Tuesday, December 29, 2009

10, 9, 8,.... 3, 2, 1...

Its the annual endless-Top 10-lists post!

Something to reflect on this past year and something to motivate me into the next year!

Top 10 Geeky Exploits!

1) Giving my PC a massive rehaul (half of it off the 2nd-hand market)
2) Getting sucked into the portal that is Hardwarezone.com.sg
3) Overclocking my PC + undervolting my notebook
4) Zhng my notebook cooler!
5) Going to 3 IT shows (missed the last one) and hanging around Sim Lim Sq countless times
6) Getting a "smart"phone (E63)
7) Joining the grid computing network
8) Taking the course "How Computers Work" and actually enjoyed it
9) Taking the course "FE1008 Computing" and didn't actually dislike it
10) Spending hours trying to get the perfect geeky desktop

Top 10 Green Exploits

1) Interning @ Alpha Biofuels Pte Ltd
2) Buying and using a "green" harddisk (Western Digital Caviar Green)
3) Donating processor time to run climate models (climateprediction.net)
4) Being a Karang Guni man for half a day
5) Continuing my abstinence from air-conditioning at home
6) Undervolting my notebook and CPU
7) Studying to be an Environmental Engineer
8) Staying in hall (which prevents me from playing games on my power hungry PC)
9) Sticking to the usual Saturday morning cycling to soccer routine
10) Farting less (and failing)

Top 10 Gaming Exploits

1) Dragon Age: Origins (still in the process of playing)
2) Batman Arkham Asylum
3) GTA IV
4) Modern Warfare 2
5) FIFA 10
6) Left 4 Dead
7) Team Fortress 2 (and its never ending updates!)
8) Atlantica Online + Rappelz (grew tired of both, but great games nonetheless)
9) Old Call of Duty games (Modern Warfare and World @ War)
10) Starcraft / Plants vs Zombies / World of Goo (ultimate nothing-to-do-in-hall games)

Top 10 Artistes (songs)

1) Fukuhara Miho -(Let it out, Yuki no Hikari, Believe my way)
2) Superfly (Ai wo Komete Hanabata o, Alright!, Precious Time)
3) YUI (Again, It's all too much)
4) Ayumi Hamasaki (You were... , Sunrise ~Love is all~)
5) Muse (Uprising, Undisclosed Desires)
6) Bugy Craxone (Come on, Cheeseburgers Diary)
7) chatmonchy (Last Love Letter, Kaze Fukeba Koi)
8) Do as Infinity (Umereyuku Monotachi e)
9) Lady Gaga (Bad Romance, Poker Face)
10) Michael Jackson (need I say more?)

Top 10 Things that affected me in a big way

1) ORD LO!
2) Interning @ Alpha Biofuels
3) Starting school once again
4) Staying in hall
5) QUIS
6) Hardwarezone
7) Turning 21 (not much of a big deal, but well, just to fill in the spaces...)
8) Economic recovery
9) Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood
10) I can't think of a last one... Oh wait, does losing Ronaldo and Tevez count?

Goodbye 2009!

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

All I want for Christmas is....

Its the time of the year again, where endless lists start appearing on my blog.

To start off, here's my wishlist for Santa (although I suspect he might be having some problems fulfilling it)

1) Final Fantasy XIII on PC
I'm still praying Square Enix doesn't confine FF13 to the PS3, something that is very likely to happen. This climbs to the top of my "wanted" list after watching the trailer on YouTube. Oh, and I'd gladly substitute this for a PS3 emulator.

2) PC component upgrades
Including a new sound card (ASUS Xonar!), speakers (Aego M/Gigaworks T3), a bling bling ram cooler (OCZ XTC), lots and lots of LED fans, a new casing (CM5 II). Heck, I'd say dump everything for a totally new PC, but that wouldn't be environmentally friendly, considering I just recently did a major upgrade a few months back.

3) A+++++++ all the way!
NTU exam results release on 30th Dec, which definitely qualifies this as a wish for Santa.

4) Holiday extension!
Apparently January is coming too soon for all of us...

5) Save the Earth
I'd like to see Santa try this one. Maybe he should start by losing weight, for starters. His reindeer would love it.

What do you REALLY want for Christmas?

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6) An Avatar.

Friday, December 18, 2009

Desktop - whore

Is there such a thing as Desktop-whoring?

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Finally tweaked to my satisfaction :D

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Make it a better place

I spent 4 hours in front of my computer just to do this:

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Note: The wallpaper changes as the Earth rotates.

Desktops should be works of art, not a dumping ground for tons of icons =)
Cheap geek thrill.

I was inspired after reading a couple of Lifehacker posts. I believe the inner geek in you will start drooling after reading the 2nd post :P

Some tools to get a similar effect:
Rainmeter
Desktop Earth

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In the meantime, here's what my CPU and GPU cores have been up to lately:

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While I'm not playing games or using any other resource-hogging applications, I've installed programs that will fully utilise any unused processing power, harnessing the processors to do calculations that will contribute towards projects that aim to model the climate, find a cure for cancer, predict protein folding patterns and improve rice yields, among others.

Its called grid-computing, and its amazing what it can do. Instead of individual laboratories and organisations running these calculations on their own supercomputers (which cost bombs), grid computing uses the computing power from users like you and me, thanks to the wonders of the Internet.

Yes I admit, a topic in BS1004 (bio-informatics) triggered this interest, even though I knew it existed all along.

So while I type this blog post, I'm contributing to a cure for AIDS! Its doesn't cost a cent either, only electricity. Well it might contribute to global warming, but the processors would still be sucking up power doing nothing anyway.

If you have a decent CPU and graphics card, why not do some volunteer work?

World Community Grid
Folding@Home

Tuesday, December 08, 2009

Welcome to the end of the world... as we know it

Have you watched 2012? Good movie eh? A lil' on the depressing side though - imagine seeing our Merlion fall apart just like the statue of Christ in Rio De Janeiro. On second thoughts, it won't be that depressing after all. Special effects and epic death-defying car/plane/truck-being-chased-by-tectonic-cleavages aside, it really draws parallels with whats happening in the world today. And no, I'm not referring to the conspiracy theories.

In case you haven't read the news, the UN Climate Change Conference 2009 started yesterday in Copenhagen (dubbed Hopenhagen, and with good reason too). The aim? To get the major countries of the world to sign a treaty that binds countries to carbon emissions reduction targets. Its been promising so far, what with the likes of India and China finally taking action, not to mention the very ambitious targets of other countries.

Singapore also pledged to "reduce carbon emissions growth by 16 per cent below the 2020 "business as usual" level".

This all sounds very optimistic and if Hopenhagen 2009 turns out to be a success, it'll pave the way for a more sustainable future. Still, there are some people out there who still believe that climate change a.k.a global warming is a myth. Or perhaps ongoing actions to cut emissions are threatening their interests, personal or otherwise. Whatever the case, the recent hacking of climate researchers' emails (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/21/science/earth/21climate.html) just provides climate skeptics with more ammunition. The emails "
show that climate scientists conspired to overstate the case for a human influence on climate change."

Bullshiat. Even 10 year old kids are acknowledging climate change.

Which brings me back to 2012. Imagine a conspiracy that is happening right now, exactly like in the movie. Information blackout. Researchers who tried to let the world know - assassinated. Governments around the world forced to keep quiet. We'd all be living our happy lives, oblivious to the effects our actions are having on the climate. Until its too late.

Scary thought eh?

Still, there are some aspects from the movie that are sadly, missing from our world today. Swift, decisive action is one of them. Now is the perfect time for that, instead of sticking to the "if he does it, then I'll do it" mentality. The problem is, and has always been, time. The effects of climate change require time, time that most of us will have probably lived out and died. Imagine how things would change if those brilliant scientists say the world will warm 3 degrees in another 2 years time.

We need action. And we need it now.

http://www.hopenhagen.org/home/map

Best we can do now its hope.

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Back to my Modern Warfare 2. Not exactly the most environmentally friendly holiday activity, but hey, at least I'm not flying all over the world (I wish).