S.I.M.P.L.I.C.I.T.Y

250 gigabytes may be a lot to some.
To us, 250 is less than enough. (The greedy me wants at least 1 terabyte, or 1000 gigabytes.)

We keep deleting files over time, just to save some space and to allocate for some other new files. Besides, we used to have a threshold of at least 30 or 40 gigabytes in the harddisk; so whenever that limit has been reached, we often find things to delete and free up some space.

Now, all we have is just a tiny 9 gigabytes left.
Thanks to the 100+ episodes of Bleach, and another 100+ for Naruto.

I have always thought of buying an external harddrive. Since many months ago I have begun hunting for the best, considerably-priced external harddrive. That was when I discovered the Western Digital MyBook series portable harddisk. Reasonably priced, good reviews, looks pretty and sexy, and internationally recognized (given how reputable the brand is).

However, there are always things that stop me from doing so.

One, new technologies. It has been more than a year ago since I was interested in getting myself a new external harddisk. As of now, you are familiar with Universal Serial Bus (USB) 2.0, or USB High-Speed. All external harddrives available in the market today utilizes USB 2.0.

However, the end of last year, the full technical specifications for USB 3.0, or USB SuperSpeed is released. With that, commercial products utilizing USB 3.0 is slated to be available in 2010. What’s so great with USB SuperSpeed, you ask. Simply said, it is much faster and better than USB 2.0, and uses less voltage too.

So, the main question is, should I wait?
Or stick to the old USB 2.0 interface, and buy one immediately?

On the contrary to the idea of buying an external HDD, I have also considered to buy an internal HDD instead. Why? If you compare ones of the same specifications, the internal HDD is definitely cheaper. Plus, you could use an internal HDD as external HDD by using an HDD enclosure.

Then again, the same thing happens. Most internal HDD nowadays uses Serial ATA 3 Gbit/s storage interface, which is also the same as the one used in my current internal harddisk. Earlier this year, the Serial ATA International Organization presented the full specification of SATA 6 Gbit/s on May 27, 2009. Again, higher speed and better power management capabilities.

So, what to do now?

(Clearing throat)
I don’t know how many times have I mentioned the word, “harddisk” in this blog post alone. Haha.

Most likely I would just wait until the availability of commercial products with these new technologies. Well, I always have the desire to stay updated with just about everything. Of course, there would always be hurdles when intending to do so. The major one would be my parents, who often don’t buy things they’re not interested in, especially when it comes to these modern toys.

Lately I have been inactive, as all of you could have expected at the first place. It’s not like my first, anyway.

Here’s the story behind my inactivity this time. And before that, my previous inactivities are mainly due to lack of things to say, basically because I have no idea on what to blog. This happens to me very, very often.

However, this time is in fact, due to my studies. It was Tuesday night when my parents were lecturing and questioning me about my expected performance for the coming Sijil Tinggi Pelajaran Malaysia (STPM). While I have repetitively know the fact that I am very unprepared (and weak in several subjects), I tend to study after having such thoughts that I would fail the examination or whatsoever. However, the down side is, from that, I would only study for only a few, and then breaking that off to resume what I would do normally. Such things happened to me thousands and thousands of times already.

Computer and the Internet are such an addictive thing, that I can spend more than 10 hours per day on it. I started using the computer when I was very, very young. Say, when I was in Standard 2 or 3, if I am not mistaken. I was immediately drawn to the so-called fantastically-wonderful world of computer and the Internet. The habit of using the computer excessively has been a major part of my childhood as well as my teenage years. Not to mention, now too.

Though it was considerably too much and negative (in terms of the number of hours I use the computer), this is how I have learned so much about everything to do with Windows operating systems, repairing and recovering computers, and anything else technical about computers. I dare to say that being so faithful to computers has made me stand out among the crowds, because I know 99.99% of people I know are less advanced than me when it comes to computer. Of course, do not ever compare me to a programmer, software engineer or anyone else with a computer-related degree. My experiences are all from researching, looking through technical guides, blogs, forums, and more, all through the Internet.

I am not intending to show off or whatsoever, because I do notice that. I’m just trying to be honest here. Despite that, on the negative effect, my studies suffer drastically. I hardly study every day, while spending most of my time reading tech news. If you ask me, I actually do not play any game at all, not even online ones. Maybe except for a few of them, but still I only play very rarely. Anyway, that negative effect is still on me, due to my continuing habit of using the computer excessively.

Until this Tuesday, after being lectured so aggresively, I tend to be able to study. Not in a normal pattern where I study for a few days until the grudge subsides, instead I am beginning to develop the habit to study already. Today is the third consecutive day studying at night for several hours, and it is a good feeling. While I have to aggresively limit my time for computers, I guess I have no choice but to do that for the sake of the coming STPM public examination.

Now I tend to use the computer and surf the Internet after coming back from school, and then studying at night for several hours. I hope I can keep with that, unlike previous attempts of which I always resume my negative habit. And do wish me luck too, I still hope there is time for me to cope with my studies.

Chao! Time to bathe now, and then dinner and study.
Thanks for understanding, anyway.

As I was browsing through the RSS (abbreviation for Really Simple Syndication) feed subscriptions in my personalized Google Reader, I found something really exciting.

(Note: You may not know what RSS is. You know, all the geeky, Internet terminologies. Haha. I doubt you would ever be interested to check it out, even if you are, check it in Wikipedia. Okay, fine, I have to admit that I am a geek, at least to you, if that’s what you want to hear.)

By the way, back to the topic. Interestingly, today is Square Root Day! As reported by Associated Press in California, people seem to be celebrating it there. Check out the news here.

I always get these kind of news from Digg, and this one from here. And yes, the term, “Digg” is yet another famous Internet terminology that all geeks know. Okay, okay, I am not going to confess that once again.

Looking at the comments below the Digg page (which I have just given), I’d like to take note of some of the comments.

What an exciting life a math fan must live…

And,

Why do nerds have to celebrate every stupid thing they can find?

Verdict:
You know what, I sort of agreed to the above comments, at least a bit. Also, they are funny too. (Laughing)

Clock is exactly at 4:00 AM now. It is Sunday already. Just one more day. Undeniably, the 2009 Chinese New Year is already here, well it’s just one day. It doesn’t really make any difference, isn’t it? Whatever.

Oh, on the title, I’d like to announce that my blog is now functioning 100% well. Yeap. Woo hoo! I am more excited about this, than the coming CNY. Haha. Actually, the issues that I had with this blog were all having to do with only the administrator, which is also me. Many new and some old features in the new version of the WordPress which I installed were not working at all, since more than a month ago, e.g. the automatic upgrade, plugin update, etc. These issues were obvious in the administrator panel, similar to what you see in Blogger. Of course, these issues do not affect readers of this blog, not even a bit. I’m glad that I sought support assistance this time, which helped fixing these issues in just a day.

Forget the computer and technical side of me. Regardless of what, do enjoy your new year with lots and lots of Ang Pao coming your way. If you read the TheStar papers today (or yesterday), in the Bangsar Boy portion of the StarTwo pullout, the title is obviously showing that for younger ones, CNY is all about the amount of money in the Ang Pao packets. That is so true! I may not be like that, because the money collected by me (as well as my younger brother) during every CNY is handled by the “Minister of Finance” of the house, my mother and automatically banked into our savings. Haha. In the end, I do not get to use the money, but instead have the money locked inside my saving account. Doesn’t really make any difference, right?

Obviously, my Super Mom is making me to save money. On the other hand, I do not make much fuss over it either. It’s not like I need those money. (Giggling) Without a doubt, Chinese New Year is nothing much to me, except for family reunion and good food. Of course, good food is extraordinarily important for me. I have an immense crave and desire for good food, really. Thankfully I am naturally born with extraordinarily big appetite. Hehe. Can’t wait to taste some Yee Sang and many, many bowls of genuine, real shark fin soup. What else?! What else?!

Also, do enjoy collecting all the Ang Pao’s that you always desire for! Happy collecting Ang Pao’s!

Finally, after much persuasion and tireless effort from Sylvea Chan, I finally did create a personal ShoutMix shoutbox in this blog. Not to mention that I initially created a cBox shoutbox which seemed to not functioning well in my blog and has more advertisements according to user reviews, even though it looks cleaner and tidier compared to ShoutMix. Notice it at the right sidebar?

On top of that, you may also realized that there are some photos displayed on the sidebar as well. That is actually a Picasa Web Album widget which allows me to randomly display photos I stored in the Picasa Web Album account. Ohh, Picasa Web Album is the place where you store and share pictures with others, thus I embedded it into my blog so that you could take a look of some of the photos in my album.

Refreshing or reloading the blog will automatically randomize the photos shown in the sidebar. To look at the real size photos, click on any of the photo and browse throughout the entire album. I have about 5 or 6 albums in the account, looking into updating it with more photos. Haha.

Enjoy.

Using an Apple MacBook with the operating system, Mac OSX right now, and I have got to admit that certain things do feel better in a Mac. For instance, try surfing the Internet using a Mac, and visit this blog. The font looks so much better here in a Mac. Really.

I am particularly bored now, oh well. Currently blogging this current post with the Apple MacBook, and at the same time, listening to “Cleanin’ Out My Closet” by Eminem through an Apple iPod Classic of the 6th generation. Also, without a doubt, iPod does have fantastic sound quality too, through the originally-supplied headphones, of course. As you would not have realized, the tech big boss, Apple does not produce or manufacture their own parts. Not to mention that Samsung is the real manufacturer that supplies most parts in an iPod.

The default browser in Mac OSX, called Safari, has a far more minimalistic look than any other browser, except for Google Chrome. As for the better looking blog part, this blog does look better. Reason? Not because that it is an Apple Mac. It is just because of the font used in Mac OSX. In most computers, non-Macs particularly, the font named “Palatino” is not available, whereas a Mac has it already by default. Nevertheless, the font does look good. That sort of explains why this blog looks better with the font, “Palatino”. Also, the dashboard for this WordPress blog, where I gain access to all the features and tools (similar to Blogspot), does run more smoothly too, unlike Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox. Of course, Google Chrome does that magic as well.

No, I am not an Apple fan. I do not always favour an Apple iPod, iPhone, MacBook, etc. Instead, I would prefer something out of other users’ reviews and comments. As always, customers’ satisfaction comes first.

Bored. Signing off.

Without any much explanation, you do know that I always complain that I am bored, during these several weeks. Yeah, all that complaining, sighing, hissing and more. Thus, I took another ‘move’ forward, to play a game.

I’m not talking about some other forms of games, such as boardgames, physical games, etc. This time, I actually decided to do some video-gaming. Just a game, though. I have just started playing a game named, Spore. I know, most of you who know absoultely nothing about gaming may think that playing games has to do with swords, gun shooting, violence, (killing this, killing that), (hitting this, hitting that), and so on. Well, those who know my style of gaming knows that I do not go for that kind of gaming – anything to do with violence, killing, etc. There are always a few exceptions, though.

Spore, a 2008 video game, is a god game. Among all the genres of video games, it is categorized under life simulation, god game, and real-life strategy. As stated in Wikipedia, a god game is a construction and management simulation that casts the player in the position of controlling the game on a large scale, as an entity with divine/supernatural powers, as a great leader or with no specified character (as in The Sims and Spore), and places them in charge of a game setting containing autonomous characters to guard and influence. In other words, it is very much similar to The Sims, but very different in terms of gameplay and theme.

In Spore, you control the entire evolution of microorganisms in some planets in the universe. Not entirely, though, you can just fully control a species of your choice. You start the evolution of organisms in a planet of your choice with a microorganism of your choice, as well. Slowly, you eat plants, meat, and grow. As you grow, you can customize the microorganism completely, all the body parts, etc. This is just like how evolution of organisms works, not too biologically, but virtually.

You then form a tribe, of the organism you’re controlling with all the same species. This stage, you befriend or fight other tribes of different species. Later on, to the civilization stage, and finally till the space phase, where you go to other planets and discover them. So, it is more like the entire universe is accessible for you, just that you will need to ‘grow’ the organism of your control and go through unlimited stages of evolution.

The reality check, it is much more interesting that how I described it here, as this game has no ending, as evolution keeps going on. Interesting, ain’t it?

As I have first introduced Typealyzer more than a month ago, I took another look at the analysis of my blog. Looks like a very huge difference this time! The graph suggests that I’m very much to the practical side, which I am also very concentrated on the thinking and sensing portions.

Here is what it says about this blog.

ISTP – The Mechanics

The independent and problem-solving type. They are especially attuned to the demands of the moment are masters of responding to challenges that arise spontaneously. They generally prefer to think things out for themselves and often avoid inter-personal conflicts.

The Mechanics enjoy working together with other independent and highly skilled people and often like seek fun and action both in their work and personal life. They enjoy adventure and risk such as in driving race cars or working as policemen and firefighters.

Analysis

My verdict: I sure do love the independent and problem-solving part. Overall the comments are rather positive, which I love. Adventure is fine with me, as I love them too. But driving race cars, and becoming firefighters and policemen, no thanks! However, I do favour race cars, strictly speaking, luxury, top-notch cars. Personal favourites like BMW 7 Series, Nissan GTR, Porsche Carrera GT, Lamborghini Gallardo, and Roll-Royce cars.

Ha ha!, an onomatopoeic way of expressing laughter.

Yay, Need for Speed: Undercover is officially out! Man, I’m damn excited about the game. Too bad my computer specs aren’t that good, even though I may still run the game in minimum settings. Kesiannya…

I have played Need for Speed: Most Wanted, and I’ve gotta’ admit that the game is terrific! Should be even better for this one, I believe. Those screenshots of NFS: Undercover are mouth-watering. Hopefully reviews give it a positive rating. And if you’re wondering what car it is, it is a Nissan GTX, more likely.

Anyway, I find a lot of free time, especially today. I’ve been doing nothing in the web, which then prompts me to upload some photos in my Facebook. And signed into my Friendster account for the first time, in the past 4, 5 months. (Yawn…)