Lalilaza randomly

US Secretary of State's Award for International Women of Courage to Malaysia 's Ambiga Sreenevasan

2010-03-12T00:28:00.001+08:00

Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama
12 Mar 2009, 0853 hrs IST

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and first lady Michelle Obama present give away Secretary of State's Award for International Women of Courage to Malaysia 's Ambiga Sreenevasan (Malaysian Bar Council) at the State Department in Washington , DC (AFP)

This is exactly one year old. I just read it from an email buried down in my inbox. Yes, I haven't got time to clear my inbox for a while.

Apparently it didn't made it as a big news in Malaysia (those who were in Malaysia this time last year can tell me if you knew this). So I think we should all be proud.

Here's the transcript of the event - transcript of remarks by Clinton and Ambiga Sreenevasan

Ambiga's speech is towards the end.

Hail storm

2009-07-21T00:13:00.000+08:00

It's very cold. but very cool! :)
Taken with my phone at the front of my office.

Malaysian taste in MasterChef Australia

2009-07-20T00:30:00.003+08:00

I'm excited and proud to see Poh (Poh Ling Yeow), a chinese Malaysian who moved to Australia at the age of 9 getting the runner up in the first MasterChef Australia realisty tv show. The thing I admire about her is her passion to show the Australian community the food she grew up with, the century egg, roti prata, hainanese chicken rice, petai, sambal, curry.... She took great risk in choosing to cook those Malaysian dishes that are very unfamiliar to the food critics tastebuds. But she took those risk to give the show a real piece of her cultural heritage. I salute her for that be-true-to-yourself spirit.

Poh's bio
Malaysian dish Challenge

Google Earth in browser!

2009-06-03T21:16:00.002+08:00

Need to install one plugin, then you can tour Google Earth with 3D buildings in the web browser.
UWA School of Physics

Minority Report gadget come to live

2009-06-02T22:54:00.002+08:00

It is so so cool!!

sixth sense - a wearable gestural interface that augments the physical world around us with digital information and lets us use natural hand gestures to interact with that information.

May 13 on a positive note

2009-05-14T00:08:00.003+08:00

Yesterday is May 13, a date that has been stabbed into Malaysia history 40 years ago and demonised by politicians over and over.

However, I found this refreshing school of thoughts by zubedy to have a positive note on May 13.

I’d like to recolor May 13th. I would like to breathe new spirit into the date, to dilute and eventually erase the negative aspects and memories and replace them with positive meanings and values. I want our future generation to see this date with kind and loving recollections. We can always change things, if we so willed it.

The article is well written and touches my heart. I think every Malaysian should read it, maybe the book too.
A book to unite Malaysians

His company zubedy.com looks very interesting too.

Graduation on April 1

2009-04-02T22:22:00.003+08:00

How would you feel if your graduation is on April 1?
Many of my friend got this honour. Actually in early 2008, my plan was to attend this ceremony myself. But things got delayed and eventually I missed out on this one and will attend the one in September.
Anyhow, because of that, my parents got another chance to travel to Perth since they already got the tickets long before anything is really confirmed. So we had a great time in the whole March when they were here in Perth and they will come in September again for the ceremony.

I attended the ceremony for my housemate DeRong - Bachelor of Engineering (Mechanical).

Caught up with many friends.

Jingyu from China - Mining Engineer

Danno and Tone whom we spent our phd years together - Doctor of Philosophy in Computer Science.

Jayvis from Spore- Mechanical Engineer

Chris from Mauritius, Stuart and Kaysen from Msia - all engineers

James from Msia - a student I tutored in his first year Computing for Engineers & Scientists. OMG!

Peter, my PhD supervisor who came for Danno's ceremony. I got hassled for my correction. :P Yes, I would get it done real soon.

Du, Danno's another supervisor who is also in the visvis group I belong.

And the big group of friends who came for Derong's ceremony:
Zheng, KokSoon (my friends who's visiting Perth), Yeeting, Derong and Minli.

I also test out my 12x zoom with ISO800 for some long range photos in Winthrop Hall.

PhD recipients get to sit up on the stage (showcasing the variety in hairstyles).

Honorary Doctorate recipient - Michael Fitzpatrick. (caught Peter in the background)

Daniel who did CS honours in our lab. He now got his EE/CS double degree.

Evgeni my fellow modeller.

Fred I met through ShihChing and Jason's church.

Derong looking smart

Stuart

Tone contemplating the moment

Danno's name and shortest ever thesis title read out by Robyn, who was my supervisor for a year and used to be in visvis group before she became the Dean of graduate research school.

Danno shaking hand with Chancellor.

I'm pretty happy with the zoomed results given that indoor stage that's very far away generally is very hard to photograph.

The ceremony was great. The food afterwards are delicious too. And I found a new word I don't know how to pronounce -- ENGINEERNG.

Photos from my phone

2009-01-12T21:48:00.009+09:00

Here are some photos I took using my phone.

Chia, my good friend from Tasmania has arrived Perth 2 weeks ago. He's here to stay. There shall be lots of good time ahead.

Kings park bush fire. The dynamic range of my SE-W810 phone camera is just not enough to see the ash ground.

My little wing friends along the path I cycle to work.

Quick sand bun (流沙包) - made with salty egg yoke. Yummy... See it's flowing. (there isn't much information on this bun online, other good photos here and here. It's a HK/Guangzhou specialty. According to my Guangzhou housemate it is a new treat in GZ these couple of years.
By the way, you can find it in the new Dragon (龙门) Restaurant on Francis Street. Pricey though.

Lego structures built by kids in the Art Gallery of Perth. Reminds me of my childhood playing a small tin box of Lego with my brother. Great fun. Always wished I have such big pile of lego to build huge stuffs. I'll probably put aside a Lego corner for my kids with this basic building block, not those Starwar type you see in toy shop, I find them too specific which limits the creativity.

Earth from above

2009-01-12T21:29:00.004+09:00

I went to watch the earth from above exhibition in Perth last Saturday. It's a photography exhibition of aerial photos of some interesting places on earth -- to provoke thinking about over-consumption and sustainable living. Awesome photos with awesome message! The only down side is that it's outdoor under the beautiful summer sun! There are some shaded area where I enjoyed most of the photos and caption readings.

Go and see it if you haven't, it's at the cultural precinct (just north of the Wellington train station). It's open till 7pm daily till 12th this month. Last 8 days.

There's also a Google earth version.

Since 1950, economic growth has been considerable, and world production of goods and services has multiplied by a factor of 8. During this same period, while the world's population has doubled, the volume of fish caught has multiplied by 5 and the volume of meat produced by 6. Energy demand has multiplied by 5. Oil consumption has multiplied by 7, and carbon dioxide emissions, the main cause of the greenhouse effect and global warming, by 5. Since 1900, fresh water consumption has multiplied by 6, chiefly to provide for agriculture.

And yet, 20% of the world's population does not have drinkable water, 40% have no sanitary installations, 25% is without electricity, and 820 million people are underfed with half of humanity living on less than A$3 a day.

In other words, a fifth of the world's population lives in industrialized countries, consuming and producing in excess and generating massive pollution. The remaining four-fifths live in developing countries and, for the most part, in poverty.

From: earthfromabove.com.au

Working life

2009-01-05T22:08:00.004+09:00

I've been working for 3 weeks - 3 days (Xmas, Boxing Day and New Year Day). This is the first time I really work, like a full time 9-5 job (actually mine is 8-5), and it's not that bad, especially weekends! Haha! But time is really limited, don't even have time to clear my inbox, read my Google Reader's stuffs, play facebook, upload photos, etc..

Anyway, some of my friend has asked or will ask me "how's your new job?". So I shall give a 3 weeks working life review. :D

The job is pretty cool, at least my title is - Seismic Processing Geophysicist. Yes, I know. What the ?! right? dugeo is a geophysics company. We process seismic data for company so they can see clearer what's down there in the earth several km down. The strength of dugeo is something called Quantitative Interpretation, which in the terms I can understand mean transforming seismic wiggles into oil/gas probability.

I had 2 weeks of training with some interns and staffs from their KL office. It was great as I get an orientation into the field (which is completely new to me) and my classmates are all from Malaysia. Ha! It's so strange to work in an Australian company in Subiaco with so many Malaysian colleagues. Before They left after their short term training back to Malaysia, I brought them to had some little tour in Perth. :)

WingSee on the left and Victoria in the middle. Wingsee is based in KL and Victoria is based in Perth.

From left: WS, Eddie, Elaine, Jassica and myself. Eddie and Jassica are interns both are geology students from Uni Sabah Malaysia. Elaine is based in KL.

People are really great in dugeo. And there are lots to learn. Boss is cool. I get to cycle to work/drive/take bus. It takes about 20mins to cycle through Kings Park from my place to work. And there's shower for us to use. Staffs there wear Tshirt, shorts and slipper or no slipper to work. :D And there's a flat hierachy, anyone can go to anyone to ask questions.
I shall upload a photo album called dugeo in my facebook right after this to introduce some people in the company.

After the training finished, I'm assigned to work with a project building velocity models. With the correct velocity model the seismic images can be properly cleaned up to show what's really the structure down there in the earth several kilometers down. However, the real job I'm currently doing is pretty much donkey work clicking mouse to line up dots to be straight lines. :P I did 100+ locations today, there are about 2000+ locations. Xb And each one of them need to be revisited several times and again since the velocity model building is an iteration process. I think I might get carpal tunnel syndrome and bad eyes if I don't take enough breaks.
Hope I get this done soon and get something more interesting...

First 3 days of work

2008-12-11T00:22:00.003+09:00

I started my working life this Monday with DownUnder GeoSolutions. It has been good. Steep learning curve. Been on training since the first day and may continue for 2 weeks. Funny thing is that there are currently 11 staffs and interns from the KL office having training in the office here. So it's pretty Malaysian at the moment. :D

People are nice and very casual. shorts and slippers/barefoot are common.

Gotta sleep, 8am start is not fun. :(

My Thesis Submission

2008-09-08T14:36:00.012+08:00

I finally submitted my phd thesis.

Getting the four copies of 220 pages thesis to graduate research school for submission.

My super good supervisor Peter.

My another super nice supervisor Amitava.

Shih Ching, my cubicle mate for the whole phd journey. :D

Minh

Lanny and Jing Bo

John

Chris

Luigi

Rob

Bob

Some more photos in my gallery.

Merdeka 51st

2008-09-08T13:41:00.004+08:00

The last 3 weeks has been crazy for me, so busy I have no time to think.
There were several celebration for Merdeka, I submitted my thesis and I left Perth to Malaysia for 3 months holiday.
This post will concentrate on the Merdeka.

This year's Malaysia independence day celebration is the most enjoyable one for me so far. I met two new friends Siow Yong and Yia Shi, I was invited to the official reception for the Merdeka by the consulate and the Merdeka ball organised by AMWA was a big success!

I wrote a short post on AMWA's blog.

On 24 August, AMWA had its annual Merdeka Day Golf.

On 28 August, the Consulate General of Malaysia in Perth hosted an official merdeka reception at the Perth Town Hall.

The finale of Merdeka celebration was held last night at the Perth Convention & Exhibition Centre. With “Wonderful Colours of Malaysia”, AMWA hosted the 51st Merdeka celebration with Malaysian cuisine, cultural performances, a fantastic live band, groovy dances, happy snaps and a lot of fun!

I met Siow Yong because he ordered tickets to the Merdeka Ball from me. And after we started talking only I found out that works very close to UWA in an area I have a lot of interests in -- audio signal processing for hearing aids. And he also turns out to be very nice to talk to.
click here for a picture of Siowyong with the Vice CG Mr Tan.

Another really cool encounter is Yia Shi aka Ivy. I first met her at the Merdeka Golf. She is a budding journalist with Asia Business Times -- a new newspaper in Perth. She came with another journalist Angel and Joe.
After chitchatting for awhile we were pleasantly surprised to find out that she came from my mom's hometown where I spent a lot of my childhood at, and her mom came from my hometown. Ha! What a small world.
We sat at the same table during the golf lunch and had a good chat. Then Angel and Yia Shi came to cover the merdeka reception, so we met the second time there. And then the newspaper company had a table at the Merdeka ball, so I met their boss Mr Peh then as well. Mr Peh is really nice as well, and I met his son who's a table tennis state representative before at UWA. Small world again.

I'm writing this post in Malaysia. :)

Beijing Olympic and possibly first Gold for Malaysia

2008-08-17T14:08:00.005+08:00

This is a bad time to be at the end of a PhD. I'm so tied up with writing and correction with the thesis that I hardly have time to watch the Olympic. Anyhow, I did watch the opening. It is just awesome! Telstra has this ads for Olympic that carries a song with this lyrics - "we are one, and we are many...." and I thought it's a very good reflection of the drummers, the Taichi performers and many others at the Beijing Olympic opening.

I also think that the concept of a painting 'drawn' by the dancers, the kids and all the athletes is just brilliant. However, the last minute change from the super-sweet -voice singer to the super-cute-looking singer by direction of high official is a bit of a shame.

Actually this post is about tonight man's badminton final between Lee Chong Wei (Msia) and Lin Dan (China). Malaysia had never won gold in Olympic and tonight may be the first time the national anthem of Malaysia being played in Olympic ceremony. Lee Chong Wei is in good form, so is Lin Dan. Actually Lin Dan is on fire and won all his games in this Olympic in straight 2 games. They played each other many times before and Lee always win when the game is in home ground.

It's sad that Australia TV doesn't broadcast it! Why did SBS broadcast woman's badminton final but not man's?

Anyhow, I hope Lee Chong Wei will win for Malaysia, like what he did for the Sudirman Cup 2007. Go Lee Chong Wei!!

Making Google Street View into 3D

2008-08-06T22:04:00.007+08:00

I was very excited about Google Street View in Australia. I think in a computer vision point of view, it provides such a huge amount of usable multiple views data to play with.

One idea I have is to:
1. Run the SIFT descriptor (by David Lowe) over the photos along one street to grab the interest points,
2. Ran RANSAC with rather loose tolerance to find homography match, and classify regions into planar surfaces. Maybe some super pixel algorithm will be useful to grow small region into bigger one based on colour information.
3. Transform the Street View into a 3D cardboard style walk through like the Photo Popup I mentioned before.

I think it would work. And because we know it's on a street, there are many constraints that can be added like we know the ground under is flat and it's pretty much sky on top kind of things.

If you're reading this and implement the algorithm and got a paper published or something, just give me an honourary mention will do. ;)

On a non-technical note, here is one place that it didn't quite work out on Street View. There's clearly a road there, but it didn't show it.

Or on Street View live:

View Larger Map

Google Street view in Australia!

2008-08-05T08:50:00.003+08:00

Google gets down and detailed on the street where you live

View Larger Map

View Larger Map

If you know where I live, you can even see my Daihatsu parked on the side of the road. Haha! That's pretty cool.

Win a Creative Zen X-Fi with Bejeweled

2008-07-28T13:45:00.004+08:00

The new MP3 player looks fantastic with the in-ear earphone, the sound technology. The 16GB version even support wireless LAN.

Go play the Bejeweled-like game and enter by 22nd Aug to be in the draw to win one.

Damned! What a time waster! Here's my best score.

The Last Lecture rests in peace

2008-07-28T10:22:00.003+08:00

The day finally came. But his words echo along.

We don't beat the reaper by living longer, we beat the reaper by living well and living fully.

Prof who posted 'last lecture' online dies

My previous post on Randy Pausch's Last Lecture.

Top 10 food myths revealed

2008-07-25T00:19:00.002+08:00

Interesting myths revisited.
Top 10 food myths revealed

Amusingly WRONG:
3 Light olive oil is "light" on calories
6 Fresh vegies are better than frozen
10 Fat-free equals calorie-free

Condoleezza Rice in Perth

2008-07-25T00:18:00.000+08:00

Another side thing is that I got within 500m from Condoleezza Rice today without noticing it. The US Secretary of State came to Perth today and dined at University Club at UWA. It's <500m away from computer science building and my house. See it on Wikimapia (CS is at top left, UniClub at bottom right).
I read the news too late.

My neighbours are very rich!

2008-07-25T00:05:00.004+08:00

According to the latest survey, Nedlands resident has average $2091 weekly income before tax. That amounts to $100k annual income!
Man! I'm living in a very rich area with expired PhD scholarship! :`(
Anyway, hopefully I absorb the goodness of this area and will catapult myself into that income bracket soon. ;-)

The Power of Context and the Courage to Create, Revisited

2008-06-13T17:50:00.002+08:00

We’re defining context here to mean “a fundamental set of assumptions”—assumptions that are not recognized as assumptions, and that go unquestioned—in which the world happens. When people thought the earth was flat (an analogy that grows old but never dies), that was a context or worldview that limited perception and behavior—how those folks saw the horizon, how far toward the edge they sailed, and so on. Similarly, our way of being a man or a woman, and the possibilities available to us, are given by the assumptions embedded in our culture, our language, and times in which we live. A girl born in the U.S. today would likely inherit a very different possibility for being a woman than a girl born in the 1930s or ’40s—would she be a dot-com mogul or running for president?

So if you consider the premise that the whole world happens inside of the assumptions we hold true (and if you do the math), what becomes apparent is that contexts are a mighty and decisive force. Contexts come to us by default, and we live our lives essentially unaware of their existence and of their far-reaching influence. It’s like wearing blinders—we don’t see the contexts themselves, we see only what they allow. These default contexts determine our worldview: what’s possible and not, what’s true and false, what’s right and wrong, what we think we can and can’t do. They travel with us—wherever we are, they are—shaping our behavior, our choices, our lives.

The Context Is Decisive

Click to start.

Full Text

A dead body found under Jojo's jetty at the end of Broadway!

2008-06-12T16:04:00.001+08:00

Source: The West Australians

Restaurant staff find body in Swan River
12th June 2008, 7:00 WST

Staff at a swanky Nedlands restaurant found a body floating in the river last night.

Police were called to JoJo’s Café after a man's body was seen floating under the restaurant’s jetty.

A police spokeswoman said the gruesome discovery off Broadway, Nedlands, was made about 9.30pm and water police were called to retrieve him.

Major Crime officers attended the scene and police investigations are continuing.

The man, aged between 55-70, had no identification on him and police are not treating it as a suspicious death.

PERTH
JAYNE RICKARD

A More Perfect Union

2008-06-10T19:45:00.003+08:00

I didn't really follow much of American presidential campaign and didn't know much of Barack Obama. Today I took a 2 seconds interests in him and looked up Barack Obama in wikipedia and came across his famous speech of A More Perfect Union.

Obama was responding to a spike in the attention paid to controversial remarks made by the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, his former pastor and, until shortly before the speech, a participant in his campaign. Obama situated his response in terms of the broader issue of race in the United States. The speech's title was taken from the Preamble to the United States Constitution.

Obama addressed the subjects of racial tensions, white privilege, and race and inequality in the United States, discussing black "anger," white "resentment," and other issues as he sought to explain and contextualize Wright's controversial comments. His speech closed with a plea to move beyond America's "racial stalemate" and address shared social problems.

The address was given on March 18, ten days after Malaysians non-racial coalition gained a great leap in political support against the racial coalition in the general election. The whole Malaysia, including myself in Perth, was in surprise, shock and excitement about a new dawn in the political landscape.

I find the speech a great lecture on racial relation in the Malaysian context also. Although the situation between the white and the black in US is different from the Malays and non-Malays in Malaysia, there are much similarity that Malaysians can learn from the speech to forge a better union too.

Read the transcript here.

Here In My Home - Malaysian Artistes For Unity

2008-05-27T03:18:00.004+08:00

A song that truely warms my heart. I think it speaks the voice of many Malaysians, home or abroad.

Video, music, lyrics Downloads at their site. Spread the words fellow Malaysians. Sing along!

Update: Check here for the writer Pete Teo's interview, and Pete Teo unscripted video

Finding the Best Way to Cook All Those Vegetables

2008-05-26T02:27:00.003+08:00

Processed tomato products have higher lycopene content than fresh tomatoes.

Boiling was better for carrots, zucchini and broccoli than steaming, frying or serving them raw.
Trade off: boiling carrots significantly increased measurable carotenoid levels, but resulted in the complete loss of polyphenols compared with raw carrots.

When salsa or salad were served with fat-rich avocados or full-fat salad dressing, the diners absorbed as much as 4 times more lycopene, 7 times more lutein and 18 times the beta carotene than those who had their vegetables plain or with low-fat dressing.

Source: New York Times: Finding the Best Way to Cook All Those Vegetables

New umbrella!

2008-05-24T03:03:00.004+08:00

Funny new umbrella - "Nubrella".

Right click and click play to see video.

The website: nubrella.com

Will it take off like the new rotary can opener?

Donations for China and Burma disasters

2008-05-16T14:49:00.003+08:00

Donations for the Quake Relief in Sichuan, China:

Account Name: Embassy of The People's Republic of China in Australia
Earthquake Relief Fund
Account No. BSB:352-000 A/C: 126512
Bank Name: Bank of China, Sydney Branch.
***Telephone No. of the Embassy: 0414880919; 0408784630;0414793168

More information and other method of donation see the China ambassy website: English version | Chinese version

Donation for he Burma cyclone:

I chose Avaaz as my channel, as they claim that the money go straight to the International Burmese Monks Organization, which will transmit funds directly to monasteries in affected areas.
Burma cyclone site on Avaaz.com

Feedback from giving talks

2008-05-08T14:57:00.004+08:00

I have followed Jayjay (our CSSE ex-school manager, now school manager at Physics) to present at many talks he organised. At the beginning it was outreach program to high school where I showed high school students computer graphics stuffs like image morphing, video-based rendering, perspective rectification, etc.. Recently we had been going around to show the virtual 3D UWA with the new Google crown.

We did one at the UniClub auditorium to 170 high school students. And here are what they write down in the feedback form about us.

Feedback from students:
* Life is about reflecting light into dark places by using the resources you have as best as possible;
* I will remember the speakers and how they were all unique;
* My favourite was Jay Jay because I am interested in that career path;
* Tzu Yen was my favourite because he was funny and informative;
* Jay Jay and his gang because what they spoke about was cool;
* Tzu Yen, his virtual universe project was very interesting;
* The 3-D computer group was so interesting! Explored new boundaries;
* I found the computing group interesting;
* Did not enjoy the virtual tour as I found it not stimulating enough;
* The favourite was the Asian guy who showed us the designing thing on the sketch pad; ("Asian guy" I guess refer to me, and the "sketch pad" must be SketchUp)
* My favourite was Jay Jay and Gary;
* The computer man with the T-shirt was my favourite; (I'm the computer man with this :) T-shirt)
* Speakers were all awesome but Tzu Yen was awesome more; (Oh Yeah! Awesome more! I like that. Hear that Barney?)
* Some of the speeches went for a while longer than expected and got boring at some point – although they were all worth it in the end;
* I think we should have had more breaks and some speeches were too long;
* The best thing about the visit today was the speakers; they really do give us something to think about, to aspire to.

Randy Pausch reprising his "Last Lecture"

2008-05-01T18:53:00.001+08:00

There's a 76mins full version on his CMU website - CMU website with a full transcript.

Pu22!es

2008-04-29T22:06:00.003+08:00

I have been busy putting together my thesis chapters lately. The progress has been satisfying and the thesis starts to take its shape. Working consistently with the pace, I shall be able to submit in July. Yay!
Apart from the dry process of writing thesis, I had been doing some puzzles. Canon research lab CiSRA is having a puzzle competition. Danno told me about it as he work there and want me to never graduate. Haha!
Me, ShihChing and Minh are teaming up as Fubar Fighters to crack the puzzles. We solved the first group which was open for a long time, then this week the real battle started at the rate of 4 puzzle a day for 4 days! My brain is rather overwork. Some of the puzzles are just clueless to me!

Anyone can take part in the competition, just have to register for it and play. But Australian students are eligible to win prizes. Looks like my hope to win the camera is slowly vanishing.

A friend send me this website on puzzles which tech interviewers like to use. See techinterview.org

Snapfish 20cents online photo print

2008-04-08T23:53:00.003+08:00

It was advertised as 15cent a print at HP's online photo site Snapfish but 1-60 photos postage costs $2.95, so it work out to be about 20cents if you print 60 photos in one order.

Beware of a catch if you print 100 photos! Because 61-99 photos cost $4.95 in postage, but 100 photos costs $8.95! Strange arrangement and I overlooked it last time! :`(
See the full pricing here.

20 free prints for new account.
(Let me know before you register if you wouldn't mind me getting 20 free print by "telling a friend")

Buying guide: Running shoes

2008-03-27T02:06:00.001+09:00

Interesting Running shoes buying guide from Choice.com.

Urban 3D Modelling from Video

2008-03-26T19:21:00.001+09:00

Urban 3D Modelling from Video - University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and University of Kentucky

More video and details on their website.

Bruce Lee and Harry Potter

2008-03-23T15:19:00.004+09:00

This is an artist impression of me after the artist saw these photos. Apparently, he thinks I look like a combination of Bruce Lee and Harry Potter (the glasses).

Muarotak has more of his comics and drawings on his site (in chinese).

Pre-election Zimbabwe

2008-03-18T19:10:00.003+09:00

I saw Danno blogged about his devalued Zimbabwe dollar last week. And today I stumbled upon this in-picture report of Pre-election Zimbabwe on BBC. 1US = 25million ZD?! Thousands of people have to walk 3km every day to work! 80% people unemployed, escalating HIV infection, one meal a day for many!!! That's mad!
Will Mugabe still win the election on 29th this month? He has the army in his pocket. How about the ordinary Zimbabweans?

Mugabe's good friend Mahathir has stepped down for more than 4 years. Malaysians have also shown their disgust of corruption and misgovernment by the election tsunami on 8 March. Will Zimbabwe have some new hope after the election?

Malaysia is in a much better state compared to Zimbabwe and it's really not a good comparison...

Anyway, have a look at the picture and report.
Pre-election Zimbabwe

Malaysian opposition slays govt giants in elections

2008-03-09T14:12:00.002+09:00

This is the most exciting General Election of Malaysia I've ever witnessed!

People's anger and frustration finally translated into real seats and gave the ruling parties a big slap on the face! It has denied the ruling Barisan National's 2/3 majority in the parliament so the constitution can't be easily changed at its pleasure.
Five states have also fall into the opposition, given them a big challenge to show the people what good governance which they preach is really about! If they can pull it through then it will pave way to eventual balance of power in the parliament down the track. Otherwise, the opposition will be seriously attacked in the next general election.

Channel News Asia has the report at 0014hrs.
(Blogger.com and many webserver were not responding when I wanted to post this late last night.)

Malaysian opposition slays govt giants in elections
Posted: 09 March 2008 0014 hrs

Special Report
Malaysia GE 2008

KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysia's opposition has claimed several high-profile scalps in Saturday's general elections, including the sole ethnic Indian minister who lost his seat, according to official data.

The daughter of opposition figurehead Anwar Ibrahim, 28-year-old Nurul Izzah Anwar, thrashed powerful incumbent Women, Family and Community Minister Shahrizat Abdul Jalil in her first ever tilt at parliament.

Manoharan Malayalam, an ethnic Indian activist who is being detained without trial after organising anti-discrimination protests, was elected from his jail cell -- beating the government incumbent in a state seat.

Manoharan, who represents the Chinese-based Democratic Action Party (DAP), won twice as many votes as the ethnic Chinese candidate, in a seat dominated by ethnic Chinese voters.

Indian Cabinet minister S. Samy Vellu lost his seat in central Perak state which he has held since 1974, state Bernama news agency reported.

Samy Vellu, a loyal supporter of the Malay-led government, has borne the brunt of anger from Malaysia's ethnic Indian minority who say they have suffered decades of discrimination.

The DAP has claimed victory in the island state of Penang, ousting the government for the first time since 1969 in a stunning outcome.

Unofficial results showed the opposition is close to claiming the northern state of Kedah with the Islamic hardliners PAS and former deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim's party Keadilan securing 22 of the 36 state seats, Bernama reported.

The opposition is also in the lead in central Selangor state, traditionally a BN stronghold, it said.

The Election Commission's official tally showed Barisan Nasional ahead in the new 222-seat parliament, with 45 parliamentary seats in the bag, including eight that were uncontested.

The DAP has claimed six parliamentary seats, PAS currently has three and Keadilan has three. - AFP/ir

Malaysia Election Comedian Songs

2008-03-07T01:37:00.003+09:00

Comedy Court made:

ELECTIONS Blah blah blah

Rough Little Indian Boys

The Family Tree

And more of other political and non-political videos on Comedy Court

AMWA gathering at Kardinya

2008-03-06T01:39:00.002+09:00

AMWA had a belated Chinese New Year gathering at Kardinya community center on Labour Day (3 March). I was there helping up from 9:30am for 11am start. Good fun in the kitchen chopping cabbage, cutting water melon and running around taking photos. Event finished at 2pm and we cleaned up, packed up by 3pm.
See the blog and photo gallery for more.

Chinese New Year Gathering 2008

Google SydneyTrip & UWA won the competition

2008-03-06T00:02:00.010+09:00

This is 2 weeks old. As mentioned in the Happy^Googleplex post, We went over to Sydney on an all expenses paid trip by Google. We flew in on 17/2 Sunday, spent a day at Google office on Darling Harbour on 18th and most of the team went back on 19th. Me and Minh stayed for one more day with Danno.

Highlights:

We were greeted by a chauffeur with our names on a cardboard at the airport. It was my first time having my name on a cardboard at airport. But I was disappointed that there wasn't a big Google sign on it. Even more disappointed that it wasn't a Google van that took us to our hotel.
We were put in Amore hotel. Very nice and classy. My room was on 17th floor. Nice view.
Danno met us up for dinner at Pancake on the rock. Good pancake, I like it and like it a lot.

Monday 9am we met at Google office on Darling Harbour, in the IBM building. We met our 'competitors' too. Haha! Both other teams were from Melbourne U, both were two people team. Compare to us 8 people big full team from UWA to out number everyone, muahaha!
SketchUp user interface designer Matt flew in from US to give us a tech talk.
Will and Lysandra accompanied us in the Google office tour - but we weren't allowed to take photos beyond the reception. Bummer. But it is nice inside, open space. Food around people.
Our team and two other Melbourne Uni teams gave a talk on our journey of modelling, it was very informal and fun.
Food is great inside Google! We made our own pizza and roll from the salad bar. There was crab meat on that day.
XBox and Playstation with huge screen mounted on the wall for Googlers' gaming craze during lunch time.
We went on a tour of Sydney in the afternoon with the Googlers.
Winners were anounced at the hotel atrium before dinner. And our UWA team took the crown. Yes! Each of us were awarded with a goodie bag.
Google treated us a nice dinner on Darling Harbour looking over the Opera House. Fancy! And there were many quiz challenges from Will, fun!

Most of the team went back on Tuesday. But me and Minh stayed for one more day and Danno took a day off to take us to Blue Mountain. So touched, thanks mate. And Super Horatio helped clear the heavy fog for us there. It was fun. A lot more fun that last time when I went alone.
And at that night I stayed with my UTas best friend Jermin and Yeemei's place. They took me to a Shanghainese restaurant and I was stuffed with fantastic food. So yummy. And that night we chatted till 3am and had to go to airport at 7am.
Me and Minh flew back on Wednesday morning together wearing the proud Google T-shirt.

Photos are here:
Evgeni's version

Mine:

2008_02_17-19 Sydney Google trip

And once we come back, Jayjay has been at work to channel out the news that we did win the competition.

UWA News (27 February 2008)

Loconuts (28 February 2008)

Subiaco Post (1 March 2008)

Western Suburb (4 March 2008)

Joondalup Times (5 March 2008)

Michael Backman on Malaysia General Election 08

2008-02-28T15:59:00.001+09:00

Michael Backman - Malaysia needs a strong Opposition

Turning any monitor in to a 3D VR display

2008-02-27T01:18:00.002+09:00

Using Wii, this CMU phd student made a monitor into a portal to the virtual world!!

Turning any monitor in to a 3D VR display

Rudd's 'sorry' address

2008-02-23T00:18:00.004+09:00

It's 10 days old, but I just read it via Nick's blog.

On the same day, Malaysia parliament was dissolved to prepare for the 12th General Election. The inter-racial misunderstanding and stereotype in Malaysia is still very strong and the BN government keeps on squeezing on old wounds and conniving new destructive behaviours for their political survival. When will the parliament of Malaysia be mature enough to one day produce something like this, to lead the people into new era of renewed hope and inspiration.

PM Rudd's 'sorry' address
February 13, 2008 - 4:08PM

I move:

That today we honour the indigenous peoples of this land, the oldest continuing cultures in human history.

We reflect on their past mistreatment.

We reflect in particular on the mistreatment of those who were stolen generations - this blemished chapter in our nation's history.

The time has now come for the nation to turn a new page in Australia's history by righting the wrongs of the past and so moving forward with confidence to the future.

We apologise for the laws and policies of successive parliaments and governments that have inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss on these our fellow Australians.

We apologise especially for the removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families, their communities and their country.

...

We today take this first step by acknowledging the past and laying claim to a future that embraces all Australians.

A future where this parliament resolves that the injustices of the past must never, never happen again.

A future where we harness the determination of all Australians, indigenous and non-indigenous, to close the gap that lies between us in life expectancy, educational achievement and economic opportunity.

A future where we embrace the possibility of new solutions to enduring problems where old approaches have failed.

A future based on mutual respect, mutual resolve and mutual responsibility.
A future where all Australians, whatever their origins, are truly equal partners, with equal opportunities and with an equal stake in shaping the next chapter in the history of this great country, Australia.

There comes a time in the history of nations when their peoples must become fully reconciled to their past if they are to go forward with confidence to embrace their future.

Our nation, Australia, has reached such a time.

....

One of the most notorious examples of this approach was from the Northern Territory Protector of Natives, who stated: ''Generally by the fifth and invariably by the sixth generation, all native characteristics of the Australian Aborigine are eradicated. The problem of our half-castes'' - to quote the protector - ''will quickly be eliminated by the complete disappearance of the black race, and the swift submergence of their progeny in the white''.

The Western Australian Protector of Natives expressed not dissimilar views, expounding them at length in Canberra in 1937 at the first national conference on indigenous affairs that brought together the Commonwealth and state protectors of natives.

These are uncomfortable things to be brought out into the light. They are not pleasant. They are profoundly disturbing.

...

There is a further reason for an apology as well: it is that reconciliation is in fact an expression of a core value of our nation - and that value is a fair go for all.

There is a deep and abiding belief in the Australian community that, for the stolen generations, there was no fair go at all.

There is a pretty basic Aussie belief that says that it is time to put right this most outrageous of wrongs.

It is for these reasons, quite apart from concerns of fundamental human decency, that the governments and parliaments of this nation must make this apology - because, put simply, the laws that our parliaments enacted made the stolen generations possible.

We, the parliaments of the nation, are ultimately responsible, not those who gave effect to our laws. And the problem lay with the laws themselves.

As has been said of settler societies elsewhere, we are the bearers of many blessings from our ancestors; therefore we must also be the bearer of their burdens as well.

Therefore, for our nation, the course of action is clear: that is, to deal now with what has become one of the darkest chapters in Australia's history.

In doing so, we are doing more than contending with the facts, the evidence and the often rancorous public debate.

In doing so, we are also wrestling with our own soul.

This is not, as some would argue, a black-armband view of history; it is just the truth: the cold, confronting, uncomfortable truth - facing it, dealing with it, moving on from it.

Until we fully confront that truth, there will always be a shadow hanging over us and our future as a fully united and fully reconciled people.

It is time to reconcile. It is time to recognise the injustices of the past. It is time to say sorry. It is time to move forward together.

To the stolen generations, I say the following: as Prime Minister of Australia, I am sorry.

On behalf of the Government of Australia, I am sorry.

On behalf of the Parliament of Australia, I am sorry.

I offer you this apology without qualification.

...

Whatever words I speak today, I cannot undo that.

Words alone are not that powerful; grief is a very personal thing.
I ask those non-indigenous Australians listening today who may not fully understand why what we are doing is so important to imagine for a moment that this had happened to you.

I say to honourable members here present: imagine if this had happened to us. Imagine the crippling effect. Imagine how hard it would be to forgive.

My proposal is this: if the apology we extend today is accepted in the spirit of reconciliation, in which it is offered, we can today resolve together that there be a new beginning for Australia.

And it is to such a new beginning that I believe the nation is now calling us.
Australians are a passionate lot. We are also a very practical lot.

For us, symbolism is important but, unless the great symbolism of reconciliation is accompanied by an even greater substance, it is little more than a clanging gong.

It is not sentiment that makes history; it is our actions that make history.
Today's apology, however inadequate, is aimed at righting past wrongs.
It is also aimed at building a bridge between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians - a bridge based on a real respect rather than a thinly veiled contempt.

Our challenge for the future is to cross that bridge and, in so doing, to embrace a new partnership between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians - to embrace, as part of that partnership, expanded Link-up and other critical services to help the stolen generations to trace their families if at all possible and to provide dignity to their lives.

But the core of this partnership for the future is to close the gap between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians on life expectancy, educational achievement and employment opportunities.

This new partnership on closing the gap will set concrete targets for the future: within a decade to halve the widening gap in literacy, numeracy and employment outcomes and opportunities for indigenous Australians, within a decade to halve the appalling gap in infant mortality rates between indigenous and non-indigenous children and, within a generation,
to close the equally appalling 17-year life gap between indigenous and non-indigenous in overall life expectancy.

The truth is: a business as usual approach towards indigenous Australians is not working.

Most old approaches are not working.

We need a new beginning, a new beginning which contains real measures of policy success or policy failure; a new beginning, a new partnership, on closing the gap with sufficient flexibility not to insist on a one-size-fits-all approach for each of the hundreds of remote and regional indigenous communities across the country but instead allowing flexible,
tailored, local approaches to achieve commonly-agreed national objectives that lie at the core of our proposed new partnership; a new beginning that draws intelligently on the experiences of new policy settings across the nation.

However, unless we as a Parliament set a destination for the nation, we have no clear point to guide our policy, our programs or our purpose; we have no centralised organising principle.

Let us resolve today to begin with the little children, a fitting place to start on this day of apology for the stolen generations.

...

None of this will be easy. Most of it will be hard, very hard. But none of it is impossible, and all of it is achievable with clear goals, clear thinking, and by placing an absolute premium on respect, cooperation and mutual responsibility as the guiding principles of this new partnership on closing the gap.

The mood of the nation is for reconciliation now, between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians. The mood of the nation on indigenous policy and politics is now very simple.

...

Mr Speaker, today the Parliament has come together to right a great wrong. We have come together to deal with the past so that we might fully embrace the future. We have had sufficient audacity of faith to advance a pathway to that future, with arms extended rather than with fists still clenched.

So let us seize the day. Let it not become a moment of mere sentimental reflection.

Let us take it with both hands and allow this day, this day of national reconciliation, to become one of those rare moments in which we might just be able to transform the way in which the nation thinks about itself, whereby the injustice administered to the stolen generations in the name of these, our parliaments, causes all of us to reappraise, at the deepest
level of our beliefs, the real possibility of reconciliation writ large: reconciliation across all indigenous Australia; reconciliation across the entire history of the often bloody encounter between those who emerged from the Dreamtime a thousand generations ago and those who, like me, came across the seas only yesterday; reconciliation which opens up whole new possibilities for the future.

It is for the nation to bring the first two centuries of our settled history to a close, as we begin a new chapter. We embrace with pride, admiration and awe these great and ancient cultures we are truly blessed to have among us cultures that provide a unique, uninterrupted human thread linking our Australian continent to the most ancient prehistory of our planet.

Growing from this new respect, we see our indigenous brothers and sisters with fresh eyes, with new eyes, and we have our minds wide open as to how we might tackle, together, the great practical challenges that indigenous Australia faces in the future.

Let us turn this page together: indigenous and non-indigenous Australians, government and opposition, Commonwealth and state, and write this new chapter in our nation's story together.

First Australians, First Fleeters, and those who first took the oath of allegiance just a few weeks ago. Let's grasp this opportunity to craft a new future for this great land: Australia. I commend the motion to the House.

AAP

Read the full text on The Age.

Chinese New Year 2008

2008-02-22T00:55:00.006+09:00

I'm so happy to be at home for Chinese New Year this year. I didn't go back on CNY last year and having the whole family together is so great. We had steamboat, grilled chicken and sea cucumber with pork trotter. See photos.

Google eyeing operations in Malaysia

2008-01-28T00:09:00.000+09:00

This will be nice if it is realised.

Reuters: Google eyeing operations in Malaysia

The modellers Theme Song

2008-01-20T04:09:00.001+09:00

It's a crazy hour now but I just can't wait till tomorrow to blog about this!
Danno made a theme song for the modellers! I can't believe it!!!

It's so cool! And hilarious at the same time! And I now have a song with my name in it. You have made history Danno!

Read the post and enjoy the song on Danno's The Modellers post.

Oh ya, apparently Danno is having a Theme Songs on Request service. Danno I want one!!

Also, The Modellers has become my ringtone.

UWA 3D campus team in Media

2008-01-18T01:36:00.004+09:00

There were a couple of photo shots by our own team members and professional photographers from the papers. And with Jayjay's media contact effort, we get quite some media exposure.

At the top of scale shall be The Australian. We appeared on the Higher Education section with each of our faces bigger than a 50cents coins.

The Australian | 16/01/2008 | Page: 21 | Higher Education
Region: National Circulation: 133000
Type: National
Size: 482.57 sq.cms

Click the picture to see the actual size, or here for the online version.

It's also on Wanneroo Times (Brad) and Western Suburbs Weekly (Myself):

Wanneroo Times | 15/01/2008 | Page: 14 | Regional Changes - Central
Region: Perth Circulation: 77098
Type: Suburban
Size: 241.78 sq.cms

Western Suburbs Weekly
15/01/2008
Page: 5
General News
Region: Perth Circulation: 48960
Type: Suburban
Size: 189.49 sq.cms

And of course, the official media release is on the competition page on Google.

Previous post on this topic

Update:
On ScienceNetwork WA (24 January 2008)

Featured on frontpage of UWA new Website.

Media release on UWA (December 21, 2007)

UWA's Prospects E-Magazine

IE Aust Student Magazine

UWA Engineering Graduate Association Newsletter - The engineering Essential

Super Horatio Song V2

2008-01-10T02:11:00.000+09:00

Danno has done it again with Super Horatio song! This time with his high voice and violin. It's even better than the first version!!

Click here for the full story:
Super Horatio has returned!

Download Super Horatio’s New Song while you read the story.

Recap 2007

2008-01-01T21:44:00.000+09:00

I'm never really a big fan of New Year. It just happened to be the start of a randomly chosen counting system. Hmmm.. I think it's not random, but what is the significant of the first day of the Gregorian calendar? It's not the end of winter, not the day of longest sunlight, not the day the sun is closest to the equator... Can someone who knows tell me?

Anyhow, it's a good day to reflect. So I'd do so.

A good thing about writing diary or now blog is that it helps to retain memory. So I can look back and say "Hey! I did that and it's cool, let's do it more!" or the opposite. Here are the list of things I recalled, in no order.

I started watching 20mins Sitcom because it is not too long and is funny. Started with "How I met your mother" and then "The Class" and currently watching "The War at Home".
I had the longest moustache and goatee since I last clean shaved on November 17, see my photo taken on 23/12/07.
I started jogging and cycling. And I enjoy it.
I went to Europe the first time in my life and presented my first international paper. This is blogged about a lot in September 2007 and here: Amsterdam | Modena | Venice & Florence | Pompeii .
I went to Shanghai for the final translation job with the company and had a blast shopping. It was a pity I didn't write much about it.
I had a holiday back home for 2 weeks. Sweet!
I modelled UWA in 3D took a lots of pictures of it. It started as a photo popup, and later become a full modelling.
Our UWA team got into the top 3 of Google 3D campus competition (Aus/NZ).
I started using Google Reader with 39 RSS subscriptions and reading friends' blog is easier than ever. I also have a shared reading list here and on the sidebar.
I met up with my cousin in Perth.
I become a pseudo-vegetarian - vegetarian on normal days and while I'm cooking, whatever on special occasions and when others cook. Constipation is history.
I finally had a plan to finish my phd and was working hard towards it. Started seriously writing the thesis.
I got a song dedicated to me, or more accurately to my heroic twin.
I got a book with my name and stories in it when the author left us.
I switched bank for high interest online saving, from BankWest to RaboPlus.
I met my minister and helped up with the 50th Merdeka Celebration of Malaysia in Perth Convention Center.
I made several huge posters using my Chinese text art program - Winthrop Hall, Shih Ching & Rina's engagement and Joe's wife birthday. Maybe I can make it commercially viable.
I ate out a lot this year, the most frequent in my life to the point that me and my housemate ran out of places to eat. Taka, Hawker Cuisine, Big Bowl Noodle House, Analakshmi, Stuzzico Pizza, Subway, Dragon China (聚龙阁), Bateman Fish Head Mee Hoon and Utopia are some which I like.
I organised youth events for AMWA and made some new good friends.
I took 5179 shots of photos and videos!
I blogged 103 entries to this blog.
I donated blood the first time in my life.
I did not join Facebook.
I joint Adsense in July and had 2,992 page impressions, 9 clicks, 0.30% page CTR $1.08 page eCPM and $3.23 profit.

This list may grow when I remember things.

And now it's new year. 2008. Happy New Year! And hope it'll be a good one for you and me.

Photos of Naples and Pompeii

2007-12-29T00:06:00.000+09:00

Christmas break was great. I took 4 days off and just relax at home.
And I got some time to revisit my Italy trip photos that I haven't sorted out to post on Picasaweb.

So here they are, Naples and Pompeii.
I only stayed one night in Naples, in order to go to Pompeii. I reached Naples just before dark. Found my way to my hostel. It was a hostel with character. The receptionist are friendly and helpful. She told me where to get the best pizza in town. :) And it was indeed the best I ever had.
But Naples is not good at night. I went to the pizza place called Sorbillo. I ordered a pizza and took it away wanting to find a nearby plaza to sit down and watch people. After 3 minutes walk I still haven't found anything like a plaza, but some chair at the side of the road, so I thought probably I just sit here will do, before the pizza gets cold. So I did. Before I took a first bite of my Margaretta, a guy who's walking his dog walked past and started talking to me in Italian. And eventually he had some English words that I understand, they are - "dangerous here, go home"!!

Then I was a bit scared. I took the pizza and walked back from where I came from. I got back to the pizza place and asked for a place to sit down. (they only have 4 tables). They graciously let me in. I half the Margaretta. It was great! And I ordered another pizza and ate half of it.
The journey back to the hostel is tiptoeing. I found all the bigger, more well-lit road to take and eventually made it back there safely. The Sydney couple I met in my room had started to worry about me. :P

The next morning, breakfast was included. And I had lots of nutella on my bread.

2007_09_17 Naples

I checked out after the filling breakfast and make my way to Pompeii. The ruin is huge. One full day to explore it is definitely worth it. For some unknown reason, the gate wasn't open until about 1 hour late. It was not a bad thing for me as I had all my luggages with me. I found the little shop up the road from the entrance which Lonely Planet mentioned to put my luggage. The young chap there is nice and helpful. I was worried that my laptop will not be safe but I have no choice but to trust the book and him. And it turns out that he is good so I let him keep the change from the storage fee.

Before the door open, there was a guy with a guide tag who was telling people where to go and what was happening. And he said he would get me the 10 euro ticket faster than everyone (so I don't have to queue) and be the guide for 1hour+ for an extra 10 euro. He only took down my name and I don't have to pay until he got me ticket. I thought it was alright so I joint.

The statistics is that 3 million people visited Pompeii every year, so it's about 10 thousand people a day!! So when the gate opened after everyone has been waiting for more than an hour, people rushed in like prison break. It was such a huge chaos there that I could not find that guy. So I paid another guy 20 euros to get in and to join his tour. He gave me a ticket and asked me to wait close to the entrance after I got in. So I got in and waited for him. And I couldn't remember that guys name or how he looked like (Italian all look alike, haha), and eventually the first guy showed up again. So I followed him with an unclear conscience.

The guide showed us to several of the main attractions inside and gave a good explanation of things. When the tour finished, I thought it was unfair to the guide that I followed him but didn't pay him (as I paid another guide and couldn't find him). So I told him and paid him the 10 euro he deserved and felt I did the right thing.
After the tour, I walked to the visitor center to get a map and a guide book (free) to walk around more myself. The map and the guidebook are very detailed but it's not given to you when you get the ticket. So make sure you ask for it if you're going there.

It is a big place. I did not cover everything but was happy with it. And now hit the photos.

2007_09_18 Pompeii

How I met your Mother theme song

2007-12-26T16:48:00.000+09:00

I really like the CBS sitcom "How I met your Mother", so today I decided to play the theme song with my guitar. I did some search on internet for its chord and found that its name is "Hey Beautiful" by The Solids but had no luck with the chords. So I cracked it myself and here is the guitar chord. Sounds pretty like it.

C C#
A C#m F#m A D F#m Bm E
A

Tab:

C C#
|-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-|-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-|
|-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-|-6-6-6-6-6-6-6-6-|
|-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-|-6-6-6-6-6-6-6-6-|
|-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-|-6-6-6-6-6-6-6-6-|
|-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-|-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-|
|-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-|-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-|

A C#m F#m A
|-5---5---4---4---|-2---2---0---0---|
|-5---5---5---5---|-2---2---2---2---|
|-6---6---6---6---|-2---2---2---2---|
|-7---7---6---6---|-4---4---2---2---|
|-7---7---4---4---|-4---4---0---0---|
|-5---5---4---4---|-2---2---0---0---|

D F#m Bm E
|-2---2---2---2---|-2---2---0---0---|
|-3---3---2---2---|-3---3---0---0---|
|-2---2---2---2---|-4---4---1---1---|
|-0---0---4---4---|-4---4---2---2---|
|-0---0---4---4---|-2---2---2---2---|
|-0---0---4---4---|-2---2---2---2---|

A
|-0---------------|
|-2---------------|
|-2---------------|
|-2---------------|
|-0---------------|
|-0---------------|

Happy^Googleplex

2007-12-18T12:40:00.000+09:00

Yahoo!! Opps, no, I mean Happy^Googleplex (read: happy to the googolplex)!

Yes, we won. We're one of the top 3 finalists in the Google 3D campus competition (Aus/NZ). Hard work was rewarded. :D

Here's what they said in the email:

After much debate and deliberation by our SketchUp competition judges... you have been named one of the "Build Your Campus in 3D" Google SketchUp finalists! Congratulations!!! The judges were truly impressed and we all want to thank you for your hard work and dedication to delivering such a high-quality product.

As one of three finalist teams, you are invited to the all expenses paid on-site trip in February. You will visit our Google Sydney office, listen to a technical talk, and enjoy free time and planned activities, so plan to have a great time! The date is yet to be finalized, but we are shooting for either Friday, February 8th or Friday, February 22nd (depending on when our SketchUp resources are available for a technical talk). I will reach out again to confirm participation and follow-up with travel details.

Now I have a slight problem, I have planned to go back to Malaysia for Chinese New Year which is on 7 Feb, and stayed till end of Feb to help Peter with his Matlab Course in Spore and KL (although that was canceled). I hope eventually the date will be on 22 Feb then I will come back earlier from Malaysia.

Anyhow, it's bloody exciting. Google, here I come.

Update 19/12:

3 Finalists: UWA, University of Melbourne (2 teams)

The winner will be announced during the on-site event in February
Finalists will visit our Sydney office and enjoy a technical talk, office tour, food in Google's world-famous cafeterias, and planned activities in Sydney

33 teams officially registered for the competition,

Toyata Robot plays violin

2007-12-08T04:12:00.000+09:00

From Reuters

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on China Central TV

2007-12-08T03:02:00.000+09:00

陆克文总理中央台访问 (November 24, 2007)

Man! I'm impressed! 陆克文's Mandarin is so good! The Chinese journalist Xiaorui is rather snobbish looking though...

African fractals on TED

2007-12-03T23:45:00.000+09:00

I stumbled upon this great talk on TED.
Ron Eglash on African fractals.

Try this Cornrow fractal with 250 iterations, 2% starting dilation, 75% translation, 20 degree rotation and 102% dilation.

Computer Network is cool

2007-11-30T00:30:00.000+09:00

I used to think computer network is a boring subject back in my EE years.
But recently the perception has changed for me, the networking itself is boring, but what it makes available is really cool.
And this The Hack of the year which I stumbled upon prompted this post.
And I watched Die hard 4 recently, it's hackers too. So much actions. I throughly enjoyed it. And the hacker Mat Farrell kind of look like Nick. (follow the links to compare for yourself. Ahem!)

Is democracy really the best type of governance for South East Asia

2007-11-23T18:20:00.000+09:00

Al Jazeera’s People & Power program

Is democracy really the best type of governance for South East Asia? People & Power investigate in a compelling discussion with four prominent Asians.

Photos of Venice, Bardi, Florence and Pisa

2007-11-20T00:24:00.000+09:00

I have put up the photos of Venice for awhile, didn't remember to post it up here.

2007_09_14 Venice

After Venice, I checked out of the nice hotel and started my backpacker travel again. First stop was to went North a bit to meet up with Alessandro. Alessandro came to UWA as an visiting researcher in 2005 and we had some great time together.
He has been back to Italy for awhile and was working at University of Bologna which is 40 mins train ride from Modena. However, we met up at Fidenza which is a bit more North as he planned to drive me to Bardi to see a castle. It's nice catching up with old friend.

2007_09_15 Bardi Castle with Alessandro

After the castle trip, I took a train South to Florence. It was nice to have Alessandro do the talking to get my train ticket.

Florence was my favorite place in Italy. It's so historical, artistic, grand and stylish. I was amazed by the sight of the Duomo when I came across it on my first night. And the city is beautiful at night. Old buildings with very big doors, full length windows showing the latest fashion, well lit plaza with grand gate. I'm just in awe.

Two days in Florence is just enough to know what is available. I want to come back one day. And I met some students from California State Polytechnic University, they were in Italy for the Formula SAE competition, building a car and race it with other universities in the world. When I told them I'm from UWA, they burst out their admiration on UWA Motorsports team. I was quite happy about that.

2007_09_15-17 Florence

I took a short train ride from Florence to Pisa to see the famous leaning tower. It was a rainy day and I was trapped in the rained and had to buy an umbrella at an ultra ripped off price. Anyhow, the leaning tower is cool. And I met a nice Taiwanese girl Han ZhenHui. She asked me to take some photos for her, and she helped me took some also. Then we went off doing other things and met again at the train station. She was reading a travel guide full of pictures written in Japanese (so much cooler than Lonely Planet) and planned to go to another small town call San Giorgnenanmitmkajdsj?@#$. I chatted with her and then decided to tag along since she had it all planned. Eventually we didn't get to the place since there was no bus coming back after we reached the train station that we had to change to bus. So anyhow, we decided to go to a restaurant and eat. The pizza was good!

Coming back to Florence it was after 9pm, and I was still thinking about the pig besides a market that I saw in the morning while I followed a guided tour. The legend is that you touch the the pig then you'll return to Florence one day. Then she accompanied me to fulfilled the Pig quest. And here's her blog in Chinese - Han*Han's A Story.

And here are the photos in Pisa.

2007_09_16 Pisa

UWA on 3D campus collections

2007-11-15T23:53:00.000+09:00

Seems like only 2 campuses had the collection properly done, just us UWA and Melbourne U by someone name Wei Wei.

Where are other schools?

Check it out.
Build Your Campus in 3D Competition (Australia and New Zealand) Collection

Happy Birthday to me

2007-11-09T00:36:00.000+09:00

It was my birthday on Wednesday. I'm 28.

This year birthday came a bit unexpected. I was busy with things and suddenly I realised my birthday was approaching in less than a week's time. I went to get myself a portable hard drive on Saturday as I've been thinking about it for awhile. My internal hard drive is giving me a bit of problem and I didn't have enough storage space to empty it and give it a good formating. I suspect the file index table is the problem as I can copy a file to the drive and read it, but once I move the file within the drive, it will not be accessible anymore... Anyhow.

My lovely housemates Yeeting and David got me a chocolate mud cake at slightly before midnight. It was a surprise. Yeeting and I were watching our new found pastime How I met your Mother in my room while David was studying for exam. And half way through the show David suddenly came in, turned off my light (and I thought "thanks, that'll make the cinematic experience better") with the cake. :D
It was very nice. And I haven't had mud cake for a long time.

It took us 4 shots to get the cake into the photo, haha!

Stayed up late that night and Liangliang called me at 2am+ as she got the daylight saving the other way round. Haha!

I didn't go to lab as testified by Shih Ching on the day. Had a bit of Birthday blue thinking about my life, uncertainty and work after PhD.
In the evening I went for a cycle along Matilda Bay. Fantastically refreshing.

Then I decided to have Stuzzico pizza at East Perth. So David and I drove there at 6:30pm and found it's closed by 6pm. Bugger! Then I remember there's another branch on Hay Street closer to the city, so we went there and found out that they are close too.
Disappointed, we walked about that restaurant area and found the Love and Care Cafe which often caters for Malaysian event. So I decided to give it a try. We had Mee Goreng (fantastic, spicy, the sauce is great. 5/5), Mee Soto (Ok, rice cube a bit tasteless, 3/5) and a Nasi Goreng L&C (fantastic, fluffy rice, 5/5) and air bundung with cincao.
The serving of food is quite small, so two of us easily finished the three mains. It was very satisfying.

Then at about 8pm, Rina, Shih Ching, Jason, Lilian and later Alex came with a homemade cake by Rina. Rina called me and let me know she'd come but I didn't think about what to expect. So it was a crowd and a cake I didn't expect. Thank you so much.

Green tea icecream cake with my name in chocolate. :D~

I thought this shot is really cool - two different shirts about PhD and me caring about nothing but the cake.

The cake is really delicious with full flavour of green tea. If you want to taste it, check this website for Rina's new venture - cookies2sushi.
To my nerdy brain, the name sounds like a program that takes cookies and chucks out sushi. Ooo... look at the inside of the cake.

Thanks everyone who send me blessings through sms, msn, phone, email, physical gifts, transferred hug, and telepathy thoughts.

p/s: I went to Stuzzico again today to nail the pizza I missed. The rocket/salmon pizza is absolutely awesome! Highly recommended. Best pizza outside of Italy I had. I'll try the prosciutto pizza and panini next time.

PSA quiz night photos

2007-11-08T00:11:00.000+09:00

Some photos on PSA quiz night last Friday

Our CSSE team - Tone, Jason, Rina, me, Shih Ching, Bob, John and Minh

The CSSE team 2

Broadway Pizza was great!

The Wong

The pretzel coaster that spoke my feeling

We won the Australian citizen test.

That was a lot of wine.

PSA quiz night last Friday

2007-11-04T23:09:00.000+09:00

We went to Quiz night organised by the Postgraduate Students Association (PSA) last Friday. There were two teams from CSSE, and one of them emerged to take the second place (tied). Fun!

Read PSA Quiz Night and Tied for Second on Shih Ching's blog.

UWA in 3D

2007-11-03T20:32:00.000+09:00

It has been a crazy week for me preparing an entry for the Google 3D campus competition (Aus/NZ). We decided to put a team together since we already have a team interested in modelling UWA in 3D. But modelling for Google Earth is a bit different because of the bandwidth and complexity constraint. So there are some considerable effort put in to make the models smaller in size and lesser in geometry. Most of the models are simply an empty shell with texture. anything that cannot be seen are to be taken out.
We applied some good tricks like using transparent texture to replace complex fences or row of pillars. Taking a snapshot of a complex windows structure of the model and replace the geometry with the snapshot works very well too.

The entry closed on 31 Oct 2007 midnight EST. And we hit the submit button at 9:35pm WST on Chris's laptop in his office down in G.(don't know which number, there has been some office shuffling recently). The historical moment was witnessed by Chris, Minh, Jonathan and myself. Chris has been a long captain in the team followed by me as the lead 3D modeller. Minh joint in couple of weeks ago and did some incredible work, and Jonathan came in like couple of days ago and did a great job with the business school, though a bit intensive on the geometry.
Others on the team includes Jayjay who initiated the whole UWA in 3D idea, Michael my fellow 3D modeller, Evgeni the quiet achiever, Bradley who did it the proper architect way, and John who took many great shots for the texturing.
Many other not on the 3D campus team gave us tremendous help to, thanks go to Louisa for keeping us informed on what is going on with ourselves, Leondro, David, Juan, Ashley, Ryan and Jeff for various help.

The madness was on Tuesday, me and Minh worked through the night in the lab to finish up as many models as possible. I started in the afternoon of 30/10 at about 2:30pm and persevered until 9:30pm of 31/10. About 30 hours of modelling. Wickedly fun! I heard Minh did longer!
Anyhow that night I hit my bed at 12:30am and recharged for two night worth of sleep until 4:30pm. Mad!!

Check the models out on 3D warehouse. You can see them either in Sketchup or Google Earth, both need installation. If you don't want to install a big software, use this 6MB SketchUp Viewer.
If you already have Google Earth installed, this 3D Warehouse network link will put a link to 3D model in Google Earth.

Several must see are:

Winthrop Hall

Physics

And unbelievably detailed Engineering buildings and Architecture.

Also check out the very clean Octagon Building and spiral staircase at Reid Library.

Amazing Way to Tie Your Shoes

2007-10-24T17:45:00.000+08:00

I received an email attachment from my brother about shoelace. I usually do my shoelace once when I buy the shoes, and never again. But I'm still amazed by how cool some of the methods are.

My favourite - Lattice Lacing

See more at Ian's Shoelace site.

The Miniature Earth

2007-10-16T23:40:00.000+08:00

If the world's population were reduced to 100, it would look something like this.

You and me are really really fortunate.

Maaf Zahir Batin

2007-10-13T17:08:00.000+08:00

It's the end of Ramadan today and the celebration starts. In Malaysia, we call it the Hari Raya Puasa or Hari Raya Aidilfitri.

I take this opportunity to learn a bit more about this festival and its meaning. I found this article that explains the meaning of Maaf Zahir Batin, which means "forgive my physical and emotional (wrongdoings)".

I seek your forgiveness for things that I have done wrong in the past. If I have offended you in anyway, that was never my intention.

Selamat Hari Raya Puasa.

And then I'm thinking about Ketupat and Rendang

Images from Wikipedia.

VideoTrace: Rapid interactive scene modelling from video

2007-10-11T17:10:00.000+08:00

Cool 3D modelling application developed at Adelaide U, appeared in Siggraph 2007.
VideoTrace: Rapid interactive scene modelling from video

Thanks Danno.

Conference photos at Modena are up

2007-10-11T00:17:00.000+08:00

Four days of the International Conference of Image Analysis and Processing (ICIAP) in Modena.
I split them into two albums, first one is the conference part - talks, posters, my presentation, my hotel, cool buildings, interesting toilet, etc. and the second one is the highlight of welcome cocktail at the Ferrari Museum and the very grand conference dinner.


2007_09_10-13 Conference days	2007_09_11-12 Galleria Ferrari & Conference Dinner

If you want more, there are more photos on the conference website photo page.

6.7% interest RaboPlus + $50 cash

2007-10-10T16:06:00.000+08:00

Damned! I've already had an account with them as I blog about it here and here.

Anyhow, you the reader can take advantage of this:

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Amsterdam Photos are up

2007-10-03T00:28:00.000+08:00

Yeap the photos are up.

Let me recall on the trip a bit. Before I set foot on Amsterdam, I had on my list several things I know about it - Tulips, Van Gogh, Red light district and diamond. I set out to see the later 3 and I did.

I reached Amsterdam late at night. It took me some effort to get to the Shelter City hostel as it's all dark and I didn't have a proper map of the area. But luckily a nice officer at the train station helped me up. Dutch people are nice. :)

Then I checked in the place, pretty crowded 8 beds dormitory. All other beds are already taken. I got a bed on top. The locker is outside the room. So I chucked my stuffs in the locker and went out for a night venture.
It's funny that the hostel is a Christian hostel with big "Jesus loves you" sign on the wall to greet the guests. But I found it rather strange that it is actually located within the red light district. And some of the girls' business locations are just besides an old church. Sin and savior have never been so close together. I have this irony in mind and one of the volunteer (a nice German girl with fantastic voice, and she played the guitar singing one song she wrote. I'm like melted) there shared a great vision with me that the church should really be at the dirtiest or sinnest place on earth, those people are the one most in need of salvation. I was awe struck, well said!

Anyhow, I did go deep into the redlight district as an observer of life in the very different part of the world. Lots of girls dressed in bikinis pose in their own windows to get business. Some are really good looking, but there are also some which made me pace faster. The good thing there I guess is the "No pimp allowed" law there, so all the girls will get what they get paid for without another layer of exploitation.
Another surprise I get is that I actually felt quite safe walking around there alone. It's very different from my imagination of mafia, sex trade, gang fight, guns and marijuana. I did see people rolling marijuana and smoking it in pub.

I took a boat trip on the day. It's a great way to experience the many canal and see the leaning buildings. They say "Nothing is straight in Amsterdam", the road at funny angles with each other, the buildings are leaning left and right, and even the people, hehe, it's the gay capital!

I went to Van Gogh Museum and learnt that he's another very sad and depressed artist. Artistic wise, there are nice paintings to see. That's all I can say. Haha! Oh, a surprise is that there are some Japanese geisha painting (typical Japanese style) that Van Gogh drew to learn different style of drawings.

I went to a diamond polishing factory to admire many diamonds and unexpectedly caught a Chinese tour group. So I got some free guided tour with an exclusive diamond sale behind locked security door. The factory has some Chinese employees to take care of the rich Chinese buyers. It's good to be Chinese. Haha! A random Caucasian tried to sneaked in like me and got told off without much difficulty.

After the diamond tour, I had all the things I wanted to see checked off my list!

Another interesting thing was the dinner. I went to a pub to have dinner - some sort of chilli mussel with salad, for 10 Euro. I ordered it and got myself a Heineken to sip. When it finally arrive, it's a huge pile! Pretty tasty, I can't help but to count them, it total at 70+. Great dinner!

I think that's about it for my Amsterdam 2 nights 1 day tour. Now go hit the photos.

Dinner with my aunt and cousin

2007-09-26T17:14:00.000+08:00

My Aunt (I call her San Gu, 3rd Aunt) from Melbourne just went to Malaysia and came to Perth to visit my cousin Siong for a week or so for the first time. She loves Perth.
She was scheduled to fly back to Melbourne on Tuesday, so we had a dinner on Sunday, 1 day after I got back.

Home cooking is best!

Pork ribs with chestnuts and mushroom, yummy.

Siong Ko's pudding dessert with caramel and pineapple. He must have a better photo and perhaps recipe on his website.

A photo together to mark the occasion.

I had so much food, and it's so great to see SanGu again, the last time was 2002 in Melbourne. And Siongko is going to Italy to meet up with his partner. They have a great page on Italy travel tips here.

Sneak peek of my trip photos

2007-09-26T16:53:00.000+08:00

I arrived back to Perth last Saturday. Spent the last couple of days adjusting jet lag, unpacking, doing laundry, going through 2500 photos, stack of receipts, etc..

Here's a sneak peek of a collage of some of them.

I've put photos of the first 3 days up on picasaweb already. See below for links, or simply scroll down.
Flying with Emirates and landed in Dubai
London Day 1
London Day 2

Venice is fantastic, Florence is stunning

2007-09-16T08:21:00.000+08:00

Went to Venice on Friday. So happen that I bumped into Wojceich from Adelaide U at breakfast and he decided in 1 minute that he'll come with me to Venice. So we did and had a jolly great time with some 200+ photos. Venice is very beautiful. The water is greeny and looks clean. It is fantastic to go with someone.

Saturday, I met Alessandro at Fidenza and he drove me to a castle on a mountain at Bardi. It's not a touristy place so everything is in Italian and there castle is not super impressive like those with lavish paintings. The torture chamber is grouse. But I really enjoyed the alternative tour, seeing the country side from high up, and of course catching up with Alessandro.

We parted at about 3pm and I took a train down to Florence. It's already dark when I checked in and get myself settled, but I decided to went out for a walk. And the Duomo (cathedral) is simply jaw dropping. It literally stopped me and drew me to see it closer. I took some nice long exposure shot using only the floor as support without tripod, most shots turned out quite good. And there was a Charlie Chaplain buskler at one of the plazam very funny and entertaining.

Florence is currently my top ranked Italian city so far. Somehow, I just love it much more than other places.
Also the youth hostle I stay in (which is where I'm using the free internet) is great too. It is decorated vby many copies of paintings and sculptures by some local arts students. Very nice.

Yes! Presentation is done

2007-09-13T00:47:00.000+08:00

My first international presentation. Spent the whole day flashing up the presentation so that it makes more sense.

OK, they need to close the room now.

In short, it's done, and I enjoyed it.

Amsterdam and no internet

2007-09-11T23:34:00.001+08:00

There's no internet in the hostel I stayed in Amsterdam and I'm dead tired to write anything on the first night after a whole day of cycling in London, and a whole day of walking in Amsterdam the second night.

Now I'm in Modena, Italy. Conference is going on well. I'm very lack of sleep for many days due to flight schedule, and a long dinner last night that finished at around 1am. It was good though, a new Bologna friend took me and another new friend from Uni Malaya to a local italian restaurant and tried some authentic Modena food.

My presentation is at the last session tomorrow, shall prepare for it.

London Day 2

2007-09-08T23:32:00.000+08:00

8/9 Sat

I woke up after 6 hours of sleep at 7:30am, got myself ready and the luggages packed. Woke Sylvia up to let her know I'm heading off at 8:30am and let her know what happened the night before. Then she sent me to the tube at Turnham Green to catch the underground to Liverpool Street where I'll meet YikGio. The trip was smooth and I got there 15 mins earlier so I called Tanliang up for a chat.

YikGio showed up at 9:30am and I followed him home. His place is just <10m mins walk from the Liverpool Station, fantastic location. I dropped my luggages there and we set out for a whole day of bicycle tour of Central London.

It is awesomely awesome to see London on bicycle with a good friend who knows the places quite well. Wow, where do I start, we went to so many places. I think we started off at the Tower Bridge and ended at the National Museum. In between there were the Big Beng, Packingham palace, Westminster Abbey, Thames River, London Eye, Bolough Market, lunch at Chinatown with his landlord Paul, St Peter's Cathedral, etc..

The funny thing is that I didn't learn all these places in English, so the names really do not mean anything to me at all. It's until I translate it into their Chinese names, then I go "Wow! I'm at XXX!! It's unreal." Like the da ying bo wu guan, tai wu shi he, etc..

Cycling around London is fantastic although it could be a bit scary at times too. But it's a really efficient way to see the place. There's no way I could have covered so many landmarks in London in such a short time if not by cycling. And YikGio is a fantastic tour guide, he took many photos of me in front of the landmarks, which is something I don't get very much as a lonely traveller a lot of the time. Thank you very much my friend.

I'm now on my way to the Stansted airport to catch my flight to Amsterdam.
Photos should follow when I get time to load them up.

Updates:
Photos in my picasaweb

Windsor Castle, Oxford and dinner with Winson

2007-09-08T08:07:00.000+08:00

As the title said, that's what I did today. Took quite some photos today. Need to sleep now. Watch this space for photos and details.

London Day 1

2007-09-07T23:25:00.000+08:00

7/9 Friday

My first morning in London. The jetlag did not bother me much and I'm well adjusted from a late-nighter to a early-morninger by the jetlag. I woke up at 8:30am, Sylvia went out for an appointment already so I had some organic honey muesli myself.

Sylvia came back at around 9am+ and she made me some very nice omelette with smoked salmon, avocado and spring onion, on toast. It's fantastic. Then we decided to go to Windsor Castle together and after that I'd go to Oxford myself and come back to meet Winson at Fulham Broadway.

1 hour in Oxford, rush like mad. Saw a girl who looks like RongZuEr on train. Met Winson and his A level friend Jeff (a Medical researcher from from Malaysia living in Ireland).

Night back late, stucked at Earl's Court for half an hour got home at about 12:30am.

Updates:
Photos in my Picasaweb

Arrived London

2007-09-07T06:46:00.000+08:00

I touched down London at 8:15pm local time. Took about 1.5 hours to clear the custom, so many people.
My cousin Sylvia came picked me up and we reached her home at 10-ish. Relaxed a bit and bath, now it's mid night at London, which is 7am Perth time. I was still rather hyper active when I reached London, I think I'm ready to collapse anytime now.

Good night world.

Flying with Emirates and landed in Dubai

2007-09-06T18:17:00.000+08:00

Emirates airline is fantastic. Movies, TV programs on demand, huge selections, altogether aboutmore than 500 channels to choose from! The screen is bigger than MAS and SIA and its a touchscreen! In addition, there are two live camera I can watch, one looking infront of the cockpit and another looking down to give a bird-eye view.

The air stewardess are very pretty and friendly too. Haha.
I got a window seat, but it really didn't matter because all three seats are empty, so I got 3 seats to lie down and had a good sleep. :)

The food are great. Breakfast was some cheesy crepe with salmon and baked tomato. I forgot to take a photo of the menu. :(
And the lunch was fried Hokkien noodle with seafood, and some salad with two small pieces of cooked salmon.

I watched a romantic pseudo musical "Because I said so" and half of Aaron Kwok's award winning "Father and Son" (After this we exile(?) was the proper name).
In the 11 hours flight, I slept (probably 5-6 hours), watch 1.5 movies, had two meals and went to toilet 4 times.

Oh by the way, there's WiFi on the aircraft also, and it's free to preview the inbox. To use it for 4 hours costs 10 USD. I didn't try.

Before landing at Dubai, I looked out the window, the sight is amazing! It's all sand, just a huge desert. And there are clusters of houses here and there connected by roads that looks like highways from the plane. And there are power line as well stretching vast distance. When it get close to the airport, suddenly there are patches of greens and knife-cut built-ups. The sight is just amazing! It's amazing that in the middle of a desert, a city is build and is flourishing.

Walking out of the aircraft was another shock. 35 degree celcius with high humidity. But tht only lasted for 20 seconds before I walked into a shuttle bus that took me into the airport.

The Dubai International Airport looks like any western airport with dutyfree liquor, cigar, perfume, huge posters, etc. The only difference is the people, many dressed like Arabic - white over cloth for man or black overcloth with veil covering everything except for the eyes for lady. Strangely, it looks to me that it is just as acceptable as any other clothing. The cultural/religeous stereotype somehow become relaxed when people are in a foreign land. This is probably my first bit of eye-opening experience on this big trip.

It's 2:30pm in Dubai now, 4 hours behind. I have another half an hour until boarding.

Updates 25/09/2007:
Photos are up at my picasaweb

Big trip Italy

2007-09-06T05:05:00.000+08:00

I'm at the airport now, 5am in the morning. The flight is at 6am. 11 hours to Dubai, then transit for 2.5 hours, and the another 7.5 hours to London Heathrow. This will set a new reocord for me as the longest flight.

I'll spend 2 days in London, staying with my cousin Sylvia and will meet up with my Hobart housemate Winson and highschool mate Kenny (Yu4 Jie2).
After 2 days in London, I'll be off to Amsterdam for 2 nights 1 day. Then flight to Milan and make my way down to Modena where my conference will be.

The conference is 5 days, first day I'll only attend the afternoon session which is tutorial. I didn't plan to attend that as it cost 150 Euro and I didn't know who was presenting. But later the price dropped to 50Euro and Mubarak Shah is presenting. He's a leading researcher in my field and I read and use some of his papers. I'm very excited to be able to attend his tutorial.

Then it's 3 days conference. I'll be presenting my paper on Wednesday last session. (haven't brush up my last bit of presentation yet). Then I'll go to Venice for a day, Florance, Pisa (leaning tower) for 2 days. Naples (Pompeii) for a day and Rome for 3 days.

More updates will come with photos. Hope internet will be good.

Stay tuned.

Golden Rules for Career Success

2007-08-27T11:42:00.000+08:00

I got this from my brother.

Golden Rules for Career Success - Richard Moran

Working as a business consultant all over the world, I have discovered some basic career-related rules that everyone should know—but many don’t.

Business is made up of ambiguous victories and nebulous defeats. Claim them all as victories.
Keep track of what you do; someone is sure to ask.
Be comfortable around senior managers, or learn to fake it.
Never bring your boss a problem without some solution. You are getting paid to think, not to whine.
Long hours don’t mean anything; results count, not effort.
Write down ideas; they get lost, like good pens.
Always arrive at work 30 minutes before your boss.
Help other people network for jobs. You never know when your turn will come.
Don’t take days off sick—unless you are.
Assume no one can/will keep a secret.
Know when you do your best—morning, night, under pressure, relaxed; schedule and prioritize your work accordingly.
Treat everyone who works in the organization with respect and dignity, whether it be the cleaner or the managing director. Don’t ever be patronizing.
Never appear stressed in front of a client, a customer or your boss. Take a deep breath and ask yourself: In the course of human events, how important is this?
If you get the entrepreneurial urge, visit someone who has his own business. It may cure you.
Acknowledging someone else’s contribution will repay you doubly.
Career planning is an oxymoron. The most exciting opportunities tend to be unplanned.
Always choose to do what you’ll remember ten years from now.
The size of your office is not as important as the size of your pay cheque.
Understand what finished work looks like and deliver your work only when it is finished.
The person who spends all of his or her time is not hard-working; he or she is boring.
Know how to write business letters—including thank-you notes as well as proposals.
Never confuse a memo with reality. Most memos from the top are political fantasy.
Eliminate guilt. Don’t fiddle expenses, taxes or benefits, and don’t cheat colleagues.
Reorganizations mean that someone will lose his or her job. Get on the committee that will make the recommendations.
Job security does not exist.
Always have an answer to the question, “What would I do if I lost my job tomorrow?”
Go to the company Christmas party.
Don’t get drunk at the company Christmas party.
Avoid working at weekends. Work longer during the week if you have to.
The most successful people in business are interesting.
Sometimes you’ll be on a winning streak and everything will click; take maximum advantage. When the opposite is true, hold steady and wait it out.
Never in your life say, “It’s not my job.”
Be loyal to your career, your interests and yourself.
Understand the skills and abilities that set you apart.
Use them whenever you have an opportunity.
People remember the end of the project. As they say in boxing, “Always finish stronger than you start.”

Stack of photos from phone

2007-08-23T01:38:00.001+08:00

I've downloaded a stack of photos from my phone.

On June 18, I received this RaboPlus hardware pass code generator for their internet banking. Read Rabobank 6.6% online saving account for details.
Oh, recently Australia has increased the interest rate again. The Howard government does not particularly welcome that as election is coming soon. But I'm happy as most banks followed by increasing their rate too. At this time, Raboplus is standing at 6.7% while BankWest at 7% (12-month introduction rate)!!

On July 6, I received a very heart warming gift from a Malaysian auntie, ChoonHo's mom. She was here on holiday for 2 months, I was the first new friend she met here in Perth and we had 4-5 good chats altogether. And before she left for Malaysia, she knitted me this scarf as a gift. Each knot is a blessing, she said. I'm so touched. I'm so blessed.

On July 7 (obviously), I got this cool parking docket.

On July 19, I witnessed a police chase. Some car thief was chased down by 8 police cars. It was raining and didn't want to get wet. So I only got a photo of the channel 9 news car illegally parked on verged.

That night, I had dinner with my housemates at HKBBQ. The tofu dish is fantastic!

So is the BBQ

and the squid.

On July 26, I took a panorama of my desk using the stitching program that come with my k800i.

Big Bowl Noodle House on William Street

2007-08-23T00:37:00.000+08:00

I've downloaded a stack of photos from my phone.

On 18/6, I went to Big bowl noodle house the first time. It's fantastic! Big bowl. It's extra noodle is FREE! Very satisfying.
My favourite is the beef noodle soup.

The beef stomach noodle soup is great too.

Minced pork noodle is good too, just a pity that there is no vege.

The seafood one is pricey and ordinary. The cheese baked noodle are pretty good too, good to share, a bit too heavy for one person consumption.

Oh ya, the best bit is the chilli! Very very good sambal chilli. The price ranges from $8.90 to $14.90. Recommended!
And the friendly identical twin waitresses added a bit of fun too.

And when I googled to find more information about the shop, I found this blog that has many photos of the place, and a closer look reveals that it's actually a friend of mine, Kok Wei's blog. Hi! Kok Wei.
It has the address and shop front photos there if you'd like to try it.

Luck Factor by Richard Wiseman

2007-08-22T23:46:00.000+08:00

As part of the National Science Week activities, there was a public lecture by Prof Richard Wiseman titled "The Luck Factor". Richard is a professor of Psychology he was a magician before that part of his career started. It was a very entertaining lecture with magic tricks and public psychology experiments. I was fooled too! Fun!

Jason found one of the experiment online. It's an experiment to count the number of basketball passes among 3 white-shirt players. It's hard to get it because there are also 3 black-shirt players to confuse people.

There are some more cool experiments by Richard Wiseman on youtube and his quirkology website. I was fooled by the colour changing card tricks!

Transforming the Mind, Yunus-style

2007-08-21T00:33:00.000+08:00

Transforming the Mind, Yunus-style by Marina Mahathir.

There I listened to Dr Jonathan Mann articulate a very new concept to me, that a person's health is directly related to the human rights he or she is able to enjoy.

What underlies Prof Yunus' motivation is something extraordinary in these cynical times: he has total faith in the human spirit.In believing that every human being is at heart an entrepreneur and has skills that are under-utilised, Prof Yunus revolutionized the way we look at the poor. No longer are they to be looked down as incapable, unreliable, too ill-educated to better themselves. They are human beings who happened to be born in difficult circumstances which are no fault of theirs. As Prof Yunus likes to remind people, "Poverty is not the fault of the poor".

UWA EXPO

2007-08-19T23:16:00.000+08:00

It's Open Day again. This is my 5th time volunteering at the open day, and it's the last time also.

I helped set up most of the vision demo in the morning and talked to visitors about all these projects that I seems to know from listening to the creators explaining about them in previous years.

Most of the demos are from last year or year before. A couple of interesting thing to note：
1. A really cool face recognition system using a simple webcam that we downloaded from here. Visitors just love it. If you have a webcam, you can test it out too.
2. On last Friday 5pm+ I decided to print out a huge poster of Chinese Ascii arts to cover a big white wall in our demo lab. So I go to the code that I haven't touched for more than a year and got it to do what I wanted in 20 mins. Felt pretty good about myself. The end result is a 8x8 A4 sheets of Winthrop tower made up of Chinese characters. A couple of visitors were very impressed by that. One of them said "It's the coolest thing I've ever seen in my life!". I was happy with that.

More photos are on my photo gallery

Online Virtual UWA

2007-08-19T23:03:00.000+08:00

A quick note on the virtual UWA project I've been involved. It's launched last Friday and well received. All the ungodly hours spent on the 3D modelling was glorified.

Read the story here.

This Winthrop Hall model is one of my work.

The virtual UWA is online at http://www.csse.uwa.edu.au/virtual and you can choose an avatar and see many panorama views of UWA. Need to download the BS Contact to see it, the instruction is on the site.
At this moment, the 3D models are not up yet. Eventually they will.

Meeting with my minister

2007-08-05T22:54:00.000+08:00

Last Friday I was invited by Somun the student coordinator of AMBC to attend a meeting with the minister of International Trade and Industry of my country - the YB Rafidah Aziz. She and her team of representatives are on a trade mission to Australia and Perth is their last stop.

She speaks well, with a sense of humour and a no-nonsense kind of attitude. Her directness is quite funny at one time when she was directing the delegates' attention to one of the information CD and here's what happened - she took out the CD, looked at it and said "What is this CD about? I can't even read the title, the title is too small! Who prepared this?" and she looked at her subordinates, "These people just played with graphics, what's the point of putting the twin tower, fireworks so big and you can't even read the words!"

The lunch was great! Well, it's at the Hyatt Regency Hotel.

And it's a courtesy of the Malaysian government. I felt a bit uneasy about that so I made it a point to make some contribution out of my attendance.

Over lunch I got a chance to talk to the director of a software company in Malaysia that just signed a partnership contract with an Aussie company. They might be able to get me a job when I get back. I also got in contact with the treasurer of MASCA WA, Everlyn, a nice young curtin student, I also caught up with Kay Sen, ISS liaison officer at UWA.
(ya, it's more natural to look at the LCD instead of the lens)

After the lunch, that's the student meeting with minister and 4 members of parliament who came along with the trip. The minister seems down to earth during the dialog, she made it very safe for us to ask questions and express our concerns, by asking us to address her as Auntie Rafidah and treat her like an elderly relative. That worked quite well and many Q&A was exchanged. One student got a smack on the hand by addressing her straight as Rafidah. One asked her about the state of Proton and why the import tax for cars is still so high and she shared some interesting stories about the past managements which I won't reproduced here.
Another student touched on the education system that focuses more on paper than practical and she answered as it's a culture that is ingrained and needs to be changed.

I got my guts up and ask her opinion on the concern that I have which I think is shared by many young non-Malay professionals who are currently overseas, ie I'm going back (or some are thinking about going back) to serve the country but am deterred and frightened by the many racist remarks of ministers and unfair racist incidents towards the non-Malays. Her answer was along the line of - "for god's sake, please do not ever look at any issue as Chinese or Malay or Indian! We are all Malaysian! There are some idiots who said something inconsiderate and that does not represent the mass of the parliament and the government's view." I hope it's the true words and not just lips service.

Then another student raised the issue that they don't have a venue to organise event for Malaysian students, the Consul General briefed that there's a plan of Malaysia House under AMWA to accommodate this need. With much hesitation, then being pressed by the minister, the student expressed that AMWA members are mainly Chinese... And "Auntie Rafidah" straight away told off the student right on the face that "Do not ever think of going down that path!". And she reiterated that Malaysian is Malaysian, not Malay or Indian or Chinese! If there's to be a Malaysia Hall, it will be for all Malaysians.

Seems like we still have a long way to go for the nation building, but I'm glad that the minister took the strong view of "all Malaysians" and taught the student a lesson! The director of the Malaysian Student Department from Sydney also reiterated that its department is there to help all Malaysian students, not just the government sponsored ones.
Also, a new officer to look after Malaysian students here in Perth was requested as Perth has about 4000 Malaysian students, the second largest in Australia, and the minister was supportive about it, and it may just happen next year.

At the end, we took some happy snaps. Overall, it was a great meeting.

More photos are on AMWA photo gallery, which I maintain.
http://www.amwa.org.au/gallery/

Stop the clash of civilizations

2007-07-25T21:33:00.000+08:00

Avaaz.org

Butterfly lovers in Perth from Malaysia

2007-07-17T19:57:00.000+08:00

Google alerts me about this Butterfly lovers in Perth from Malaysia article in The Star newspaper.

I actually watched it here in Perth on 10 June. It's good and I really enjoyed it. I got a free ticket from a friend of mine. And I was pleasantly surprised to find out that it's from Malaysia! Most of them speak well-trained Mandarin, I'm quite impressed. A few still sound funny. :P

I thought the staging is impressive too.

It took awhile for The Star to pick up the story.

Disappearing Door Prototype Concept Car

2007-07-16T22:33:00.000+08:00

1993 Lincoln Mark VIII Disappearing Door Prototype Concept Car with video.

Peak Oil: Life After the Oil Crash

2007-07-06T13:27:00.000+08:00

It was 2 years ago when I first came across the peak oil issue. I had started to read into this issue and the facts and claims are truely alarming.

Petronas has just announced that Malaysia will be net oil importer in 3 years time! It is time to really get to know the issue if you haven't. The world financial system is based on Oil, it is unlikely to sustain when after the oil crashes. Read here:
Peak Oil: Life After the Oil Crash

RantingsbyMM: Sage Advice from a Dropout

2007-07-06T01:08:00.000+08:00

Great graduation address at Harvard by Bill Gates:

Sage Advice from a Dropout

Firefox 2.0.0.4 Bug

2007-07-01T23:27:00.000+08:00

I just updated to Firefox 2.0.0.4 and the middle mouse click (open link in new tab) doesn't work!
It's the very reason why I initially switched to Firefox from IE many years ago. Man! How do I surf the net without this function?

Is anyone else using that? Am I the only one having this crazy bug?
Not happy. :(

Updated:
Oh, it's actually not a Firefox bug, but the SuperT add-on bug! Well, it works now after SuperT is disabled.
Life's Good. :)

Kazoo Yen & physical Nonsense

2007-06-29T18:46:00.000+08:00

Danno is finishing his phd up and going to leave soon. He gave me this gift that has my name in it. A kazoo and a 1 Yen coin. Ingenious!

And I'm so touched and delighted to receive a paper copy of the Only Talking Nonsense. It's really cool to read his blog about things that happened around his life which I share some scenes, but it's a totally different and amazing feeling to get a book of that which has my photos, my stories and a lot of my fond memories recorded.

Thanks Danno. You rock!
With the glory of Lordiness you bestowed on me, I forgive you for making up all the posters about me. Haha!
Well, I was never offended to start with, not even this one below and this tzu-yen.blogspot.com website. It's such great fun! You bloody pranker!

Thank you for your friendship Danno, I'm truely honoured.
I wish you all the best.
(And hope we get to execute some more pranks together shall the victims' fate destined. Muahahaha!! )

Tesla Coils music

2007-06-25T19:08:00.000+08:00

Makig music using Tesla Coils.

Throw a paper plane Return

2007-06-17T16:40:00.000+08:00

The Throw a paper plane game I posted had some very good responses. And some readers had challenged me to train harder. So I took the advice and trained.

I got 114.775m and ranked 1180. And I found a trick (or cheat) to get that score consistently, every time, no sweat! Click on the image to see the trick.

However, with that trick, now I cannot get pass my own highest score which I got in the first few attempts of the trick. I spent an hour after that trying variations of it but I just couldn't break it anymore.

Leave a comment if you found some other tricks.
I wonder how 1179 others get scores higher than this?

Updated:
My brother took this trick and perfected it to 114.835m ranked 918. 200+ people within this tiny 0.06m?! He thinks he has found the optimum configuration, the rest is due to hardware speed. I shall try on different computer and see if it does change the result.

Update 2:
Better training, better results! Seems like more people are good at it now.

acsii autostereogram, great message

2007-06-12T11:57:00.000+08:00

stereo.txt

Source: http://www.lce.hut.fi/~ikalliom/stereo.txt

I make confusing road signs

2007-06-11T16:32:00.001+08:00

I've got some result for my phd to show today. Take a road sign and swap the direction.
With 4 points correspondance, it's rather straight forward to compute the projective relationship (homography) between two planar surfaces. The novelty of this work is the smooth and perspectively correct interpolation of the transition.

You might have seen planar surfaces flying around in space in other animation work before. The difference is that those work are done in 3D space so the 3D coordinates of the objects need to be specified and then the scene projected (rendered) on 2D screen. Mine works in 2D - a 2D photograph and some corner points as input, the algorithm works out the homography, decompose it into perspective, scale, rotation and translation components and interpolates the picture properly.

Cool! I think it is.

I created a related page on my CSSE website here with animated gif.
Projective interpolation for animation