November 2006 Archives

Tomorrow evening my mum and I will be off to visit my sister to celebrate her birthday together.

My biggest concern is not that I have yet to pack for my trip. Nor is it the never-ending flow of work while I'm gone for two weekdays plus a weekend. Work will never end, anyway.

My biggest concern is that I have yet to recover from the last dregs of my 'flu, which is a prevalent cough and a slightly runny nose.

I don't mind the runny nose so much, because the Yellow Pill can take that away (I forget drug names exactly). Today, three people have warned me that being ill while on a plane, especially on a long flight, will exacerbate my cough due to the dry air. If my throat already feels dry in humid Singapore, I dread how I will feel when I'm thousands of feet up in the air.

What I also don't like is infecting other people and making lots of noise coughing away on the plane. It's just bad timing that I'm the last one in the family to catch the bug, and that it coincides with my trip.

I'm going to take all my medication with me and to be safe, declare it to Aussie Customs. The last thing I want to be, is a burden to others when on holiday.

Please pray for my speedy recovery. Thank you!

Got this post via Kevin.

I'd like to add a few more. You know you're spending too much time in Second Life when:

1. You feel you're actually NOT spending enough time in Second Life
2. You start to believe that the world is really filled with beautiful people
3. You start calling other Second Life players by their Second Life names (I do that!)
4. It's OK to skip dinner in real life, because your Avatar just consumed a load of cheese, champagne and oysters
5. You lapse into acronyms and expect others to understand when you say 'RL' and 'SL'
6. You wish you could just teleport yourself from one meeting to another, thus saving yourself minutes of valuable time
7. You wish that you could burn your own calories by making your Avatar dance or run all night
8. You start writing posts like this.

Any more to add? Post a comment.

Technorati Tags: Second Life

I'm in the papers today!

I gave a phone interview to Hian Hou, a journalist from the Straits Times' Digital Life supplement. Actually, he was one of the first (if not the very first) journalists who ever interviewed me.

This time it wasn't about blogging but Second Life and why it isn't taking off as well in Singapore, compared to games like World of Warcraft and Maple Story.

There are different schools of thought on this, but in any case, I don't like to play games which make me feel pressurised. Judging from my coordination skills and reflexes, or lack thereof, I am much better off in a virtual world which lets me do my own thing.

Many years ago, I used to play games like Dune 2 and Command & Conquer. Even then, I got tired of sticking to the storyline. I preferred playing one-on-one with the computer, leaving behind one enemy unit at the far end of the map (so the game wouldn't end), while my troops continued to harvest more spice than we could possibly consume, erect more buildings that we wouldn't even need, and build more vehicles than we'd possibly require to eventually eradicate that hapless remaining soldier (when I finally got bored and wanted to finish the game).

Coming to think of it, I do tend to gravitate towards less violent games like Sim Earth, Sim Tower, Sim Ants, Sim Island, The Sims, Civilisation and Alpha Centauri, although I haven't touched any of these games in years.

I didn't expect myself to featured in a column, nor to be classified as an 'Explorer' but I guess if the cap fits ... :P Thanks!

Technorati Tags: Second Life, StraitsTimes, computer games

I've been hit with the 'flu. It began with a fever on Friday night, a splitting headache on Saturday, followed by a cough on Sunday night. This morning when I woke up, my voice was gone. Worked for half a day then went home to rest.

I hate being ill. Good health is something we take for granted, until we don't have it anymore. There are so many things I haven't started or completed yet. But if I think about them now, I won't be able to sleep, which will slow down the recovery process. So I just have to shut everything out, pray, and hope for the best.

Reading about British PM Tony Blair's intention to express 'sorrow' at the slave trade centuries ago, brought to mind a more recent event in my university town of Bristol.

Traditionally, members of our Malaysian-Singaporean Students' Association would raise money by 'auctioning' off first-year students (called Freshers). It was all in good fun, although by the time it reached my generation it became increasingly randy and outrageous - no thanks to me.

We got along well with students from other countries and they too were invited to participate in our slave auction. One Eastern European hunk dressed in drag, together with his friends.

But when Z, who attended the same law course as I, appeared on stage to be sold as a slave, something came up from the back of my mind and smacked me on the forehead.

You see, Z was Nigerian-born. As she stood on stage smiling, I recalled what little I had read up on Bristol's shadier past as a major player in the slave trade. It was ironic, yet symbolic - a sign that perhaps history had been forgiven by some, if not forgotten? That it was no longer taboo and we didn't have to worry about political correctness anymore?

Technorati Tags: Bristol, slave trade, Tony Blair

Since I am using a Dell now, I thought I should visit Dell Island in Second Life. Its virtual presence was reported in ABC News and CNet. I logged into Second Life, tried searching for "Dell Island" but couldn't find it. However I managed to locate the original press release which provided the slurl to Dell Island.

When you arrive at Dell Island you see lots of flora. The 'Changing your appearance' tutorial that all new arrivals see at Help Island, is also available here. I flew directly to what looked like the centre of the island.

There was a newsagent's, but when I clicked on the newspapers nothing happened. It would be better if these newspapers contained the latest news about Dell.

The souvenir shop next door, however, did have a Dell backpack freebie. Again, more objects could have been interactive. I walked through the back door and came across a signpost. Hmm, Michael Dell's dorm room, where he founded the company! OK I'll check that out.

I got a bit lost after that. Everything looked futuristic. Who'd have expected his dorm room to be in this building?

His dorm room wasn't too bad. I sat on his toilet bowl. However my legs kind of went through the ceramic. No, there wasn't any script that activated any 'toilet business' activities in my Avatar. No shit.

The bathtub was filled with computer parts. (And if that was really the case in real life, how exactly did Michael Dell take a bath?)

Nice big bedroom! Having said that, it was a room for four people.

Feedback: the chair is way too low. I clicked on the computer and it generated this ball on the left. I was supposed to sit on it and it would transport me somewhere. The thing is, it didn't say exactly where...

I shot through some pretty cool 'tunnels' but ended up in limbo. Er, what exactly am I supposed to do up here? Eventually I clicked 'stand up' and fell to a metal platform.

Hmm, in real life I couldn't possibly walk on this platform in these sandals!

I walked through giant fans and touched a heat sync. I realised this was actually a tour of the inside of a computer. I bumped into another Resident during this tour. However we both ended up in an 'infinite loop' - we kept landing up in the same place. I said Dell needed to work on the navigation. The other Resident teleported himself out.

I figured the way out and flew off to another part of the island.

This was more interesting. It looked like a Dell workshop. I clicked on a Dell monkey and was given one. Awesome. My first stuffed toy in Second Life!

I liked this part. "Build my Dell". I chose the most powerful components. After that, I was taken to the Dell online store (web page). What was the price of my custom laptop? Over US$5,000! Oof. I'll just save up for a MacBook Pro.

I sat down at a nearby booth and found it had the same "Build my Dell" feature. Seems like they are marketing the XPS 710 model aggressively. But I'm not complaining - they gave me a free, virtual version of it.

It would have been even cooler if the the laptop was scripted in a way that whenever I typed something, it would appear. I tried attaching it to various locations on my arms but looked a bit ridiculous. I've used other virtual keyboards and laptops which appear only when I type. Here's a shot of me using my Squirreltech laptop. It appears only when I type something.

Back in the city centre, I tried to teleport myself to the auditorium, but ended up high in the air. When I floated down to the ground, it was where I was previously standing. Didn't see any auditorium. Some kinks need to be worked out.

Bookmarking this location was a problem. Apparently the 'owner of the land doesn't allow it'. Why not? You wouldn't prevent a visitor from bookmarking your website! I moved away to the bridge and was able to bookmark my location there.

Overall, Dell has made a commendable foray into Second Life, although the navigation needs to be improved, and some areas were still under construction. More interactive content needs to be developed. In time I suppose this will happen.

Technorati Tags: Dell, Second Life

I watched Jay-Z live in concert yesterday. He appeared live on the ABC News Network. I received a notification email, signed up to receive an official invitation, and was immediately given free entry into the concert hall. Around me were other fans, head-banging, clapping and cheering.

This all happened in Second Life.

Here are some pre-concert pics. We were waiting for a loooong time. But we made history.

Top view of the stadium

Me 'head-banging'.

More people gather.

(More pics will be uploaded next week - with Jay-Z in them! Sorry I forgot to transfer all the screen shots to this computer.)

Technorati Tags: Jay-Z, Second Life, ABC News

Flickr camera finder. This is so clever. Since Flickr has all the data in each photo uploaded, why not keep a database on the most popular cameras used?

(Thanks to Lucian for sending me the link.)

Ivan tagged me, so here are the science fiction books I've read so far. Not very many. According to the meme I must bold the titles I've read, so here goes:

1. The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien - er, can I half-bold this? I haven't finished reading it and probably won't in a long time
2. The Foundation Trilogy, Isaac Asimov - I read Nemesis, if that helps. Another half-bold?
3. Dune, Frank Herbert - My favourite Science Fiction novel by far! Started with the computer games first and loved it to bits.
4. Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert A. Heinlein
5. A Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula K. Le Guin
6. Neuromancer, William Gibson (heard of it, never read it)
7. Childhood’s End, Arthur C. Clarke
8. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Philip K. Dick
9. The Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley
10. Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury (Is that where "Farenheit 911" was derived?)
11. The Book of the New Sun, Gene Wolfe
12. A Canticle for Leibowitz, Walter M. Miller, Jr.
13. The Caves of Steel, Isaac Asimov
14. Children of the Atom, Wilmar Shiras
15. Cities in Flight, James Blish
16. The Colour of Magic, Terry Pratchett (Such a famous book ... yet I can't remember if I read it before, borrowed from a friend who's a major Pratchett fan)
17. Dangerous Visions, edited by Harlan Ellison
18. Deathbird Stories, Harlan Ellison
19. The Demolished Man, Alfred Bester
20. Dhalgren, Samuel R. Delany
21. Dragonflight, Anne McCaffrey
22. Ender’s Game, Orson Scott Card
23. The First Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, Stephen R. Donaldson (Seen this at bookshops so many times, flipped through the books yet never actually read one.)
24. The Forever War, Joe Haldeman
25. Gateway, Frederik Pohl
26. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, J.K. Rowling (Flipped through, never properly read)
27. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
28. I Am Legend, Richard Matheson
29. Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice (Ah ha! I have read this one.)
30. The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin
31. Little, Big, John Crowley
32. Lord of Light, Roger Zelazny
33. The Man in the High Castle, Philip K. Dick
34. Mission of Gravity, Hal Clement
35. More Than Human, Theodore Sturgeon
36. The Rediscovery of Man, Cordwainer Smith
37. On the Beach, Nevil Shute
38. Rendezvous with Rama, Arthur C. Clarke
39. Ringworld, Larry Niven
40. Rogue Moon, Algis Budrys
41. The Silmarillion, J.R.R. Tolkien
42. Slaughterhouse-5, Kurt Vonnegut
43. Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson (I ordered this book and it's sitting on my desk. Looks very cheem. Anticipate difficulty completing it but will try my best. )
44. Stand on Zanzibar, John Brunner
45. The Stars My Destination, Alfred Bester
46. Starship Troopers, Robert A. Heinlein
47. Stormbringer, Michael Moorcock
48. The Sword of Shannara, Terry Brooks (Another popular series but nope, haven't read it)
49. Timescape, Gregory Benford
50. To Your Scattered Bodies Go, Philip Jose Farmer

I tag these people: Kristen (she may team up with Husband-man), Andrea, Shin, A L. OK that's enough punishment. Go forth and meme!

Technorati Tags: science fiction, books, memes

The Mee Pok man passed away a week ago. Odd as it may seem, he was a special part of our school and many of us remember him fondly. Ask any SCGS girl and they will say his noodles were one of the best - if not, the best they've had.

He was, in short, an icon in an all-girls' school.

I was an SCGS girl from Primary 1 to Secondary 4. As a seven year-old kid, the first stall I patronised was the Mee Pok man's. At the time I ate the yellow Hokkien noodles with soup. My favourite line was "Thirty cent mee, mai tau geh". Which translated to "thirty cents' worth of noodles, without bean sprouts".

As I grew older I realised the Mee Pok man's prices increased as well. I can't remember exactly when I switched to the flatter 'mee pok' noodles but it probably occurred when he (or my friends in school) suggested that I try something different. Combined with a bit of lard, oil and Tianjin vinegar, the taste was heavenly.

His noodles were famous enough that the neighbours in Emerald Hill would place orders too. I remember that our principal (another SCGS icon) Miss Heng insisted that the food must go to the schoolgirls first and not to outsiders. The price for outsiders was also higher - but $1 was still a very fair price.

When you learn that someone you've just met is an SCGS girl, one common point of understanding is the Mee Pok man. On a few occasions we've even discussed what other mee pok dishes from other stalls in Singapore are comparable to his.

Uncle, we'll miss you. Thank you for being a special part of our school tuckshop, and our childhood memories.

[ This is a belated post as I got the news late, and procrastinated about writing it. Search Google / Technorati with the keywords "SCGS, Mee pok" and read other girls' blogs about him.]

Lucian writes about the problem he's experienced with Dell.

We're having similar problems with our new Dell laptops. First, we discovered that the Bluetooth cards we had opted for, were not installed in our laptops. We notified them about this.

Then, after 2 days of usage, my hard drive started making loud noises and I was faced with the blue screen of death. This noise persisted over the weekend. The hard drive had to be replaced.

Dell sent a replacement hard drive to our office. Actually, they somehow managed to send us two hard drives. (Incidentally, the packages were addressed to two colleagues but both their names were misspelt.) So they needed to collect one hard drive back.

The Dell guy came over to replace my hard drive. However, he was not the same guy who was supposed to install our Bluetooth cards. Huh? They send different people for different parts?

It has been a couple more weeks since my hard drive's been replaced, and we have yet to see the guy who's supposed to install our Bluetooth cards. We're going to send them another reminder.

We would not have chosen Dell if their quotation hadn't been the cheapest by a mile. We had a premonition about it, but what can we say? "Even though Dell's price is cheaper, we still don't want it. No, we want to spend a couple thousand more bucks just for the quality assurance and higher standards of service that another brand has a reputation for." We can't. It's not our own money we're spending and we shouldn't be doing anything wasteful.

I would have loved using a Dell in the late 90's, and maybe even the early 2000's, but not now. Their reputation has gone downhill and I get the impression that they don't really care about their customers. Now at least I can speak from first-hand experience.

Technorati tags: Dell, customer service

Avid followers of Second Life news would have heard of Crayon, the first new media marketing agency to be established in this virtual world. Well, since I couldn't break into IBM land (see previous post), I decided to try my luck with an agency that welcomed visitors.

Here's a shot of Crayon from the outside.

I touched the Crayon box at the door, and collected freebies. I wore the Crayon T-shirt and drank the Coke. Hey, it's only virtual calories.

Inside, I met another new Second Lifer who was looking for a Crayon employee. I gave him some tips on searching for people in Second Life. Then I teleported myself to the 2nd floor, and accidentally walked into a Crayon board meeting!

However the guys were nice and told me I could explore the place and ask them any questions. Now that's good PR. See, I'm blogging about them now.

One of them, Cleon Goff (CC Chapman in real life) offered Friendship. Yay!

I flew to the rooftop, picked up free drinks, posed with Fender guitars and played the drums. I flew the the ampitheatre, ate popcorn while watching a (blank) movie in the theatre, made another Friend and logged off.

See all photos tagged 'Crayon' in my Flickr blog.

Technorati Tags: Crayonville, Second Life

Ivan noted a Business Times report (IBM accelerates push into 3D virtual worlds, 13 Nov 2006) on how IBM is making use of Second Life to conduct business meetings. IBM's CEO is making a visit to this virtual world today, in fact. Of course this was already reported a couple weeks earlier on Reuters' Secondlife blog. But I am glad to see that a respected local newspaper bothered to write about it.

IBM has a blog, Eightbar, which keeps track of everything they're doing in Second Life. Very cool.

Hmm, let me pop over to IBM land and see if I can see anything going on!

Updates:

My Avatar-spy tells me that this 14 November meeting could be held in a SL location called 'Beijing Townhall'. Unfortunately, I could not join this guest list.

Technorati Tags: IBM, Second Life

My G5 PowerMac, boasting a 160GB hard disk, has only 20GB of space left after nearly 2.5 years of usage. It's been going strong, but the fan can get noisy and I sometimes wonder what would happen if something blew.

Today at work, I discovered I only had a couple hundred MB of space left in my documents drive. It's partly due to the partitioning, over which I have no control, the overall 40GB size and the fact that a good part of my work still involves multimedia.

I have a 60GB iPod which I'm using to back up my Logic files. I would cry if I lost all my music productions because my Mac went kaputz. Everything else isn't so important.

Most of my recent photos are in Flickr. Most of my videos are NOT in Youtube (yet!) but many are not worth uploading anyway. Some of my documents have been uploaded to Writely (now Google Docs). Most of my software is in boxes and the ones that were in download-only version have been backed up on discs.

I might be in a spot with Macromedia Studio and Microsoft Office though, because they require product activation and it will be tricky re-installing them on a new system when the software manufacturers think you still have an active licence on another computer. Darn, the same probably goes with my recently acquired Adobe Photoshop licence.

So I'm considering getting a system that can back up my hard disk with the push of a button. Something easy to use, so that I will actually use it! The Seagate models look good. Anyone know other good brands? Any tips on backing up hard disks (especially for Macs)?

Technorati Tags: backup, Mac

After a hectic start, Arsenal started showing their mettle. It was not very nice to see Thierry Henry getting knocked about - how often does that happen?! - but that could have fired the team and fans up.

There were red herrings aplenty in this game: Robin Van Persie's handball (or was it more like a fingerball?) which earned him a yellow card, an offside goal by Peter Crouch, and one more by his substitute Craig Bellamy.

But perhaps the biggest surprise of all was the Gunners who scored. Flamini? Toure? Gallas? Who would have put money on them! The 'Pool defenders were too busy knocking Thierry Henry about (one more time), tripping up Toure and Flamini, and finally Stephen Gerrard and John Arne Riise were spotted quarreling with each other.

The commentator noted that Liverpool had more shots off-target than any other Premiership team.

In the second half, Liverpool brought on Jermaine Pennant who was apparently a short-lived Gunner, and if I recall properly he still has a grudge against them for it. He commented that his youth team didn't last at Arsenal. Well look at the young team that beat them today.

The funniest thing that happened was when the referee jerked his body back to avoid being hit by the ball. Firstly, that didn't help because the ball hit him anyway. Secondly, he cramped up and ended up on the floor. Thierry Henry tried to give him a massage. The medic looked amused. Everyone did, actually, including the fans. The ref could have been substituted! Minus points for lack of match fitness, eh.

Credit to the other Gunners who set up the goals - Fabregas and Van Persie. Captain Henry was in many places on the field, not just sitting around near the goal. Hleb was everywhere and Clichy held up well.

The Gunners move up to third spot with a game in hand. Yeah.

Because we can.

Because you deserve it.

Because I'm getting older, and you are, too.

Because I squint when I read my own blog on other people's screens.

Because I want to play my own small part in bringing the national myopia rate down. (Hmm, right)

(Thank you, CSS)

Just got back home after watching a play at Mox that raises awareness of protecting oneself AIDS by avoiding high-risk behaviour (for gays). The storyline is about a gay man who has a one-night stand with another guy he meets at the bar. They don't use a condom and as a result, the man gets infected with HIV. He then has unprotected sex with his own partner, then goes for an anonymous HIV test to learn he's positive. How does he break the news to his partner? Is there anything he could have avoided at each stage of the scenario?

What's special about this play is that it isn't a one-way performance. After the main storyline is acted out, the audience is invited to suggest ways to improve his situation by going back into the past. Should the couple have clearly communicated to each other their views on fidelity in a relationship? Should the man have avoided flirting in the first place? If they had to do it, should he have insisted on using the condom? Could he have broken the bad news to his partner in a better way?

It was entertaining because the members of the audience who suggested an alternative approach, had to take the place of that character and act it out with the other performers on stage. That made it more meaningful as it wasn't just theoretical but practical as well. Thanks to Action for AIDS who organised it.

Take-home points:

• People who have AIDS/HIV can look normal like the rest of us. So you can't judge by looks.
• Also, whether you're a top or bottom (gay speak) doesn't make your chances of contracting HIV any better or worse.
• If you're unsure whether you've contracted HIV, go for a test, but bear in mind that even if it reveals you're HIV negative, you should re-take the test in 3 months to confirm this as the virus may be undetectable initially.

After the play ended, a friend gave us a brief tour of the gay clubbing scene in Singapore. We looked at a few clubs and ended up at Happy, which was what we felt after drinking a bit and dancing on the floor. There was also a 'fashion show' where models carried placards with safe sex messages.

All in all it was a fun and educational night. Now it's time to sleep.

Technorati Tags: AIDS, HIV, Action for AIDS, Singapore, gay

I didn't know there was a South Park cartoon featuring World of Warcraft machinima, which became Cartoon Network's most-watched show since 2000. You can watch the episode here, in three parts. Spoilers are in this Wikipedia entry.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Technorati Tags: World of Warcraft, machinima, South Park, Youtube

I was happy to hear about the shift in the powerbase in the ol' US of A recently. Logged into Second Life just now and was informed that there was a virtual discussion group on the topic. Since they asked for publicity, here it is:

Self-description:

RootsCamps are 2006 post-election debriefs. The progressive community — everyone from the "netroots" to precinct captains to field organizers to national message consultants — is invited to come together to hash out what we learned in 2006 and how to apply those lessons going forward. Sign up or Learn more.

Technorati Tags: secondlife, rootscamp, politics, elections

By now you would've heard that Saddam Hussein has been sentenced to death. Various countries have expressed their agreement, disagreement, ambivalence and reservations about the decision.

More here:
Authoritative blogs' posts on Saddam (Technorati)
Wikipedia entry on Saddam
Videos on Saddam (Youtube)

Technorati Tags: Saddam, Iraq

'Started playing around with eBible again as I've got some Christianity Explored homework to do. They have some useful resources. As I can't link directly to the search results page, here's a meaningful extract on the topic of Addiction:

Just as the Israelites worshiped the work of their hands (Jeremiah 10:3–4, 8–9), don't many of us today worship the work of our hands? Haven't the process and product of our careers become virtual gods for some of us? In fact, hasn't work become an addiction for many, the controlling center and defining identity of their lives?

Moreover, work is an especially respectable idol in our society. A person can sacrifice everything else—family, friends, even personal health—on the altar of work, and actually be praised for it, actually be rewarded for showing commitment, determination, and the “right stuff.”

That is a profound tragedy. Work was intended by God to be a wonderful means of serving Him. He Himself is a worker, and He has created us in His image to be His coworkers. But work was never meant to become an end in itself, and certainly not an idol. Likewise, our work may express who we are, but it was never meant to become who we are.

Despite having a hectic schedule, I make it a point not to work on the Sabbath but to spend time with loved ones. I pray we can all do the same each weekend.

Caught most of the West Ham v Arsenal match this evening, and my premonition was right: I could have done better things with my time. As much as I wanted to see the Gunners climb to the no. 3 spot in the Premier League table, they looked a pale shade of their usual selves. Thierry Henry has not been performing up to par. When Teddy Sheringham came on, I felt a sense of dread and seeing them score the last-gasp goal was bad enough.

At that point, we didn't need to have the two managers scuffling. Earlier on, Referee Rob Stiles should have awarded Arsenal a penalty after Alexander Hleb was fouled inside the box. That would have changed the game. And who threw that coin at Robin van Persie's head? Certainly not a penny for his thoughts.

It was a scrappy game, full of injuries, yellow cards and poor behaviour from the fans. I hope Arsenal shake this off and go back to their winning ways soon.

Technorati Tags: Arsenal, football, EPL, West Ham, Thierry Henry, Teddy Sheringham, Robin van Persie

Because I didn't take any photos on the night of my performance, I had to rely on the graces of other relatives to send photos and videos to me. Here are a couple of contributions:

Me and my sister Vicki...

Cousin Sheryl and me...

I'm having trouble accessing my website sporadically. Two days ago, my site was suddenly inaccessible. At the same time, my sister in Australia was also unable to access my website. After writing in to tech support, the site came back up again. Then tech support told me that when they accessed my URL, the site was already able to load. All systems seemed normal. I wasn't getting an abnormally high number of visitors or anything.

Just 15 minutes ago today, the same problem occurred. Soon after writing to tech support, the site went back up again. I'm wondering - have you readers have encountered similar problems accessing my site?

Update 5/11/06: OK, my web host asks if those who have problems accessing my site, could run a traceroute. If you don't mind, here are the instructions:

For Windows users:
1. Click Start, then Run, type cmd and click OK.
2. Type tracert vantan.org and hit enter.

For Mac users:
1. Open Finder, go to the Applications folder, than the Utilities Folder.
2. In the Utilities folder, launch the Terminal application.
3. Type traceroute vantan.org and hit enter.

When I ran my Traceroute, there was a long time lag between Starhub and Sprint.net. When I tried to access Sprint.net, the website was inaccessible. Let me know if you notice a bit lag in any of the servers when it's being pinged.

I received a new laptop last week.

Naturally, I've been trying out all the features and software...

would you believe I've hardly had to do any typing ? Almost everything in this blog post was written using Microsoft's speech recognition software.

the only problem is , speech recognition is limited to Microsoft software. So I am blogging this in Internet explorer seven .

It's not perfect , but I'm impressed . It seems unable to recognize the word blow block blog. let's see if it can recognize other terms like fire folks Firefox. Nope.

how about web standards ? [all right]

how about global global local Google? Nope ...

the other thing is , punctuation is a little tricky . You can't say , "full stop" because this is American . You have to say PERIOD (this is typed). however , I was pretty impressed with the double quotation marks recognition .

in any case it gets most of the woods corrects. In time the software will the many rice familiarize itself with my voice after frequent use . Then it will find you find to you and fine [tune] itself and hopefully there will be less strike throughs.

OK, I've started typing again. Interesting, eh? Didn't know there was such software in Windows Maybe it was because I just downloaded an Office 2003 trial.

[Update: I've just discovered an option that allows you to apply speech
recognition to non MS software. I'm now updating this post using
Performancing for five oaks your folks Firefox, with a combination of typing and speech recognition. overall this is cool. yahoo! ]

Technorati Tags: Microsoft, speech recognition