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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

avatar

• computer graphic is always a strength from james cameron. better focus on last few minutes.
• name of the moon is pandora… obviously this is to show how greedy we are
• jake scully is the chosen one, a bit like anakin skywalker. of course the harm is less but less dramatic… and reasonable to him to become na’vi finally due to his human body defect
• human pls don’t underestimate force of nature
• how to get two more sequels? if the way follows similar to jurassic park, that wastes this one ending.

sherlock holmes

maybe it’s a bit more on action. but if it is filmed by conventional way like those tv episodes for stories of agatha christie, it’s not a blockbuster even with jude law or robert downey jr.

besides the novels did say holmes is kinda professional on martial arts. this doesn’t make conflict to the original idea from sir arthur conan doyle. and the film does emphasize the method he investigates. actually many tv series nowadays are using the same style, like house, the mentalist. using both law & downey and starts with holmes already famous is very fit too all other stories using holmes’ methodology. they are not cartoon heros anyway. if people really want to know their background, they would buy the fictions and study themselves.

for some cg screens i have a feeling of another film starring jude law, sky captain & the world of tomorrow. the only drawback is i don’t like the way they handle hair of robert downey jr. it’s a bit too modern.

For the sequel, obviously needs to include death of mary, and of course professor moriarty.

2012

1. actually actors are quite well known, only hong kongers are lack of knowledge. of course you cannot get every 1st-class to play;
   
2. maybe we expect a bit more, the movie actually is ok. but seems like the older twos are a bit better;
   
3. every parents care their children. sorry for yuri;
   
4. hope is for sissies. sorry for gordon, tamara;
   
5. it’s normal to have rich on board as capital is needed and in order to make whole earth being unknown. of course murders are reasonable in this circumstance;
   
6. USS JFK had been retired. they
7. should use another aircraft carrier instead. btw why not use bentley a bit more;
   
8. a bit too good for chinese; they don’t let remaining especially workers to come even for ancient chinese. their product may be in second class only. it’s hard to say every ship is in good shape after first wave of tsunami;
   
9. where are the remaining arks? only three can pass through?

the clone wars s2e06

anakin said he wants to celebrate the victory in the clone wars with ahsoka when she is in trap. that means ahsoka should be dead already in revenge of the sith. what he talks often fails, like his mother, padme.

the death i think also contributes him to closer to stay in dark side…

wtcc macao 2009

1. so dirty the team order was at the end of race 1. both seat & bmw did tricks to make the plans secure…
   
2. there is no advantage for bmw anymore. despite rumours heard before, hope they stay in wtcc.
   
3. this year crash was more violent than years before. thompson’s car was in too heavy damage in qualifying so he couldn’t show up in races. what a waste for him & lada. the crash for engslter was unlucky (he had already been unlucky this season with the crash with stupid safety car) & hope him recover soon. sad for larini, couldn’t finish for his ever last race.

p.s. so crappy tvb broadcast was, both presenters & timing for ads suck.

tp-link & macbook

i may know the wireless connection getting crappy between tp-link wireless router & macbook.

there are two factors, one is temperature of macbook. if the heat is not exhausted out, the temperature is directly proportional to the interference of the wireless signal. the connectivity in winter is much better than that of summer.

another is the boot camp. it seems either mac os or windows doesn’t disconnect / release the original connection well enough the next connection in another os sucks. but i still need to use windows as latest office for mac doesn’t support vba.

albums collected

1. we sing. we dance. we steal things.
   first is attached by “lucky”. then find other songs are cool too
   
2. fearless
   "love story” is a big hit & makes me interested. i also like “white horse” & “you belong to me”. Thx MTV for promotion when i was in singapore.
   
3. the boy who knew too much
   great. even better than “live in cartoon motion”

house so far

finally caught up the latest episode after going back home.

to see house to get away vicodin & hallucinations in psychiatric hospital really finds how his mind changes from resistive to cooperative without affecting his medical gut. and he finally finds a way to help people in a right way. the affair between him and lydia makes me think lydia is more attractive than cuddy and lydia is much fitter for house’s future. really hope lydia show in a later stage to fight for house. cuddy pls work a bit hard. :P

besides pls allow dr nolan to come back to further guide house. wilson is not strong enough to help house to go on as wilson knows the old devil house for too long and he is still sticking with amber.

it’s the right choice to choose foreman as the interim head as he had experience in mercy and he can use house’s angle to think. it’s a bit shock for the leave of taub, but i think his former colleagues find him back to the old field & kick him back. it’s normal for foreteen to separate and actually i like jennifer morrison more than olivia wilde.

what chase did to kill the dictator is reasonable as for his background. he was nearly a priest but he could not stand for his faith. his handling is still a mess now and should be an interesting point for coming few episodes.

inglourious basterds

the layout is a bit like a book, starting with chapter 1, 2, 3. even the film is a bit spaghetti western and a bit violence scenes, the story is quite mainstream. you can say it is right in balance. btw i love the way to handle nazi

the guy acting colonel hans landa is really good. he can show how the colonel really does the job well & treats the job as a job instead of a crazy nazi.

both main actresses are pretty and it's a bit sad the jewish cannot have a happy ending. btw the last scene of her is just like a ghost.

another main actor, brad pitt, is cool in the film with that accent. but when comparing with colonel, i think something is missing.

obviously british is in a bad role in the film, the lieutenant nearly ruins the operations. even though he's good in german movie industry, he doesn't act as a german in other ways. and he wastes two local basterds and nearly makes the key person dead.

really hope hilter was dead in that way, so tom cruise will not die later.

p.s. don't know why german language inside the movie sounds much better than that i saw i youtube.

e-statement by hsbc hk

in order to save more paper, hsbc hk will enforce using e-statement instead of traditional mailing very soon.

i still stand on traditional statement even it will charge me starting from 2011. this is because conversion of statement is quite different from that of other paper. especially when many places from government, public utilities, to financial institutions (even hsbc itself) still only accept traditional statement.

besides they only officially support on windows xp & internet explorer 6. win xp is going to be faded even it is still mainstream. ie 6 is even worse, microsoft already pushes hard to make users use ie 8 instead. and there are users using other systems (mac, linux, or mobile systems) with different browsers (firefox, chrome, safari, opera...). how can they use the service even if everywhere accepts e-statement?

pls stop this stupid move before everything is ok. pls don't flatter those environmental protection enthusiasts.

Up

i just think the ideas brought behind are similar as the things inside steve jobs, de facto owner of producer, pixar.

everything is just fit into the right position with no less or more.

that's why pixar will bring back two old friends, toy story & cars, instead of a new story in coming years.

some new good google services not available in chinese

1. sports' schedules & contacts' bithdays - only contacts' birthdays are available to us, but we do need sports' schedules. of course it's hard to cover both local & overseas sports, hope they can try putting it on stock faster. (why do they announce in gmail blog instead of docs' blog? because of contacts?)
   
   
2. Google Domestic Trends - this will be free & easy way to study the big trend of economics so we can buy at low & sell at high. actually they can directly implement this to hk version of google finance (use google translate to make it in chinese) as our/mainland's economics is highly depending on that of the states. so we study what happened across pacific and we can act accordingly.

lens of canon cameras

the said e18 error is always a nightmare for many users. for me, this problem makes a 3-year ixus 40 dead & now nearly kicked my 1-year ixus 860is to hell.

the ixus 40 problem finally made the battery closed to explosion (blowed a bit) and the fixing fee quoted by canon service centre can allow me to buy another good camera under other brand. but i still like canon so i get ixus 860us.

the problem of new one is it loves to switch on again even i shut it off and put into the case. & it makes itself out of order. when i took it out & found the lens rotated anti-clockwise for around 30 degrees. luckily method fix #7 mentioned in this blog post saved my day. but the rotation may already hurt some electronics inside, there are dead spots on lcd screen...

tailor made label cloud

finally the team made the official one which users wait for long time. compared to the one done by enthusiasts, one thing is needed to improve. that is to limit the amount of labels to be shown. if you have a page solely with labels, that's fine. now it is one of the items put on sidebar for most users & we don't expect to see a long cloud making screen very long for a tiny blog post. so i stick on enthusiat's one at this moment.

(sep 13: another is much better, jump breaks)

is latest update for google reader a fight against their old friends in friendfeed

i think they just show the function making friendfeed less usable just after friendfeed is bought by facebook.

for me, friendfeed is the central of showing my sharing items stored in different networks. now this move from google reader is to make information crossly shown in different networks. so you can add a feed from twitter to google reader at the same time you can share things back to twitter. this makes things more mess

24 s8 (spoiler)

they are doin something impossible again. peace between the states & iran...

good to bring kim (which brings her daughter) & ethan back. but how about aaron?

crash!

my pc’s office 2007, .net framework, silverlight & hp printer drivers keep on crashin’. what the hell?

more on america’s army 3

of course we cannot compare the brand new thing with the old aa2. it does bring something good, especially ifak which you can be treatable after gunshots, and also much more detailed basic training with new point systems. besides one thing you cannot do in aa2 is to melee the enemy.

however they should bring some aa2’s features back. i don’t like the aim point which is much harder to hit the enemy and hard to see when background is in rich details. m320 is worse than m203 in both way of aiming & number of available rounds (that means my favourite, insurgent camp, cannot be converted). and you don’t know how many bullets left after firing few. it’s very hard to get good result for xm110 test even you aimed the target so well. i miss m24/m82 anyway.

finally hk disneyland is shown

in google maps & earth! and also union square, land reclamation in front of star ferry, stonecutters bridge.

but how come lee garden road is next to hk academy for performing arts?

america’s army 3

it’s completely fresh built, not like aa2 was just building on top of aa1. but before closing publicly staffed development studio, army should allow them to fix up the bugs first. there are still tons of bugs after the first update, like abnormal menu behaviour, account setting maintenance failure in game.

one of the things pissing me is it cannot link with aa2 account. i have already pre-registered my account so i don’t create a new one. the damned in-game setting don’t allow me to link back.

but the suck one is user cannot finish the basic combat training which you cannot play the game online! i have finished combat life saving for three times but the it doesn’t allow me to move on. is that due to steam? (seems so, the auth server delayed updating my result) damn it.

24 s7 finale (spoiler)

• tony is in dark side, what will happen in season 8? but it’s cool in his mind for the revenge. basically everything behind in last few seasons is known.
  
• when jack is saved, how would he think? and how’s kim?
  
• so renee will be in new ctu?
  
• there should be something like redemption before broadcast of season 8 to explain the things above.
  
• will they bring janis back? and also morris if chloe is in new ctu? what will aaron do? they need to bring him back to complete the journey.
  
• how do the guys working with alan wilson save him? jack’s brother & dad, charles logan were also in the same organization. so allison faces far more than her family. she needs to work alone this time…
  
• which line will be faded away like karen hayes?

house divided (spoiler)

this one should be the best in this season so far.

story is so rich this time. it gives every characters shown up, first digging up house’s mind with amber! wilson was made miserable again by putting the bachelor party in his house (coz house kicking out cameron from the party) and walking out without pants after playing with his known stripper. foreteen is cool and seems like unbreakable. chase is poor being nearly killed by jealousy from house. and cuddy saves house and the day again.

but cg for flame by wine is a bit weak.

new flu outbreak

suddenly there is a new flu coming out and we should take more care on the incident going.

1. it’s like the flu in 1918, i.e. young people are much more easier to be infected. so we should have a better living style.
   
2. pros and cons compared to that in 1918.
   
   pros: organizations like WHO and more NPOs, medical development including genes, vaccines, and drugs; information circulation and alerts so earlier measures can be taken;
   
   cons: easiness for travel (mobilization / globalization); crowded living conditions in urban areas; fewer exercises / lazier and full of junk food.
   
3. hope margaret chan not make mistakes like what she did in hk again.
   
4. currently the deaths are still in mexico, and original outbreaks in there and mexicans populated southern part of the states, that may mean a. poor medial conditions there; b. virus is active in hotter & drier places.

may god bless us.

gingko house

luckily i still work at central / sheung wan district in these few months so we can try it before going to quarry bay / tai koo area. we didn’t book a table but we were lucky there is a time gap for us to take our lunch.

the most special thing is the waiters are elderly instead of youngsters used by most newer restaurants elsewhere in hk. services are wonderful and discreet even without service charge. also the set lunch is delicious. pizza is thin and rich in tomato sauce. if the time gap is longer, the lovely set drink will not be wasted. the bill is reasonable and actually i would pay for more. hope i try more before relocation.

america’s army 2.8.5

another update before AA3 and it shows more ES2 introduced in previous one in existing maps. developers said there will be special tricks for “bridge” based on addition of ES2. i’m looking for them.

however they need to update they deploy client before further update. mine still crashes and i need to use old way to get the latest fix.

24 s7e17 (spoiler)

• reasonable to bring kim back. but it’s experimental… and may be too late for treatment. the thing should bring more harm than he’s was drug addicted in season 3. what will this happen in season 8?
  
• olivia and her reporter partner ken is really a pair of mom & son (bitch & sob)! is their sleep longer than that of logan’s? btw cool to see aaron again.
  
• tony finally rocks but how can he broadcast live images out the facility? the place was shielded for intrared, it should have done something else for wireless jamming (special station for internal communication only) and the place is underground with military grade material.
  
• and that american way makes the monster back to her ass at all.

finally rumor gone for house (spolier)

goodbye kutner.

… to work for obama!

anyway it brings the line for next few episodes to let house to find out why he chose suicide. since he was so positive as far as we see. only little changes were found in last episode (let taub get his point). maybe he’s afraid to be another house?

goodbye ER!

it’s the last stuff for golden era of nbc which i started watching it since i took secondary school (dropped it after carter left).

it’s nice to have the old opening credit & theme song back and there are so many familiar scenes (even carter & rachel greene conversation!). and also to get so many original casts to appear once more.

what i wanna say it ends in a good way at all. thank you.

ref: wiki, alan sepinwall, snap judgement, pepe, series & tv, emmy extra

something new and cool but should be fixed

the idea behind latest feature in google reader is good but i think it’s duplicate with current function, share with note. and they said, “Currently, you cannot comment on items in a shared items subscription or on a shared tag; comments can only be made on items shared by friends.” that means i needa type twice for same thing i thought. hope they check and do something to fix the situation

old times – ER S15E19 (spoiler included)

it was another anticipated episode before ER ends.

why? as the title said, this one is for long time lovers. four original casts are back, george clooney (should be the last time to see him to play a tv drama), julianna margulies, noah wyle & eric la salle.

main story is john carter needs to have a kidney transplant (lost one when lucy was killed & remaining is being damaged in africa). he was in the hospital his mentor peter works. this is touching when they talk before the surgery and how peter saves john during the operation. they are obviously far over mentor/student relationship.

in seattle where doug & carol reside, sam & neela are there to wait to get the transplant organs from a dying adolescent. doug & carol worked to convince teenager’s grandma to let her grandson go. when doug found sam & neela working in county, they check out who they know in common shows the big change in the show. finally sam & neela got what they want and back to chicago. it’s a bit odd for doug, carol, sam & neela not knowing kidney is for john…

anyway the story quality is back to the old days! and also we don’t expect george clooney for playing not only a cameo!

24 s7e13 (spoiler included)

so far i think it can be nominee for emmys. the story is exciting and unexpected. and it’s sad to watch bill’s dead… and also finally knows a bit on what happened to aaron pierce’s last four years.

empire: total war

i give up to try/own it

1. not much free time to play games
2. steam said demo is not allowed for my region
3. gamespot said it’s not editor’s choice.

valkryie

most of cruise's films i saw were too action-based and this one only first few minutes are as impressive as before. as i knew the history a bit before which makes me feel this one likes bbc / national geographic documentary instead.

red cliff

1. war scenes are ok
2. too much on lin chi ling
3. story is too far from history

24 s07 e01-06

spoiler

 

gap between redemption & e01:

1. first son was dead
2. the mine didn’t kill the colonel

something in fbi:

1. janis is a bit like chloe

and:

1. very good way to bring tony, chloe & bill back
2. whole secret service is in bribe?
3. how can jack face colonel? how will colonel do if he knows jack is now with tony?
4. no traffic collision avoidance system on both planes? or that cip can override? the small plane may not be detected.
5. what will happen for first gentleman?

another year

first is to secure my job, i.e. to work in cautious. the mistakes i made are not acceptable. i need a well balance between efficiency, stability and multi-skills. i’m not bad on efficiency, multi-skills, but really sucks on stability. sometimes i can do some miracle things, but often i give troubles to others. even everything is not perfect, i hope i get better eventually. a tough challenge is ahead to test my weakness due to recent layoff. besides everyday tasks, the new one would be very demanding on both efficiency and stability. can i still do my best after high workload and long working hours? others can, but i’m not sure. should i find another way out after the turmoil of the economy?

and it should be wise not to apply the master course when we are sure whether the job can be secured. but there are things i can consider, driving, learning german, first-aid… let me think about it in coming holidays. besides i need to put a bit hard work to continue my self-learn access thru this book and get back some java skills from robocode.

when everything is not safe, spending is another key topic. except things mentioned below for personal entertainment would use extra money on my low expense life, a pair of leather shoes, some shirts were bought already. another trouble thing should be my cell phone. the battery cover is already loosen. the connection of charging adaptor is not as firm as used to be. but i still don’t firm what kind of phone i want yet.

money saved still puts to stocks. this year should be a good year to absorb more. but i can absorb less than i can as i did some stupid decisions last year. first is not trying to add new member including ipo in my list of stocks in this year. i was suck to get 00005.hk, 00151.hk, 00330.hk, 02318.hk (luckily sold with profit), and 02827.hk in 2008. and i will concentrate on 00410.hk besides 00006.hk under monthly investment plan. but i cannot withdraw the possibility to get more stocks for other members.

summer makes me sportive. nearly every week i kept swimming last year from june to october. but after then only played tennis once with my friend and no major exercise was done until now. i really need to think what to do during winter to keep my body fit.

for personal entertainment, this year should be mostly on lego, empire: total war, the remaining books of poirot series. already bought two when it is firstly available in this year, but there are more attractive sets from lego to be available later this year.  like 10193 - medieval market village, it can be said as one of the master pieces from lego in these recent years. besides there are rumour sets also attractive. really hope lego hk can import them and sell them not only in special event.

despite the disappointment of medieval ii: total war, empire: total war should be promising. it is built by the same team which brought rome: total war to us and they also bring new way to play in the game as what they did in rome: total war, like naval battles. the only drawback is the map will be too large. just better wait it out & commented by game sites before further decision. game time should be much less even i still play america’s army which should be a new version out later this year and civilization iv in long holidays.

finally bought mrs mcginty’s dead at a reasonable price, but i don’t start it yet as i’m reading 44 scotland street right now. hopefully i can finish it within this year and get me back into the world of poirot.

and please give me more time to chase house, 24, doctor who, and torchwood.

what hk parents not to do to their children

an excerpt from 44 scotland street,

“The whole part about childhood,”… “is that it affords us a brief moment of innocence and protection from the pressures of the world. Parents who push their children too hard intrude on that little bit of space. And of course they make their children massively anxious…

honey orange latte

last year end i nearly missed my favourite, toffee nut lattee. so i won’t miss the chance to taste latest special, honey orange latte.

 

they have already a drink with orange flavour, mocha valencia. this time, aside with orange is honey instead of chocolate. the effect i think is just taking out the chocolate taste, honey is just another sweetener only. the brewing temperature is actually too hot for honey to take its effect. luckily it doesn’t take out the smell of orange. and the drink  fits the festival and atmosphere well which can sweet your mind.

windows live essentials

a new version is out. in last version i removed windows live mail as it sucked. the new version, however is much better and i think it can replace outlook express finally.

for others, i have installed messenger, photo gallery, and writer. i don't like the big change in the messenger even though it's still friendly. but it's cool to put share files in skydrive so the files can be available at all time.

i seldom use photo gallery but it provides all basic stuff other software provides. u cannot feel the big charge in writer even they have made some cool plugins.

what a shame is movie maker is for vista only. it’s time to replace windows movie maker in xp.

another lego city sets in hand

8398 & 8401!

joy to the world

this was the last new episode before holidays. so it is normal to have holiday themes inside the story.

spoiler below

actually the main line is quite sad at all. one of the few patients cannot be cured even though she didn't suffer much from her symptoms. and also she showed how kids are being affected by drugs, alcohol, and teenage pregnancy nowadays. but the baby which was expected to die is still alive. and cuddy can fulfil her wish with that baby finally. and it seems house enjoys when seeing cuddy happy.

what a good lie house made to cover the cheating between the lovers. it just makes a joke to christians but it really fits the holiday theme.

there are a lot of footages on thirteen in these few episodes, showing the attitude change on herself. and this is a very shock to start a relationship. can she change foreman from same as house  (this is why foreman was fired outside and stays in the team again) to less like one?

new way to make things balance

in the old ways for many touring car races, to balance the difference of cars, they just put weights into the winner's car. but when the car differences are being big and drivers abilities are not the same, adding weights didn't work.

so new stuff is done by fia for wtcc. this time, they use the difference between fastest cars in different models and do compensation to slower ones by reducing weights for whole model. so the human factor can be lowered and the minor car difference due to different design styles should be fixed after few races.

i hope this can fix the problem brought this year, seat got very good result after using diesel. and bmw can win back guia race as they say!

thailand

what will happen if their king, bhumibol adulyadej, goes to heaven in one day?

1. what will military do? can their major partner, the states, do something?
2. seems it's hard to have a civil war if military is still strong enough
3. secession? there is so big difference between cities & rural areas

safe trip home

the album i think is awesome. i like all the tracks playing altogether. but maybe they are a bit weak when being played individually. actually they are quite dido-style but this time she played more instruments so the feeling is a bit changed. don't believe in love gives a strong start at all.

are they a bit too worry besides financial crisis? globally, there's a deluxe edition with three more songs (one more in itunes - sorry for hkers), four postcards, studio film (same as the one in her site). besides a separate site is made for promotion. locally a poster was given.

gmail themes

many feel high on this. but i don't like even changin' one from one. the classical one is cool coz simple is the best. i still love old style google frontpage instead of igoogle.

24 redemption

reasonable & attractive. classical 24 story & scenes but in different locations

btw will it be shown on tvb?

heal thyself

return of mark greene!

story here; snapshots here

just feel happy and take some time to watch it

wtcc 2008 macao round 2

as the rules, eighth in last round would be first in this round. So at starting position were james thompson, augusto farfus jr and gabriele tarquini.

for few few laps, the most attractive was those three above attacking the others. but things changed at last three laps but nearly all crashes could not be caught by tv cameras! thompson crashed to walls at lap seven so farfus had got the first.

when everyone thought bmw could win a race in macao again, farfus got crashed (seemed with a slow car in front) and the left front wheel loosened kicked the car behind, driven by first runner up of world champion, gabriele tarquini. finally crossing the flag was second runner up of world champion robert huff, world champion yvan muller, and last year champion andy priaulx.

wtcc 2008 macao round 1

the core of the race is focused on seat's yvan muller and gabriele tarquini. either one can get the world champion today. tarquini was not running well in the qualifying so muller has a larger chance.

this year alain menu was on pole again and passed the flag first again. second was andy priaulx. robert huff wanted to pass him but failed. just few crashes were made and they did not affect the race. and muller got third in the end which is enough to make him the world champion!

america's army 2.8.4

two things are introduced, one is every soldier a sensor (es2). there is a training and a map for it. u can learn a bit more how es2 works in training. luckily the map is an ai map, i.e. all online gamers are in attack side and computer is defence side. if defence is also by gamers, es2 should not work. but when whole new design aa3 is available, i don't think es2 will be implemented immediately.

another is the deploy client. setup file size is getting bigger and bigger which makes download servers always overload. previously they also use bt to deliver the file to end users. now a deploy client is made. it also uses p2p technology and can separate delivers part of programs to us. but the performance is far behind from bt (maybe outside states only), even now i cannot complete downloading core files and the client keeps hanging. luckily they face the truth and provide update file from 2.8.3.1 on partners site. there is a lot of work to do on that client before forcing players to use it solely in the coming future.

update (Nov 23): latest deploy client (1.2.4) even sucks. every time i run it, it says memory overflow.

birthmarks

spoiler

the patient is a from a canton family. outline of the face of the actress fit the story which her origin is from southern china. but she's a bit too mature to be 25-year old.

illness of cantonese = sars... thx chinese communist party

house might be having better observation skills than the private investigator he hired. he knew his father is not biological. and he knew why wilson was so mad so he can find a chance to start the friendship.

under the radar

the last one brought the star to the front by one song, bad day. this one shows a more synchronous one which nearly all songs are good. the style is united but it is a bit hard to find a song to have another big bang like bad day (of course the video of bad day helped a lot too). so can he get a good result under the radar?

duchess

even keira knightley fits the role to be the duchess, maybe a rounder girl is better. spencers are good to have babies, but it's a bit hard to make us agree by keira's body shape. i think the movie even better than becoming jane. btw both lovers of duchess & jane were famous when they were becoming important figures in uk politics. and both film ending is similar.

spoiler...

the script can describe the atmosphere at the period of time: women were still weaker than men. especially duke was powerful in the administration. she was too young and lack of information to  be a duchess. the duke treated her as a machine to produce heirs and had affairs outside instead. she's also stupid to allow another woman living together to attract his husband. but who knew her childhood friend would become an earl (so famous as a type of tea - earl grey tea )

i believe we are lucky and there are more poor ones still having the same way nowadays.

house season 5

so far the storyline is still cool. i don't know how come it lost emmys

5-03 seems to be the start of core of season 5. even wilson & carmenon was not shown up, content of other characters are building. idea of the private investigator is cool. house is an investigator actually, but the pi shows house is not strong enough.

the only thing not yet fitting to the preview of this season is showing more chase & carmenon. they are barely seen as same as season four... but the season just starts

hk disneyland

finally visited there three years after grand opening. i think this disneyland quite fits hk situation.

it's small enough to allow us to take a weekend travel which mainly hkers can be able to afford. it's close to downtown and well connected with public transport.

ghost houses for halloween are better than those in ocean park. we went there at daytime and our pupil size cannot be adjusted fast enough. so the road in front is much darker and it's much harder to expect where "ghosts" are waiting. people are not crowded that we don't meet people in front or after.

space mountain and buzz lightyear are also cool. playing space mountain in daytime during halloween is the best at all.

apple keynote

1. steve jobs is still a bit thin and kept coughing.
   
   
2. it's too bad that genius is useless in hk unless music store is ok to work.
   
   
3. another ipod nano. it comes one model every year! this one is pretty awesome. the only bad thing is the lock button on the top. at least i don't need to take my fat nano completely out from the socks to lock the it.
   
   
4. how about the new in-ear headphones? not many like the old one. is the new much better and not behind the one outside?

P.S. it rocked when jack johnson, the most selling artists in music store, performed at the end.

next plane home

one of my favourites, daniel powter, has new single out. compared with previous hit singles, next plane home is a bit plain. bad day is the one to break the ice but it may not be everyone's taste. the style of next plane home should fit for more audiences instead. i really wanna hear other songs in the coming album, under the radar, asap.

so this fall season i should get two more on my desk, one the uk, another from canada.

get smart (forgot to post it)

1. it quite makes sense
   
   
2. i really don't think anne hathaway is beautiful.
   
   
3. it's so easy to have double agent

yahoo is continously being kicked

this time is the new service by google's blogger to kick mybloglog. the latest followers service is just the same as mybloglog. in this stage it's only for blogger members only. but one great thing is you can follow the list in google reader or put your following list into the reader! so you can read what you like in one single platform and you don't need to jump over to different browsers/tabs.

former googlers' friendfeed made some widgets for your site. i put the "feed widget" here but i would like to see an integration of badge & feed widget being available to use.and it's now renewing its interface. basically you can use the same service in facebook but facebook is not open to non-members to read.

P.S. when are functions of google reader available in other languages? not few new services are made. but it seems nearly none of them are implemented in my native language interface. gmail is a better when compared!

lexmark t644n

recently company changed their printer purchasing plan and one of our hp4250 is changed to lexmark t644n. why? because our it consultant is ibm, and lexmark is its spin-off!

price i don't know as it is not shown in lexmark's page directly. but the technology used is not as good as hp. size is much larger for similar functions. noise is much louder too. and space inside is more than that of hp. only two things can be shown, either design is not good enough or inside is too hot and need space of ventilation. besides driver is not as smart as hp's. watermark covers the words/pic of what it should print!

finally time is fixed!

after many changes of her website, the target date of safe trip home is finally known. details are not much to know yet, but a free track is available for 2 weeks. 

"look no further" was known to fans for around a year and it is the first to let everyone listen. music is a bit simpler than that of previous songs. is that be the style of the album or how will they organize the album? we need to wait... anyway it's good to hear new stuff from dido and a date is fixed!

2008 legislative council election

below is solely personal opinion

the district i can vote for is nt west. there are 14 candidate combinations.

first i ignore communist or pro-communist candidates;
second those supporting too much welfarism i cannot support;
besides those with poor political experience everyone can give up them;

basically none can fulfill what i want.
so i can choose one from supporting fully democracy.

TL-WR841ND

my sister got a macbook with student discount. isp only provide a wired router but it's inconvenient for her to get connected. so i bought the subject to home. it is ok to connect on traditional way but neither macbook nor n82 cannot connect in wireless way. i called the hot line and even they cannot help on phone. they asked me to pick it to their site.

i went there this morning. the way to the site is nearly the same to my working place! they checked and found that what i got is an old version from store may not be compatible with macbook or n82. so they exchanged with the latest firmware one to me.

this time all wireless devices can connect to the router but the router cannot connect with isp! the only way is to copy the data when my pc directly connect to isp and fill those data into the router. the guy behind hot line said this is normal. as far as all devices can connect to the internet, this minor thing is not a problem when compared to what mentioned in first two paragraph.

hk book fair '08

1. no book was bought as some of books got from last year are not yet opened. sorry charcoal (ms wong's pix is too small lol).
   
   
   
2. another reason not getting any book is it is not shown there!
   

emmys '08

my preference from the nomination list:

house must be my choice for all categories with it as an nominee

outstanding reality-competition program: project runway coz it's "fierce"!

outstanding host for a reality or reality - competition program: how come they think of this award, the host didn't show up for long and they use standardized wordings

another...

adidas originals again

and this pair is also stan smith!!!

i think this color is a good alternate (clay brown) from traditional grass green.

caramel apple crumble

i can feel only one or two apple crumbles with apple taste even there are many crumbles. caramel catches over. just like the last caramel product.

the chronicles of narnia: prince caspian

far after the first of the series, the second is showing now.

the movie presented is much tighter than the first one but aslan is a bit fake compared. the story seems composed of other famous novels but writers of screenplay did put efforts to make the film more modern way. the fight scene is so roman (use of legions & testudo formation) and i like that. it also shows the dark side of soul. At last it's quite lotr feel (as author of both series were quite closed). is it good to leave peter and sun not back to narnia?

anyway rulers of humans are devils (maybe this is influenced by their ancestors as per aslan). those humans are with romance ascents which are quite funny.

some google stuff

google is busy changing its icons; giving tests to gmail. but some are more interesting for me, like taking more care of local adsense community.

another is improvement on translation. typing "fy" before the keyword you wanna translate in search box now shows more than before. besides dictionary shows basic definition, there's a link to take you into google translate to show you more in details like dictionary.com. other features in google translate are attractive too.

but the most important thing is the support of hkex in google finance (so i now subscribe its blog in my reader). i love the layout, simplicity, and the chart function. but for long time it didn't support hk stocks which was a pity. it's cool to have support now but something can be improved.

1. stock history is too short, just around a year.
2. information is not completed, like interest rate...
3. news sources, which now are from bloomberg or reuters, are not enough
4. a bit personal - i don't wanna capture so much data in excel which gets all numerical information. i just want current stock price.

P.S. former googlers' products are also in big interest. twitter from former blogger owners seem steps back the way the old blogger walked, instability (link 1, link 2, status). google wasted time to rebuild the blogger to increase the stability and flexibility. so what will twitter act? or friendfeed from former team to make gmail, reader... takes over the shine?

necessity for ngong ping 360

after the heaviest rain in record, many parts of lantau island cannot be accessed by road covered by landslide, including ngong ping & nearby po lin monastery. even ngong ping 360 is not opened for public to travel due to damage of fiber optic cable, it still provides emergency services for people living in ngong ping to get stuff at tung chung.

finally it shows the need to be built further on boosting tourism. people can use cheaper methods to stay connected after traditional ways are blocked. if it is not existed, airlift thru copter may be needed and resources cannot be used in other places.

house's head; wilson's heart

is this the right time to stop amber line?

it's so sad when finding out the truth

if i'm wilson, my heart is broken and cannot face the fact.

why don't bmw use diesel in wtcc

but they allow schubert motors to fit a diesel engine in super 2000 320 (i.e. same format for wtcc) for nürburgring 24h. seat use diesel in wtcc for an year and give a brilliant result.

ipod nano 3rd gen update

latest 1.1.2 fixes some bugs as per apple description for ipod nano 3rd generation. the most important for me is making sound much louder! i think the power has been doubled. that means i need to reset volume control but i forgot the password. so i have reset whole machine completely.

and the sound quality has been improved to a level i think it is much more acceptable. i cannot listen obvious noise but it is still worse than 1st generation shuttle.

last shine for er

productions said last season of er will try to get as many as original casts as possible. if the script is good and they really come back, these will be brilliant for er to have a happy ending. i'm really looking for. but will tvb put it on prime time? the o.c. was put into midnight for last season but first three seasons were played without a break. and will it do some promotion as there is no promotion for the final episode for friends!

p.s. alex kingston who played dr elizabeth corday will be shown on coming episode of doctor who.

good news for vba

next office for mac (maybe office 2012) will get back vba!

too many people learnt vb 6 in last decade with effort by ms. and vba is very similar to vb 6 which makes people stick around for a period of time. and it is much harder to change a programming language than changing gui for windows.

many people (including those south asians focus on cutting cost in my workplace) want to replace ms office with openoffice but they forget the fact. it is quite hard to do so when vba is still cool and easy to learn.

update on may 25: not just me says open source is absolutely good!

mrs mcginty's dead

i know harper collins is changing cover design for agatha christie's books. old design shows unity but somehow it is not quite related to the story. new one is more attractive and focused on the story. but u cannot feel it is in a series.

i'm working hard on taken at the flood. but it's hard to mrs mcginty's dead in the town. why? the new design is just out! really hope it will soon fill the bookshelf at bookstore and mine. but at the same time old design is also ok for me because i hate to wait.

living the dream

like to see carmeron to show much in this episode. she is the secretary of house. house wannabe as attractive as the doctor to be shown in his favorite soap drama but obviously he fails.

it is lucky that they are just been fined for what house did on his soap star.

i think i am as miserable as wilson. amber said him always fulfills his wifes wishes but not his. at that moment i think that is me actually. but is change good for both? i don't know.

adsense support group in chinese traditional

suddenly got an email to ask me to join the group, and actually there are more than a thousand members in the group already. the functions provided by adsense to traditional chinese are still limited (we are just small proportion compared to simplified chinese users - they had a blog already). but those interested are now to get active, because you will be rewarded as below:

1. a gift from google
2. invited to join seminar
3. posted on the soon-to-be blog
4. shown on the soon-to-be youtube channel

P.S. forgot to say gmail is now in version 2 for traditional chinese interface!

no more mr nice guy

the first house episode after strike is just a soap drama. medical thing i cannot say (you can check here), but all the key characters are given enough time to show up. the strike obviously brings the idea to the story. and everyone hates annual job review. i really love house playing his team again and make former members worrying. it's another time to show how smart he is!

will new guys be put in opening credit later? axn will start playing season 4 in east asia, so when will tvb show season 3?

another interview

this time, i didn't go back to cityu, but to polyu.

today obviously was not a good day for interview, it's very hot! temperature outside was over 30^oC and that in the interview room was not low so i kept sweating in front of interviewers. coming few days will be much cooler.

there were two interviewers which i think both should be staff of facility. they asked similar general questions as what cityu interviewer asked but two things i think they kick me out from the list. one is have you ever taken any financial program before internally or externally? another is whether you need to use the analysis to report to outside policy? btw i saw other interviewees are older than me and they wore more formal. besides my interview seems to be very short, only 10 minutes. so their favorites should be with little financial background and work in marketing or credit. when to know the result? may 30.

p.s. i'm still young enough agent of model company has an interest in me.

tao heung & tai cheong bakery

the annual result annoucement of tao heung said they got some tai cheong shares, the bakery which lord patten loves its egg tart. and tao heung said they can buy the whole tai cheong after three years.

even i have tao heung stocks, i don't like the news at all. sooner or later tai cheong will become another maxim's, saint honore's, etc., nothing special. now tao heung mainly provide general food at this moment and may wanna be become unique by getting tai cheong, but this is quite hard under a big company. so this means the decline of local food, from delicate to mass production which hong kong also lose the soul!

once

1. really full of fuck
2. hk people are so different from europe/the states. we don't like watching whole songs sung in the film obviously. seems a bit wasting time
3. but story is so natural at all. i like the idea and the ending is one of possible choices
4. guy is not poor at all, but why he uses a broken crapped guitar?
5. no hk bank will follow the practice at their side. that relationship manager is kinda cool.
6. i believe hk is better than dublin even the scene is beautiful. how many need to sing on the street?

P.S. how come cinemas in palace ifc are so damn small. only seven rows are in front of screen and the distance is not far which make me dizzy even i like the song style

win xp still lives for a part, and...

microsoft allows windows xp home version to stay alive beyond original deadline for ultra low-cost pcs up to "either june 30, 2010, or one year after the general availability of the next version of windows".

that means

1. vista is too harsh for them
2. normal software support for xp still stay (not for high-end of course, like directx 10)
3. target ship date for windows 7 is june 30, 2009
4. so vista fate should be similar to windows me

but that may upset some enterprises and take a step further to shift to open source side.

a good thing improved in google reader

one of my beloved things by google has amended a function to make it better. that is not instantly mark all articles as read status when you press shortcut keys (shift+a) to behave "mark all as read". this shortcut keys are easily mistaking used like you wanna share an item (shift+s). at that time you would wanna say fuck when you have not few items (some are a bit aged) not read (it happened twice for me!). now there is a pop-up to ask you really wanna mark all items as read. that's cool.

o... only in firefox. btw if you allow to have quick search in firefox, shortcut keys are in mess!

wish list - double sorting
now it only provides single sorting and search for the articles under same feed or all items marked "star" or "shared". what i want is it can provide auto sorting for those articles are marked "star" or under shared under same feed. sometimes i wanna check those articles under same feed and delete some when they are old-dated. but it is not easy when only allows us to show all items in same feed or all articles marked "star" or "shared".

say no for leung chun ying to be appointed as ce of hksar

there is news coverage showing he intends to be ce in coming future.

what we need is universal suffrage instead of appointed.

perfect disaster

tonight just played the episode of typhoon featuring hong kong as victim. most of them are fucking fake. i think only one of the actors is really from hong kong, others are from singapore. scenes, actions by government departments make us large...

the spiderwick chronicles

the story is a bit thin (actually it combines the whole series!). but it's cool for kids even only adults can understand the content completely.

is it a good thing to study the world thoroughly?
is it a good thing to work deep but ignore your family?
is it a good thing to lie to your child?

and nowadays cg is not a problem at all. and don't expect the brothers are portrayed by same kid.

‘House, M.D.’ co-producer offers advice - The Daily Princetonian

big picture is a bit better than the coming season finale!

Ausiello on Smallville, Grey's, House, Lost and More! - Ask Ausiello | TVGuide.com

from latest spoiler, seems like the team has run out of ideas. the story sounds a bit like the finale of season 2...

sea world explorers

this outsourced program shows underwater archeology enthusiasts to search for history located nearby. what they do is quite interesting and also show hk people also care things around.

but the program background search is a bit weak compared. like in episode three, saying usaf attacked japs in wwii. there was no usaf at that time, it was under army instead. and so general henry h. arnold was the only person to hold general of the army & general of the air force.

in the latest episode, a "historian" said if cheung po tsai was still in higher rank in the military after capitulation (he was dead in 1822 as said in the program), hong kong would not become british colony after first opium war. but the opium war was after 30 years from the capitulation, cheung po tsai should be too old to command a navy at the front line. what he talked seems a bit non-sense.