I'm in the news

I went to Applecross Primary School last week to do a presentation for the Computer science school. And the Melville Times had a photographer over and picked up the news.

Busy weekends

I've been really busy for the past week or so and will continue to be very busy for the next couple of weeks or so.

Last weekends was pretty full. I went to a comedy night sponsored by my housemate's Deloite social club. It's the Big Hooha at Brisbane Hotel on Saturday night. That was the first time I've been to a live comedy. I have to say that they are very fast, creative and well-expressed.

There are 6 guys and 2 gals in the team - one is sort of the MC, two teams each has 2 guys 1 gal and one guy is at the back with a keyboard and music effect.
It was really funny! They can express whatever with no or very little props and the audience can still make out what they are trying to play as. And many little games they played on stage are ad hoc, getting a word from the audience and come out with stuffs within seconds. Pretty amazing talent. So I really enjoyed it. :D


Then Sunday was the UWA EXPO. I was helping up at CS school with photographing and at the vision lab. Here are the photos of UWA EXPO @ CSSE, also featured on the The Wonderful World of Computer Science page. I managed to sneak in to one of the photo I took. Hehehe!

photos of UWA EXPO @ CSSE.

Then after I finished my duty at uni, I rushed off with friends to the AMWA Malaysian community food fair for Charity. Here's some photos featured on AMWA website.

AMWA Community Food Fair for Charity.

Demolition of school

You may have listened to this hilarious Irish kid Becky's proposal to knock her school down. If you haven't, here it is:
Demolition Becky

At UWA, we have some real demolition going on at the old Chemistry building enar the guild. I only managed to took some shots before it's all cleaned up. I didn't have my camera with me when it was actually being knocked down bits by bits.

Digital beautification

If you like the look of Charlize Theron in real life than in the film Monster, here's your digital savior:

Digital Face Beautification
Or do they really mean beatification as the page title reads??

Beware of those photos you see on dating websites! Haha!

Apple OS X Leopard, amazingly Cool!

I just watched the opening keynote speech of Apple CEO Steve job's at WWDC 2006. The preview into their new OS X Leopard is really blowing me away! Now that you can run MS Windows under apple machine when you really need it, there is less resistance to switch over to Mac with such a great user experience.

Watch it at here:
Apple CEO Steve job's keynote speech at WWDC 2006

MALAYSIA CENTRAL: Mycen Blog Directory: Malaysian Online Blogs

MALAYSIA CENTRAL: Mycen Blog Directory: Malaysian Online Journals, Weblogs, Themed Blog, Blogs, Bloggers, Blogging

Rafidah Aziz in Perth

I heard from AMWA committee awhile ago that Rafidah Aziz, the International Trade and Industry Minister of Malaysia is coming to Perth for some trade mission. I didn't realise it's today. But Robin Wong somehow got in to have an afternoon with Rafidah Aziz.
Again, another example of "it's who you know, not what you know that gets you to places". Malaysia is especially good at it!

Robin did a good job as a blogger to document the event from his perspective. So at least he may justify the lunch paid by taxpayer's money with his detailed article.

I'm still wondering how the news about these goodies gets channelled out to the connected luckies? Can somebody tell me?

My poor car has a tough time again

Bad news this morning. The back of my car got crashed this morning!
I parked on the road side and there wasn't much space between the road and where I parked so the guy didn't allow enough room and crashed into it. The car was even displaced so it's at an angle to the road when I saw it.

When Derong told me about it, there was no one there already. So I thought it'll be a major money drain to fix up the boot cover, the bumper and the back light cover. But after 15 mins inspection of the car, just before we left, I found a small piece of paper stuck in the hole of the torn metal. He was nice enough to left his name and contact for me, not like last time.

So I spent an hour+ talking to him getting his insurance details, calling up insurance company and stuff.. Need to get a quote for the repair tomorrow and all those troubles... At least I don't have to pay for it.

David Suzuki is coming to Perth!!!

DAVID SUZUKI: CHALLENGES FOR THE 21ST CENTURY - FAREWELL TOUR (065103)

Mon 7.30-9pm Sep 18
David Suzuki has published 32 books including the most widely used genetics textbook in the United States. In addition to scholarly and popular works on genetics, he has written extensively about ecology, technology, the future and his own life. To all of his writing, David brings his gift for exploring and sharing complex ideas with clarity and passion. Don't miss this opportunity to hear David speak in Perth on his farewell tour of Australia.

Biologists inform us that human beings appeared on earth about 150,000 years ago on the savannahs of Africa. Compared to the other animals that shared the plains with us, we were not impressive in numbers, size, speed, strength or sensory acuity. Our survival attribute was the most complex structure in the known universe, the human brain that endowed us with immense memory, curiosity and creativity. It invented the concept of "future" and thus was the only animal that realized we could shape the future by our actions in the present. Foresight, looking ahead, recognizing opportunities and hazards and choosing accordingly was a strategy that more than compensated for our physical and sensory deficits. We have become the most numerous mammal on the planet and supplemented by technology, consumptive demand and global economics, we have become a new kind of force, altering the physical, chemical and biological features of the planet on a geological scale as no other species ever has. Now we have all the amplified predictive capacity of scientists, supercomputers, engineers and telecommunications and for over 40 years, the leading scientists of the world have been telling us we are headed down a dangerous path - altering the atmosphere, poisoning earth, air and water, deforesting the planet, extinguishing species and so on. The disaster that hurricane Katrina wreaked on New Orleans had been warned of for years, but now we are ignoring the very strategy for survival and ignoring these warnings. Why are we turning our backs on our most important ability and what can we do about it? David Suzuki will discuss the answers to these urgent questions.

Click here to register.

He came to Perth 2 years ago, I didn't know who he was. And when we decided to check it out, the tickets were sold out. This year I will be there.
My ex-housemate Kaz left several of his books - "Good news for a change", "from Naked ape to Super species" and "The scared balance" - which I am still slowly munching through. His vision and research into sustainable future is really inspiring.

Malaysian Community Food Fair for Charity

Date: 20 August 2006
Time: 11am-3pm
Venue: Queens Park Recreation Center
Centre St. (Cnr George St), Queens Park WA 6107
Food: Halal and non-halal food donated by restaurants and home mama.

We already have $7000 worth of food, now want to get people to come and eat them. :D The voucher is $10 a booklet (inc. $5 for main, $2x2 for kueh and $1 for drink) and you can get them from me.

Current Food list: Hold your saliva!!
100 Nasi Lemak
300 Penang Laksa
50 Beef Rendang
100 Vegetarian Loh Mai Kai
18 Fried Chicken drum stick.
100 Fish Balls/Meat Balls/Crab Stick
50 Curry Chicken
50 Beef Rendang
50 Fried Rice
200 Mee Goreng
30 Fried Hokkien Mee
100 Fried Kuih Tew
100 Nasi Birani
100 Matabah
300 Satay
100 A Char
500 Curry Puff
100 Hum Chim Peng
200 BBQ Buns
30 Asian muffins
100 spring roll
Yum Kuih
Sri Muka
Kuih Talam

Fund raised will go to:
Silver Jubilee Home for the Aged Penang, Malaysia
Jalan Sungai Dua, 11700 Penang, Malaysia
Currently house 220 residents. It provides homes for destitute Malaysian with ages of 60 years and above, free of charge so that they have a place to call home.

Supported by Association of Malaysians in Western Australia (AMWA), more information on AMWA website: amwa.org.au

Come along for a good feast, meet some nice Malaysians and do a good cause. I've got vouchers with me.

Photo Tourism

Photo Tourism

Danno told me about it. Really cool stuffs! From Szeliski and Seitz's group again. And they use David Lowe's descriptor to get the correspondances. I shall really look at Lowe's magic discriptor and cash it on my research too. :P