December 26, 2010

lego city 3177 small car

this year i had bought many new sets but this is the one i would build as i can put it back into the box without disassembling it.

IMG_2458

the design is based on smart fortwo. For course it is impossible for holding two minifigs into the lego car. And maybe the limitation of lego bricks, the real world one looks cooler. btw i don’t like the hairstyle of the minifig.

slick tyres only...

How come they only provide slick tyres? it’s not a mini countryman wrc

too tight to sit inside...

minifig is not feeling comfort inside. he needs to raise hands, sit straight without back support or otherwise hit the top.

3177 vs 6633

finally is a pix of 3177 and 6633, showing generation of lego for around 30 years nearly. of course the new one is smooth on surface and designed on consideration of aerodynamics.

November 28, 2010

after 3 more episodes of house in nov

only content of one & half episode was strong enough to make the show to be renewed for the next season.

the first one was quite boring, what i can remember are cuddy found house had lied to her and there were too few scenes with wilson.

the second one was the best one among the three. the drama is often crossing the line. this time was discrimination on black & oz. chase was comin' late but didn't tell why. has cuddy found house paying prostitute to translate dutch online instead of finding a formal translater? she didn't like him to keep in touch with prostitutes even behaves right. wilson & sam was goin' on so well.

the last one was not very brilliant compared to the one before, but i think it's still fine. look of taub's wife has changed a bit, and i like the old one. there should be more on this couple. the one acted as patient did a good job however this episode was not focused on him or his illness. should house check patient's daughter cancer history more to fulfill his curiosity? the story is still dark on marriage & faith. chase was so enjoyable on his one night stand, taub was jealous on his wife but he didn't have ground to support. foreman was so dumb and wilson lost sam again. will wilson & foreman behave same as chase?

hope thirteen be back soon, otherwise she might miss the last chance to play in house

November 16, 2010

not only my pc having this problem

i've got the same thing as described in this forum message. those solutions provided cannot solve the problem. is there any way to fix it?

November 06, 2010

more on vba problems in excel for mac 2011

there are problems related to vba being found after i installed excel for mac 2011 on my machine. not 100% excel coded in excel for windows 2007/2010 with common features (i.e. not include active-x or ribbon change) is accepted in excel for mac.

there’s a bug in instr function which makes excel for mac out of memory. when you use an if function & one of its criteria is based on result of instr function, it fails. the code is like below:

if instr(1, cells(x,y), zzzz, 1) = 0 and cells(a,b) = “ccc” 
  …

end if

another scene is if the cells are filled with date, the date format is affected & overridden by mac os x language setting. vba cannot detect those fields either or make excel out of memory.

and when you make changes in excel for mac, digital cert included in the spreadsheet is lost & you need to mount it back in windows version again before you can make the code live again.

October 31, 2010

new wave of ms stuff on mac

messenger for mac 8:
good: supporting video call; file & photo sharing; new contact request not shown every time after you don't add that contact

bad: not supporting multi-login with clients on other computers at the same time; not supporting other social features

office for mac 2011:
good: return of outlook; support of vba; use of ribbon; faster respond time; nice templates; quick search in document; support of office web apps
bad: still missing other apps like visio, access; not fully compatible of vba written for office 2007/2010 (at least i got some problems for fields with dates & said overrun...); too simplified macro/add-on security control than windows version

October 30, 2010

speak now

it should be the must buy album in this year. the songs extra in deluxe version are also worthy.

the favourite is speak now, the title song.

October 26, 2010

house season 7 up to october

premiere – should it be a 3-hourr season 6 finale instead of putting it in season 7? at least two things could be put in season 6: huddy finally come together which means of many sex scenes, and there’s temporary leave for thirteen to allow olivia wilde to focus on big screen. anyway the team could still solve simple cases even without guidance of house. and we can see the new opening credit (old one) after change of casts (why not execute the option of showing cameron a little bit more). the episode is still ok except of too juicy.

2nd – many people may have the same feeling when your loved one is your boss / co-worker. and the story came to a sad ending which made me feel a bit like how amber died. in total, it was not so juicy as the premiere!

3rd – this one so far was the best one in the season. it came back to the root of detective story which it’s based. the patient who is a detective story writer is actually a tribute to arthur conan doyle & agatha christie. it showed how the mind of writers is and made us remember “everybody lies”. you could also hear famous star wars phrase from wilson,  “i have a bad feeling about this”, & dr cockroach’s  laugh as in monsters vs aliens by hugh laurie aka dr cockroach.

4th – it’s quite dull. huddy tried to do a step further while chase was too focus on finding a partner in personal rather on work

5th – it’s another sad case. rachel was cute. will there be any following on what had happened between her & house?. good job robert sean leonard, wilson was so funny in the first & this episode. And is this so hard to find a new member for house’s team?

September 25, 2010

dream of you

a year after releasing of the first single, the album is finally here and the release date in hk is earlier than that in australia! the track listing is still the corrs’ style. it is a mixture of forgiven, not forgotten, their first album & vh1 presents: the corrs, live in dublin, their live album. there are twelve songs within which three are instrumental and two feature with other artists.

everybody’s got to learn sometime, the second single and also the cover version of the korgis, is quite odd when the music is passing to chorus thru headphones. but using speakers to play that part the feeling is much better.

it is good for mná na h’éireann to be instrumental as it is a bit controversy. and you can find the contribution from famous jeff beck.

maybe it’s a bit hard for her to sing smalltown boy in live every time as part of lyrics needs her to sing in very high pitch.

the arrangement for cooley's reel is same as that of other traditional songs presented together with her siblings.

my favourites include it’s not dream, so long ago, dream of you.

for die hard the corrs’ fan like me, this one should please us much more than the one sung by her sister andrea when we are still waiting the siblings to get back to work together.

September 11, 2010

temp fix for ipod detection error after upgrading to itunes 10 in win xp

  1. uninstall every apple software per instruction in apple support site.
  2. install previous version of itunes (i.e. don’t remove setup file asap or simply use auto update function)
  3. install latest version of itunes
  4. done!
Mar 6 2011: itunes problem should be finally fixed in 10.2 by asking user to reboot the machine after installation

August 08, 2010

still in dreams?

  • is the whole thing a dream & it keeps looping until the right cobb finally meets the right saito?
  • even the core story is about cobb' mind on his wife, don’t know why that’s the weakest part in the film. its made me feel dull when this shows again & again.
  • the plan to make fischer mind change is very dangerous, which one of the scenarios was shown by what happened to saito.
  • it’s so terrible that you need to & know how to defence dream.
  • actually i don’t think saito knows the mission is accomplished as he didn’t witness fischer finished the task the team assigned. so final scenes probably are cobb’s dream. how come his kids are sill so young? obviously the totem would not stop.
  • i think it’s a bit tough for nowadays dicaprio to film the cashing scenes in africa. if he was still the one in titanic or romeo + juliet, that’s fine.

July 18, 2010

bye andy

thx to steve jobsroy disney, disney did acquire pixar so that disney dropped her own idea of storyline of toy story 3. toy story 3 should be the winner of this summer movie season.

for those who watched toy storytoy story 2, time-line of toy story 3 fits them which they have the same problem as andy has. woody and the gang are still misunderstanding each other. and their world is so humanized.

every toy dumped was rescued, it is quite environmental friendly. their life is reborn, so cool. i love buzz in spanish mode and ken is very attractive, both how he reacts to barbie, and also his girlish way.

but is that necessary to make the film as 3D? and a bit sad to cut some characters to make the story smooth.

and sid the villain is the garage truck driver?

p.s. is andy's computer a mac? bonnie's one is a must, but the map finder is not by bing, google or yahoo? will it be future apple's map?

July 17, 2010

the pandorica opens & the big bang

seems david tennant is too successful on being the doctor, matt smith still makes me feel the difference between two incarnations even he has more facial expressions.

karen gillan's amy pond is designed to prevent tenth doctor's problem happening again. the companion has a husband so there's no way to have another rose loving doctor so deep and making doctor regret for a period of time (even that's so tiny for his 903-year journey!).

but there are something not quite reasonable:
  1. how can sonic screwdriver open deadlocked pandorica? and pandorica can be opened by little amelia so easily?
  2. how can river song keeps enough memory to wake amy's mind on doctor?
  3. will the crack appear again after doctor coming back? i.e. is problem really solved?

July 04, 2010

egl kcja05-0622

  • food: ok thru agency arrangement even only last included (beef steam pot) & self paid ones are good
  • accommodation: lotte world jeju is very good. courtyard by marriott seoul times square is new, but a bit small. and the design of toilet sucks. glass door of shower has a gap between ground & lower hinge so water keeps running out… btw we can watch now tv & cctv 1 in courtyard.
  • scenes: quite balanced
  • time arrangement: as best as they can
  • tour guides (egl’s wicky, local agency’s joy & photographer peter): excellent. can accomplish nearly every needs and provide lots of side info

=> target: 25-35 years old couple. they have energy, start to have money to spend, and start to know how to enjoy the trip

P.S. Pix on flickr

June 12, 2010

will house end after season 7?

season 6 got many new tries, these includes:

but the ratings keep falling.

coming season opening follows last year’s style, 2-hour episode instead of one. even omar epps said the script cool and starts filming next week which means more time to fine tune, this year’s is difficult to get as good as last year. we had house in psycho hospital for treatment which was very funny & interesting, this year what we can expect is only the spark between huddy after being together.

and casts are another issue, olivia wilde is busy on movies and takes a long break from the show. jennifer morrison only returns for three or four episodes in this season. the feminine main cast now only remains lisa edelstein, which is very abnormal for the show. this is not show for military, it needs more women to make the show well balanced. and the key man, hugh laurie, keeps yelling to go back to england or end good. this seems the show cannot last long after he can win an emmy. actually not few shows end not long after winning emmy desperately, from friends to recently 24.

May 30, 2010

00:00:03-00:00:00

not as bad as people said for the ending. it's reasonable for president taylor to change her mind. any people from administration will show in the movie? how about aaron pierce or ethan?

pillar is not as strong as jack. & his skill to search evidence is not good enough. chloe's way to hide the card is quite simple.

logan cannot be dead so easily!

er’s dr benton is the useless secretary general...

lucky for jack not be killed in order to bring story to movie. so cia & fsb is all around for him. hope kim is safe under chloe’s custody. if tony is set to be in the movie, as he knows about jack, kim is in much danger.

May 22, 2010

the pacific

the miniseries shown in hbo is now over. many people were comparing it with previous one produced by same team, band of brothers (brb). obviously they would be disappointed.

band of brothers focuses on whole of easy company, 506th infantry regiment, 101st airborne division from low to high rank while the pacific aims on three companies of marine corps in pacific theatre with three enlisted corpsmen as the core characters serving in different companies. the front line time is different for two groups. brb only has a timeframe of around an year and at that time germans were falling already after failure of african & russian campaign. but corps fought for nearly three years and their enemy, japs, were becoming stronger and stronger after each battle. so the storyline of the pacific is relatively dull at the beginning and cannot show the big picture of front line. writers already used other methods to make the story hot, from censored screens, to language.

In guadalcanal, japs were just like enemies in electronic games, rushing to death with no means, since they had got the land easily. so what americans could do were just getting enough ammo & rifles to kill them. that’s why john basilone became hero & famous. just thought there would not be good results between corps and girls in melbourne since servicemen didn’t stay forever, but at least one pair can have a happy ending.

cape gloucester was a mess to the corps due to the environment, where they faced more in iwo jima & okinawa, making many with metal problems. so retreatment is a focal point of the episode. in peleliu, they finally faced the well prepared japs while two of main characters finally met each other. you can say that quality of those two episodes can be comparable to that in brb. but in history both cape & peleliu may not be so important for the campaign.

too little front line actions were shown for iwo jima in order to end the line of john basilone, and other two were not fighting there. iwo jima actually is very important for the corps, what people remember the corps action in wwii are mainly due to that battle. they should try to put a bit more on that.

land at okinawa really shows the bad side of japs like terrorists nowadays. using citizens as a weapon, they hurt a lot of troops even making corps friendly fired before japs were eliminated . newbie made the move even harder, they were not smart & tough when compared to those fought before.

why are nowadays veterans discharged easily misbehaving and becoming a threat to others? seems uniforms are no longer as respectful as before. after wwii, servicemen can wear uniforms in the street without any discrimination at all. of course every one thought they are saving the country but not serving for a person only. and life is not so tough that they can have enough time to take recovery from the effect of war. nowadays people just rush and rush, no one can have a rest. soldiers discharged from front line actually need a lot of relieve before back to society.

p.s. richard winters should be worth for medal of honor.

May 09, 2010

the choice

soap opera is cool for this episode.
starts great from thirteen reaction on all patient said we are straight, to chase talks about marriage, then on how taub handles his marriage.
something strange for the male nurse to take away the thing house doesn't accept from taub.
house is still miserable on cuddy btw but wilson kicks him out even wilson tries to find ways to compensate.
next one we can see someone comes back to follow house status.

May 08, 2010

the clone wars season 2

anakin becomes even darker. some skills used by vader in episode 4 or 5 were shown.
how will ahsoka end her jedi journey? she is not shown in episode 3.
hondo ohnaka is the most attracted pirate/bounty hunter in the series, even more than cad bane; but possibly cad can break the prison again to get aurra sing/boba. and even bounty hunters have a good side.
captain rex is more humanize than expected, that’s why he is not shown in episode 3?
will there be any more development on obi-wan & duchess satine? it’s a bit bored to watch anakin & padme only
just thought tera sinbue would be shown again in season finale to lead ahsoka to search in scummy areas. where is yoda & obi-wan by the way? when mace & anakin are hurt
wish boba escaping from prison, they don’t simply follow the same way as ziro the hutt
how come zillo the beast didn’t have luck to hurt palpatine a bit (to force him to show some sith power)?

lego toy story garbage truck getaway

the latest garbage truck specially built for coming toy story is out. compared to other garbage truck by lego solely (like my 7991), it seems toy story’s one is more cool at all (as it’s wider to show the size). but one thing it can be shown in the film only, the way to collect garbage will make both truck & environment polluted. the driver cannot go in or out his driver seat without getting some dirt. omg

April 17, 2010

lockdown

actually a recap & point for House to run more episodes

  • thirteen is a real liar & so liberal on some points
  • ex-no 1 of wilson will show up! that will add something more to the relationship between house & wilson
  • finally ends for chase & cameron. a bit sad but happy for both
  • foreman keeps shining even the path is not easy while taub is fading
  • patient relieves house a bit
  • will this lockdown change cuddy a bit on the relatonship with lucas? or her wise? she learns a bit of skills from lucas? she does notice a lot of details to solve the mystery and releases everyone.

March 14, 2010

non-mainstream choices

  1. even riot on the empty street is not my best favourite (but i was really attached to misread), kings of convenience has attracted me anyway. so when declaration of dependence is out, it's already in my mind. my recommendations are: boat behind, rule my world.

  2. fireflies really shine. ocean eyes is another album i feel i like in a whole. owl city makes it in well balanced. so there is no need for me to make any recommendation even though everywhere are fireflies.

March 06, 2010

24 s08e10

  1. hope the body not be found if there is season 9. cole was a bad guy before?
  2. just a few cameos for tim woods. really not enough
  3. hastings really changed?
  4. paramedic, "let me do my job!!!". jack's yelling does not work in 24 either
  5. how will be the line for hassan & renee if the bomb detonates

February 16, 2010

24 s08e08

  • Jack is rambo again
  • Dana finally takes action to get rid of her old history
  • Sergei is easy to co-operate (maybe for future of his family)
  • but Josef gets mad on him & makes the case more complicated.

February 14, 2010

wilson & 5 to 9

there were two house episodes not focusing house himself recently. one is wilson, another is 5 to 9.

wilson obviously is talking about house’s best mate, wilson. but it still focuses on medical mysteries on wilson’s patient instead. and robert sean leonard said he doesn’t want wilson being focused again despite wilson’s first life will make an appearance soon.

5 to 9 is about another main character, the one with complicated relationship with house (huddy), cuddy. there are quite minimal drops on medical, but mainly focuses on her life as a step-mum, and as a leader of a small teaching hospital with freak genius house. how can she have time to do yoga & make love with lucas? how can she find out & handle drug stolen from pharmacy (this should be first time to show all staffs of pharmacy? but actually it’s out of control, otherwise house could take vicodin so easily.) with the help of two jerks (house & lucas)? how can she fight back from insurance company and board of directors’ of hospital (this should be the first time the board shown after kicking out billionaire edward vogler)?

i think if they develop a bit more on her with lucas/hosue, there is a spinoff opportunity instead of just on lucas solely.

February 13, 2010

24 s08e07

  • hastings is a dumbass
  • line on dana is ugly…
  • how can jack be recovered so quick? coz his body was contaminated in season 7? george mason’s dead is unlucky then
  • russians are cleverer than americans obviously

January 24, 2010

24 s8 4-8pm

    new CTU looks like the set used in la femme nikita. but armoury looks suck, like personal collection of enthusiast only. they used to use dell, now they use apple. the director tries to be cool & smart but fails.

    madam president is alone finally. daughter is in prison & her husband has left her.

    ethan is taking medicine…

    the journalist, who has an affair with president of irk, looks a bit like secretary of former president daniel

    kim really grows up. but is this good to let jack back to ctu? last time he was dead if without her help. how about this time? either jack or ortiz cannot survive after season 9. they are quite alike. & renee is even darker than jack, she cannot handle it.

    everyone keeps sayin, “damn it!”

    dana’s ex-boyfriend may be connected to russian guys in the jail… i believe her role will be soon replaced by chloe.

January 17, 2010

the men who stare at goats

  • my mind of george clooney still sticks into the age of er. time flies a lot.
  • the script is quite funny but actually is a bit short. george clooney did a good job. there are too few cameos for kevin spacey especially he is in dark side.
  • it’s a tribute to star wars. they called themselves jedi warriors. the power they use has good & dark side. and use ewan mcgregor as one of the actors and how he learns the force. it is funny when george clooney to tell obi-wan what the force is (of course it is also funny after showing how to use the force to make cloud dissolved)! and finally ewan becomes jedi master again!
  • the film i think is saying something more, like job & family affair; vietnam war, hippies & drugs, internal politics of military, private contractors; operation iraqi freedom.