August 2003 Archives

So, my laptop's died. I have finally come to terms with the fact that it no longer is able to run Windows, and hangs at exactly 31% during ScanDisk in DOS, refusing to continue. It cites a long filename to be the problem, and proceeds to hang. Obviously if Scandisk was run in Windows there may not be such a problem. It is a sticky, vicious-cycle sort of situation.

While in DOS, I tried to recall what I knew about DOS commands but was unable to figure out how to transfer my documents to a floppy. Help, anyone?

If not, then it's goodbye to my old university contacts, my MSSA minutes and newsletters, ALL my law essays, notes, my first websites, song lyrics and other precious files. My laptop was a time capsule chock full of fond memories. Its (then powerful) AMD 300MHz processor and 64MB of RAM was the envy of schoolmates, who were still running on Pentium 150s and 32 MB of RAM. It generated my first 3D landscapes. Small consolation that the company that manufactured it went kaput years before this baby went brain dead. My machine was going strong for over five years, making it the human equivalent age of 102 (or thereabouts). I should've known its time was up.

It gave me the best years of my life. It once made me the eighth most busy user on ResNet (a dubious accolade which I still like to brag about). It convinced me that I had an interest worth pursuing. It was the device through which I earned my very first cheque as a student, by loading advertisements from a legitimate program while I surfed. Subsequently I earned enough money to buy a domain name and pay for web hosting for two years. The rest, as you can see, is history.

Until some genius comes up with a better idea, may my poor little laptop rest in peace. *sniff*

Via Blogzilla, I found a Mozilla store. Erm, anybody wanna try these on for size?

I just attended my first IT class this evening. It wasn't too bad. I learnt a lot more about networks than I have in the last few years. I only hope I can retain all this information when it's time to put it into practice.

Before the class started I made some small talk with the other students. This evening, only two other students were present. They were older men, both casually dressed. They told me they were jobless. One used to work in a bank.

I realised then, that spending a few thousand dollars of my savings to upgrade my skills wasn't too raw a deal when at least I still had a job. I wouldn't feel the pinch as much as they would.

I intend to make the most out of my training. Fortunately our instructor seems pretty enthusiastic about helping us - we even have his mobile number should we have any questions. I'll be attending this course 2 to 3 times a week, after work. I'll be tired, but my mind will be racing. As I grow older, I've come to realise there's so little I actually know.

My job scope requires certain areas of specialisation, although I have found myself taking a step back, to look at the big picture. How does the technology I know how to apply, come into play with users and clients? Ultimately, how is my work relevant to society?

In a sense I am grateful to have found a job that interests me so much that I am able to come home and pick up from where I left. Don't get me wrong, I don't believe in bringing actual work home to do, but if I started researching on a certain kind of technique in the office, I'd continue to read about it even at home. I am absolutely fascinated with how things work, and do not mind going on six hours of sleep a day or less, if I'm on to something. I've been doing that for months now, and I thank God I haven't fallen seriously ill or sleepwalked into a tree, that sort of thing. So I'll keep soldiering on ... and learning.

• Zeldman and Stopdesign to revamp Apple.com. Can it get any better than this?
• CSS guru Eric Meyer launches his new consultancy website.
• One for the ladies: Eating dark chocolate is good for you, according to this Reuters Health report. It contains antioxidants.

My Currently Reading list has returned - in a more graphical format. Curiously enough, Amazon.com indicated that I gave them a fair number of clickthroughs over the past few months. So to better track which titles my readers are interested in, I've decided to make the online bookshop a permanent fixture in my listings. Like anyone's gonna buy anything >;-P

You can view the new list (in experimental mode) here, on the home page, complete with my personal ratings. I'm reading way too many heavy books at the same time - this isn't even the complete list!

The BBC is going to release its radio and television archives to the public.

Greg Dyke, director general of the BBC, has announced plans to give the public full access to all the corporation's programme archives.

Mr Dyke said on Sunday that everyone would in future be able to download BBC radio and TV programmes from the internet.

The service, the BBC Creative Archive, would be free and available to everyone, as long as they were not intending to use the material for commercial purposes, Mr Dyke added.

Can it get cooler than this? :-P There's one programme I definitely want to watch again - Spitting Image. I spent my summer holidays as a fifteen year-old guffawing away at a blue-faced John Major. Bah! Apparently it isn't a BBC production.

Macromedia has revamped its website (nice!) and released a new version of its popular Studio MX series. The product name is a bit of a mouthful: Studio MX 2004. But the specs look good.

As I had hoped, Dreamweaver MX 2004 has more integrated CSS support. Among other useful tweaks, you can now import Office Documents while preserving their appearance, and check your code's validity in different browsers.

Flash has been split up into Flash MX 2004 and Flash MX Professional 2004. The latter version has extra features for application development, video, presentations and mobile devices. Blow my mind! Obviously Macromedia is moving Flash beyond computer screens, with growing support in other devices and mediums. [Update: Check it out, CSS support!]

Fireworks may still not be a complete substitute for Photoshop, where image manipulation is concerned, but it is still pretty dynamic. It now has a Javascript API which works with Flash. I guess the best way to find out how good MX 2004 is, is to play around with the software and find out.

Now, how do I wheedle my IT department into getting me an upgrade? :-P

[Update: Webmonkey has a review of Studio MX 2004. Go read. ]

Yeah!! A four-nil score from Arsenal, away at Middlesborough. Poor Juninho. The Brazilian national tried his best, but was outrun by taller, faster Gunners and never quite made it to goal. As for the rest of the team, well, they could very well not have played, it wouldn't have mattered. They weren't crass, but they were simply outclassed by last season's runners-up.

I can't possibly stay up for the Man U and Wolverhampton match. But I expect an even bigger trouncing from the home team. Didn't see much of the Liverpool v Aston Villa match. It was b-o-r-i-n-g ... you can look at a team and don't feel they're going anywhere, anymore.

My long-time music advisor, Sim, came over this afternoon to listen to my latest productions. According to her, some of my jazz compositions sound like Henry Mancini, and my alternative/funk tracks have elements of Fun Lovin' Criminals. So it looks like I'll be getting some new albums the next time I visit That CD Shop.

Does anyone know of an online service in Singapore where you can email your digital photos to a developer, and get them printed and sent to your address?

So far I've learnt that HP and Singnet offer a joint service but it is only available to Singnet users. Pah.

Using a set of algorithms, the gender of the author of a body of text can be determined via the Gender Genie. Just paste something that you've written in here, and see how it goes. I know, I know, it stereotypes people linguistically, but it seems to have a high success rate.

I conducted an experiment [this sentence sounds convincingly male], taking the last post of the blogs I visit regularly, as well as the spouses who blog. Kristen was determined to be 'female', while husband Mark was 'male' (hurrah!). Andrea was 'female'. Stef too. Her husband Mike? 'Male'. Maria was 'female', as was Jean. Well done, Genie!

Hmm ... actually it didn't totally succeed with other blogs, but I'll leave it at that ;-) Incidentally, my writing style was also 'female', but not for all posts.

Update: More tests! It appears that the author of the Singapore pledge was female (?!). Erm, and so was a draft of the Gettysburg Address. Winston Churchill's 'blood, toil, tears, and sweat' speech was written by a male.

This is driving me nuts. I should sleep. Good night.

This afternoon during lunch, a visually handicapped man carrying a fistful of ballpoint pens came up to our table. There was an uneasy silence, the shy glances around to see if anybody would do anything or turn the man away. He claimed he was supporting his parents and he looked pretty sincere about it.

All the years of pent-up guilt, of not giving to beggars or buskers overwhelmed me, and I bought a pen from him. In fact I felt so guilty that I told him he could keep the change if he didn't have any. He gave me my change, nevertheless. He said a few God Bless You's to everyone, then left.

Does the pen work? Someone joked. I drew a blue line on my napkin. I was glad it worked. On our way out of the coffeeshop, I noted that he managed to sell three other pens in a matter of minutes. Going by the rate of sales, we calculated that he could very well earn over S$200 an hour, in crowded areas.

However when I went back and tested the pen again, it dried out. On normal paper. And on other, normal paper. I was starting to worry. Was my faith in that man misguided? What if all those stories I've been hearing about fraudsters pretending to collect for charity, or beggars who live in condominiums (there was such a guy in Bristol who used to beg outside the Hawthornes), were true?

Finally, my last scribble on a Post-It pad proved that the pen was still working. My mind was put to rest. I felt a little bad for doubting the courteous man.

I then decided that the next time I feel the urge to give to someone, I'll do it. There's no point wondering whether the handicapped beggar is really handicapped. Or whether he's earning much more than you are by just sitting in an underground passageway, playing a keyboard. If they tell me they really need the money to feed their family, as far as I'm concerned, I'll believe them. Call me a fool, but it's their own conscience they have to answer to, and to God as well, if anyone was deceived. It's not like they want a million bucks from us, anyway, just some loose change. I should be grateful that I still have a job, that I'm still getting paid, that I still have some money to spend.

At Bible Studies class this evening, we covered the final chapters of the book of John, where Christ visited the 'doubting' Thomas to prove He had risen from the dead. I realised I've become cynical myself, led by stories of deception, of trust being breached, and doubt becomes a human defence mechanism. What you don't believe in, won't hurt you. So, we tend to not believe in anything, or hardly anything, at all.

In a world full of deceptions, what we need is the power of discernment. That is something I should pray for.

Eric Meyer reports of a new contest to redesign Jakob Nielsen's useit.com website. These are the requirements (visit the contest page for more information):

The design must use valid tableless XHTML 1.0, CSS, and it must meet WAI Accessibility level 1. JavaScript, GIF, JPG and PNG images may be used. Server scripts, databases, and plug-in based media are not permitted. Designs containing animated GIFs and Flash are acceptable, but will face tough scrutiny to ensure that they are accessible.

This sounds like fun. If I have enough time (good question), I might just take part in this contest. However, it is unlikely that the winning design will be implemented. Nielsen himself has told the organiser, that "it is highly unlikely that I will use the results, since my goal is to use the same design for useit.com as we have for nngroup.com".

First we had blogs. Then, blog directories. Then, blog popularity indexes. And then, a blog stock exchange. Now, we have blog sweepstakes. Blogstakes, to be precise.

Soon we'll be taking out blog insurance, and collecting blog miles. Somebody, stop me.

How can I win a Blogstakes?

If you have a blog (i.e., a Weblog or online journal), you just link to one of our Blogstakes contests. As people click the Blogstakes link on your site and enter the contest, your site is automatically tracked and entered as a referring site. You don't need to use a special tracking URL (unless you're linking to a Blogstakes contest in an email message). If somebody you send wins a Blogstakes prize, you win the same prize!

The same folks who brought you We Love The Iraqi Information Minister, now have a new target. Introducing We Love Arnold. This has gotta be good.

Al-Qaeda claim they were behind the massive blackouts that hit parts of the US and Canada, reports Dar Al Hayat's English language paper. An excerpt from the communiqué attributed to Al Qaeda reads:

"...we heard amazing statements made by the American and Canadian enemies which have nuclear physics universities and space agencies, that lightning hit and destroyed the two plants. And we are supposed to believe this nonsense. If the blackout occurred in one or two cities, their lie would have been credible. But the fact is that the blackout hit the entire East and part of Canada."

Avid surfers: Suffering from information overload? Wired's top news story on news aggregators got me checking out a few alternatives to Feed Reader, which I currently use as a free, standalone program to read my favourite weblogs and other syndicated news. In the end, I settled for Newsmonster, which integrates with your web browser. This is what it looks like, when installed into Mozilla. Cool, eh?

It works pretty well, save for a few kinks. For instance, the aggregator managed to provide me with paragraph-long excerpts of CNN news, but didn't work as well with the Guardian website, where all it listed was the nav bar.

According to this British blogger, the Guardian has launched a new weblog outside its guardian.co.uk domain, with the sole purpose of eliminating agricultural subsidies. Check it out, because it kicks ass. I mean, AAS.

The Guardian also has an Online Blog, powered by Blogger Pro. Why didn't I discover this sooner?

Disturbing politics.

Today I touched on material that was certainly not relaxing. I continued reading Guardian journalist Greg Palast's book, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy [rated 4.6 out of 5 stars with 74 votes so far], and was both disturbed and enlightened - probably because I didn't expect crooked politicians to be even more crooked than I thought they were. I haven't finished reading the book, but it does cover the US election fraud, how 9-11 could've been avoided, and how the energy crisis really happened.

Disturbing and misguided CSS rant.

I also had the misfortune of reading a Builder.com forum post overrun by web builders who seem to be taking a personal vengeance attack on Cascading Stylesheets. Oh, please. They say CSS won't work because some browsers don't support it. Welcome back to the Stone Age, I say. We might as well stop innovating entirely, because nobody will support your new technology in the immediate future.

One of these guys (no real name) even put up a web page listing down its defects. Allow me to quote:

[CSS advocates assert that] TABLES are for TABULAR DATA and not meant for Layout whereas CSS is more suited for this.

Last time I checked, most web sites use a database. Hence, tabular data. Furthermore, there was typically more than one column in a database. Thus, ROWS and COLUMNS. Otherwise why even use a database?

Is this guy serious? The nutter got his databases mixed up with layout tables! I only have pity for this kind of people. Wait - no. He's selling Dreamweaver templates on his website, too. I detect an ulterior motive. And BTW, bud, it's still easier uploading one CSS file than uploading all your web pages every time you change the design.

When I step back and take a look at everything that's being done, that doesn't make sense and doesn't benefit the common people ... I realise that in the end, no matter what field you're in, it's all about money, isn't it?

We've moved the computers to the new apartment, so naturally I have moved myself with them :-) Before I decided to do that, I spent Saturday evening and most of today without a computer. I started to think, hey, I have to check the news online. Then I realised that I couldn't. Later on, I would forget somebody's details and start walking to the computer room to open up my Inbox... only to realise that I couldn't.

How dependent is my life on computers, you wonder? Well, I didn't die without them. My hands didn't shake, and I didn't go crazy (not yet, anyway). I did feel a little bored, but hey, there are tonnes of books I've bought that I haven't finished reading yet. And I actually had a social life yesterday - a lovely dinner with church friends. When I got home, I had a pleasant time reading a political book (more about it when I'm finished) and the Bible. So that didn't turn out too badly.

That's all for now, folks. There are lots more wires in this room that need to be connected, and mucho emails to reply to.

What do you do when there's a blackout? Whip out your mobile phone, and moblog!

The New York Power Authority has yet to update its website on this unprecedented power outage. Its last press release is dated August 14 concerning the anticipation of higher power usage due to the hot weather. Funnily enough, their motto is splashed across the screen: "Generating more than electricity". Yup, lots of publicity too.

Wired reports: Wireless Internet connections still up, but phone services temporarily disconnected. Back to pay phones and human-to-human interaction.

Call me anal-retentive, but I fail to see how an association purporting to promote XML in Asia, has a website with no doctype, unclosed break tags, and no link to the W3 on its web standards page. Sample code was converted to image files. Some images with flat colours, were inappropriately saved as watery-looking JPGs instead of GIFs. No header tags, just lots of <b> tags.

They obviously have lots of information about the subject, but still haven't put it to use on their own website. Oh, just leave me to rant. For the full list of objections, read on.

Now this is something I'd pay for: a service that allows you to search and access over 140 publications online [linked off Ben Hammersley's weblog]. The price? Less than five American dollars a month. No ads, no dead trees. And it comes with a seven-day free trial that doesn't require your credit card number.

You might think, that's easy! These magazines would provide the same articles online, for free. That ain't necessarily so. A visit to Esquire magazine's website, for instance, brought up 0 hits on 'Schwarzenegger', while Keepmedia offered a July 2003 article from the same magazine. It appears that the publications included in this service are the ones that generally don't put everything online (duh).

You also get a vast array of professional and trade publications so specialised, I never knew they existed until I signed up for my free trial. Genomics & Proteomics, anyone? Well, actually, they do have something I want: Electronic Musician. [Update: I just discovered that EM has revamped its website and now has its own archives starting from 1999. So much for that!]

The search engine is decent, though it can be more sophisticated. It churns up accurate results, but won't tell you which page of the article your search term appears in, which meant I had to do a keyword search in my browser, skip to the next page, and repeat until phrase in question was found. You can however fine-tune your search by publication, topic or date. Alongside the article you're reading, it displays more 'Suggested articles' of relevance, which is helpful. You can also add articles to your personal list, and attach a note to an individual article. That would be useful for researchers.

However, as the site says, you won't get breaking news, but archives from previous months. In that sense it's better for people who want information on topics which don't require the very latest information. I get all my tech news online elsewhere, anyway, and for free.

The other thing you don't get with this online service, are photographs. So you might still be better off with the tree version of your publication if it is highly image-dependent. They should consider PDF versions for some magazines, because mags like Interior Design don't feel quite right without photographs. Of course, PDF files take up bandwidth, and it may be too troublesome obtaining and processing the files from design houses.

All in all, the service is very much a print-to-HTML text conversion. Don't expect to see hyperlinks in the content, as opposed to the fare offered in Wired magazine online (naturally, Wired is not included in this service). Then again, there's nothing you can't Google for.

I'm going to test out its features in full over the next week. Assume the best if you don't hear from me again.

[Update 20/8/03: I've found a rival.]

Another incredible Blogshares jump in share price - this time to $495.77 with a valuation of $26,585.61, at last count. Good news to those who believe in hedge funds, as there are lots of 'trimmings' for the taking. Personally I don't try to blog in such a way as to increase my share price. I sold off the shares to my own blog, because it's too unstable, and I really can't be bothered to play the game. I'm just amused at how the system works. Obviously there are still some kinks that need to be ironed out.

Is anyone having trouble logging in, BTW? I can't change my settings as the site doesn't recognise my username anymore. Hmm.

Wall Street Cafe at Amara Hotel now has a great S$14.95 set lunch. The salmon chowder was tasty and had fresh, generous chunks of fish. We shared a pan-fried crayfish with black pepper sauce, a seafood platter in wasabe butter, and a honey-lime baked codfish, each served on a bed of raisin rice and a side of char grilled Mediterranean vegetables. For dessert, we had a chocolate mousse with coffee or tea. The soups and desserts vary with each weekday.

Update: The main courses looked so good, we had to take photos! Thanks to Q for the pics.

Check out Joinarnold.com. Full site coming out soon. Let the fight begin!

Update 14/8/03:
Warren Buffet has been hired as Schwarzenegger's senior financial adviser. While this may displease many Republicans, as the article suggests, I don't see how this is a bad thing for the campaign itself. Ideally, Californians should look beyond bipartisanship allegiances and choose the best person for the job.

If you've read any of these blogs before (and I'm sure you have), you'll realise this parody is pretty funny. [First linked from Susan Mernit's blog.]

I've added a new category, About This Site, as well as a new MT plugin which inserts acronym tags into my MT body content. So the next time I ramble off in XHTML, CSS, XML, XSLT, PHP, ASP, SVG and DOM, you'll know what I'm talking about. Cheers.

Update: Okay, it works, but it has a really limited vocabulary (PHP, ASP, XSLT were no-shows initially). So I have to update the list manually. The good news is, this means you can create your own acronyms too. Don't be naughty.

Update 2: Hmm. The dotted lines beneath each acronym/abbreviation don't seem to be appearing in IE6. But if you hover over each term, you will see its name in full.

Staff members of the magazine, Fast Company, have started writing a weblog. Powered by Movable Type, of course. The weblog's coming along nicely. Content so far is bright and snappy. What I'd like to see, as the site develops, is more active reader commentary.

Update: Heath Row (from the magazine, not the airport) has his own weblog.

This is an excellent lecture by (who else but) Jeffrey Zeldman. Screen captures aplenty, with no holds barred.

I know we Singaporeans are pretty obsessed about efficiency. We're an impatient lot, always wanting to find the fastest way to finish our work. So why am I surprised (well, actually tickled with mirth) to find that our beloved Government has an official website to Cut Red Tape?

I'm listening to Larry King's CNN talkshow at the moment. The topic? Angels. We have guests Max Lucado, author of a book 'Next Door Savior', Father Michael Manning, Syvlia Browne, who is an authority on angels, and Mattie Stepanek, a young boy who is 'battling incurable illness'. I felt some speakers, namely the author and churchman, were forced into giving opinions on a subject that is still very much an uncertainty, and I empathise with how they on one hand want to give hope to people, yet ensure that what they believe in is the truth.

Anyway, lots of people have been calling in to ask questions. Now, it's all very nice and well for people to share their experiences on how angels have appeared and saved people and their loved ones from illness and danger. I think that is something worth rejoicing about. I believe in angels and the good things they can do. Angels appear in some important parts of the Bible.

But let us not forget who sent those angels. They are messengers of God. Some angels may have great powers vested in them. But it is not they whom we should worship. The story doesn't end just by seeing angels.

There are angels in churches. If you look at Revelations, there were angels in every church, some of whom pleased God, and others who did not. In the Bible, Daniel (10:13) mentions how an angel who was sent in answer to his prayer was delayed because he was held back by a dark 'prince', and only with reinforcements from Michael, one of the 'chief princes' (on the good side) could he complete his mission.

Angels are not completely infallible. Satan himself is a fallen angel, and he has his own angels, who will be in the end of days, cast out (Rev 12:9):

And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

So let's get this all in perspective. The presence of angels should remind us that the Lord cares enough for us to save us. (Why not everyone gets saved by angels is an issue far beyond my authority and comprehension to speak about.)

Let's not forget about the Holy Spirit either, whom we should turn to in the physical absence of Jesus (until He comes again). Why don't they have a talk show on the Holy Spirit too? I know people who are full of the Holy Spirit, even of a woman who was lame, and then got up and walked, after she was prayed over. Maybe because we as human beings still turn to things that can be seen, rather than things that are unseen.

Anders has a great post for those who want to know what blogging is about, and how to start a weblog of your own.

Naturally, if you want something with the full works, Movable Type rocks. It's the best, really. If however you know nuts about web languages but have cash to spare, then Typepad may suit you better.

Of course, if you use MT and have a little cash to spare, you can donate to MT like many of us have. By doing so, you get a 'key' that will enable your blog to be listed on the MT website's 'Recently Updated' section. Freak incidents resulting from this could include getting indexed by Blogshares (the virtual stock market game for weblogs), causing the price of your tiny, worthless blog to soar phenomenally for days. Okay, so maybe that's just something that happened to me.

[ Note: oops. I'm still not used to posting with w.bloggar. I forgot to add a Title, and it took the first five words of my opening paragraph which made me sound like a raving fan of Andersja :-) I've since changed it to something more tame. ]

Erm, is it still going to happen next Monday? I mean, I don't mind going to Olio Dome and sit around with an MT Meetup sign on the table, but I'm sure Kristen and I won't mind some extra company ... Anyone out there? :-P

These are the buildings that survived the recent coup. [ Previously, I posted a joke that I was told about how the coup was like a Hollywood scene, but I realise it might cause offence and give a skewed impression of the people there. My sincerest apologies. ]

A Manila colleague dedicated a song to me the night we watched Barbie's Cradle. Now this band sounds like Frente and Sixpence None The Richer, because the female lead has a sweet but not overwhelmingly powerful voice. I thought they could do the Lisa Loeb song well. A while later, a dedication was read out - for Van from Singapore! And what other song could it be, but 'Stay'. Aww! Well I'm sorry to say that I couldn't, it's back to the daily grind for me. But I learnt as much as I came to teach. It was humbling to say the least, seeing how rapidly our neighbours are catching up with us. People with the same skills and talents are willing to work harder for less pay. [Side note: I got to meet the lead singer. Woo-hoo!]

I won't miss Manila for its disorder, but for its spontaneity. I won't miss the street beggars, the dusty old buildings, the lethargic plumbing system and the thick power cables dangling from every lamp post, but I will miss how the poor are treated, how people display their love for Jesus everywhere (Christian offices and vehicle decals aplenty), and how they can be happy without having to be particularly rich or successful.

And where else can I go around singing in public without getting stared at?

A quick note to let everyone know I'm still alive and kicking in Manila. The people here have been very kind, and I have done a lot of talking, typing, pointing, clicking. My captive audience has, in return, been nodding their heads, asking questions and going "Ohhh!" gratifyingly, at suitable points in time. My mind is a blank now, but it appears that the presentations I've made, have created their intended effect.

Last night, we went to the Tavern and watched Freestyle, a top Filipino band, perform. They do R&B, pop, acid jazz, that sort of thing. Cover versions and songs they've written themselves. Frankly if nobody told me who wrote them, I'd easily assume those were international chart-topping hits too. Really smashing. Tonight they're bringing us to catch another top act, Barbie's Cradle (no, it's not a new accessory from Mattel).

Compact discs are generally cheaper in Manila than Singapore. According to a colleague, CDs used to be more expensive, but due to rampant piracy, prices have been forced down. Much as I am an advocate of purchasing original CDs in support of my favourite artistes, I was thinking that if legitimate music CD prices have fallen to about S$15-17 for new titles, it probably means the recording companies could have afforded to sell the discs at lower prices in the first place.

Tomorrow I'll have a bit more time to go sight-seeing and bargain-hunting. Until then, take care. I'll write soon.

Better pack my brolly. I'll be leaving Singapore early tomorrow morning.

Hmm. Check out the price list, and tell me if you'd want to pay US$14.95 a month for the exclusive (i.e. not included in the Basic and Plus packages) ability to edit your templates. True, you do get 200MB a month and a decent 3GB bandwidth. Of course you could have multiple authors to split the costs with. But I think the Pro package is a little pricey.

I know Typepad is a beautiful, user-friendly product. And I know they're targetting the growing market of people who want to write but don't have a server, a domain name, and don't know how to set up MT by themselves. But on the other hand I know that people do install MT for their friends. I do. I've set MT up at least five times for people who know little or no HTML, and they're picking it up by themselves.

Apart from that, there are new, clever features to rave about. TypeLists for keeping track of your 'media consumption', add a personal touch. Another feature not available in Movable Type (as far as I know) is PGP signature support. Photo Albums, available to Plus and Premium users, are a good idea, although there are websites which offer similar services albeit with less space. Moblogging is a nice frill for those with suitably endowed mobile devices which I have yet to acquire (grumble).

Rest assured, we'll hear more about the product from the growing list of people who've signed up with the service. Already the discussion's started (see here for example) and it looks like it all depends on personal experience. Those who've had trouble with other blog hosts such as Blogger are naturally more inclined to sign up for Typepad.

There are so many things I'd like to do and learn. And so little time!

Hopefully by tonight, I'll complete a big photo gallery as promised for a friend. Over this weekend, I need to pack for my forthcoming business trip. I also need to get my presentations and tutorials sorted out. And come next month or two, I'll be learning PHP, ASP and XML (yes, I found a computer school). Imagine having a former web designer who can develop web applications.

Serious work aside, I'm awaiting the 'Summer 2003' arrival of MT Pro and have been lurking suspiciously around Typepad beta blogs (Ben Mena Anil). I love looking at user interfaces. I've come to appreciate them even more, now that designing intranets and CMS administration panels have become part of my daily routine.

By special request from a dear friend of mine, I stayed up this morning writing lyrics to music I wrote years ago (think: university) and didn't complete. I wish I had 48 hours in a day, so I can spend half my time locked up in my studio!

Update #1: Check out Zempt, a weblog editing program which runs on your PC. I've seen others about, but not as pretty. Know of any other cool tools?

Update #2: Supa-dupa coolness! I've installed the program and it's connected successfully to my MT script. This update has been written and posted using Zempt. It has standards-compliant formatting tags and a spell checker with lots of language variations (I'm sticking to good old GB English). And it makes it easier for you to assign attributes to your links. What's more, you can sync this baby up with Winamp. I've done that already but this is certainly a very convenient tool.

Update #3: OK, I managed to install the more famous Bloggar at home and it looks a little prettier. It must be the icons. On first glance however I have found it less easy to use - perhaps because it has more features. But it's superior in the sense that it can be used with many other weblog programs, not just MT. However it uses' b' and 'i' instead of 'strong' and 'em', which admittedly isn't a heinous crime but makes me think it's a little dated. You can create custom tags and insert Javascript, which is handy. I'll post this now and see how things go...