences
- Stop reading feeds, except perhaps XKCD and Gawker Priority
- Update self on FB/Twitter/Gmail 4 times a day (0630/0900h, 1400h, 1700/1900h, 2100h), max 30min per session

05/10/2009 (Mon) - 09/10/2009 (Fri) :
- Update self on FB/Twitter/Gmail once a day (2100h), sleep by 2200h

Mon - EL1, IHE (GEOG)
Tue - CL1
Wed - CHEM + H
Thu - IHC
Fri - PHYS + H

10/10/2009AD (Sat) - 11/10/2009AD (Sun) :
- Relax a little
- Mug a little
- Sleep a lot

12/10/2009AD (Mon) - 14/10/2009AD (Wed) :
- Update self on FB/Twitter/Gmail once a day (2100h), sleep by 2200h

Mon - EL2
Tue - MATH + H
Wed - CL2


15/10/2009AD (Thu)
- (If I'm up to it) Go take Bio paper
- Celebrate with the rest of non-bio people
- Spam feeds
- Resume normal operation

16/10/2009AD (Fri)
- Celebrate with the rest

It appears that NJRC has sapped my life. HP, Mana, WIS, CON, STR, INT, DEX and CHR all went down by loads.

And apparently Robocup preparation is next. FLL looks fun this year, and most likely I will just be coming up with ideas while the others slog it out.

And that marked the end of my 3 empty years in NJRC (secondary school div).

In the midst of it all, a direction marker was lost, bearings could not be found.

And Chromium received updates. Could have been anytime between this and my previous update, so forgive the lagginess. Anyway, it doesn't seem like many are doing this.

Now there is no need to have the "--enable-extensions" flag, but the "--enable-plugins" one is still necessary.

This doesn't work, but it appeared.


This looks much nicer


So does this.


By the way, good luck to those going to BSC in either Oct or Dec, I could give tips. And in return help me get some magazines from the roadside stall kthx?

This is a problem I had yet to address, but I've been driven up the wall after so long.

Please remove useless query strings from URLs you share.

A very good example is this:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWKfYa3oBSU&feature=player_embedded

Its only purpose was to tell Youtube that you reached the page from an embed player, and not others potentially following your link.

If you still do not know what I am talking about, here are a few more examples.

- http://science.slashdot.org/story/09/09/04/229204/-Code-Breaking-Quantum-Algorithm-On-a-Silicon-Chip?from=rss

- http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/09/steel_velcro.html?CMP=OTC-0D6B48984890

- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egUDYu_qmL0&feature=related

They serve no purpose for others, increase their length, decrease their readability, add another entry to URL-shortening and Online bookmarking services, and screw up what the website put them there in the first place for.

Of course, please use your own brain and test those query strings to see if they are useless. If they are required to show the particular page you are linking (eg. ?page=2 ) then obviously leave them there.

Another thing is that occasionally, there are also cases when a page can be linked by ID alone. Examples include:

- http://gizmodo.com/5353104/steel-velcro-made-by-germans-supports-35-tons-heat-at-up-to-800-degrees-celcius

- http://lifehacker.com/5352974/this-weeks-most-popular-posts

They can be removed very safely, and the only reason you would ever want to leave them there is to let people know where it leads to. Which is quite pointless since they are usually truncated anyway.

So, make the tubes a better place to be in.

EDIT: Apparently, someone else had written a similar post before me.
http://engtech.wordpress.com/2007/02/28/how-to-save-urls/
Go read that too.

:D

1) Should have wrapped big lighter in ziploc instead of newspaper
- Rain made newspaper wet and cake up everywhere

2) Should have checked neck-pillow before departure
- Neck-pillow was leaking

3) Should have gotten better sleeping bag
- Green one was too heavy + big for current state of technology.

4) Should have brought salt
- Leeches were fun to melt with salt.

5) Should have landed hard on knees less
- Knees very pain now

6) Items brought were adequate
- Clothing was almost just the right amount
- Toiletries were ok

7) Should have taken more pictures
- Walk slightly slower next time.

8) Lightsticks were good
- No need for torches

And so, I climbed a mountain.

Stuff happened in both the cyber- and meat-spheres while I was away. I was half expecting something like Rick Astley dead (touch wood) but luckily it did not happen.

And to those routed here by that short mention: Hi, welcome, nothing much here I would expect you to really like, but if you do just keep quiet. If namedropping is the path to more traffic I would rather not take it, thanks. Not that it is a bad thing but I don't really like taking advantage of it or anything. Anyway I'm the supposed noob I was made out to be.

By the way, thanks Edward for doing a little bit of PR while I was away. I didn't ask for it but I appreciate it.

And I see I've lost touch with a few things, as feeds take over (And I'm not just talking about the 5 days of flooded feeds). Nevermind, I have come to terms with a few things and hopefully I can have a life again.

Longer post later (I hope) about the climb.

And since I'm so messed up anyway, Chromium updates:
That language dialog is finally there.


More SSL options already there.


I have also just realized that it is another 2 more months to Ubuntu 9.10, Karmic Koala. I'm looking forward to it, especially since it is a chance to clean my system of residual config.

It is definitely not a monetary issue here. In fact, I would get either 5 or 10 of those sets just to spite if I were that determined and well off enough. And I actually already have a set from the 90th Anniversary Gala Dinner.

But the point is, even if I were well off enough to buy those sets to spite, I shouldn't. The very fact that I am not doing charity when I am giving to charity is the reason I shouldn't give. When one gives, one must actually want to give, and not expect anything in return. It should also not be like feeding dogs. A rich man could donate a small portion of his fortune away, but if his mindset was that he is feeding dogs, then what good could come out of it?

It was like the times when NKF was doing their shows and giving out lucky draws for people who call in. It is just not right. And just as much not right as forced charity.

But someone thinks otherwise. And I'm not talking about the first one involved.

When you filter out useless info, generally you look for words you do not want. This is easy, but sometimes we miss out on things we actually want. And these could actually be important. But it is relatively easy to do.

However, if we try to collect only the things we are interested in, the quality of content would be generally improved, and true negatives would be reduced. The difficulty is with generating the list of "interesting" keywords.

One big problem I have been facing is the lack of a good filtering method. For example, If I am not interested in stuff about the Palm Pre, I should do the clever thing and block it in the Y!Pipes already. However, it could be involved in a parody of something else that I am interested in, or just simply related to some other field I am interested in, I would not receive that info.

So now, how to generate that list of keywords that I actually want, without sitting down and writing down every single thing? I can think of something related to Bayesian theory, like I choose stuff I'm interested in and it starts to learn, but I have no idea how at the current moment.

Or I can stick with status quo and spend 15 minutes per 45 minutes weeding out the not so interesting stuff from feeds. Not very fun.

Heh, finally decided to update

I'm going to Tahan camp from 22/8 - 27/8, so I have to find some way for me to grab the full feeds while away. Google Reader should work since it is perma online, so I shall do some stuffs to it.

Heh, got up Bukit Timah Hill for the first time, a puny 163m compared to XiangShan's 588. But it was different cuz this was less windy and more humid.

I took this a while ago, when I just wanted to check my Y!Mail for a while. Failsome


Because chromium crashes and Firefox hogs memory, I decided to use wget to download large files. I just needed to get the direct link by waiting a while.


Chromium stuffs:

I got this a while ago, when some random flash crashed


Heh, this appears but i dunno how well it works