the wacky wombat weblog

If you’re geeky enough (e.g. recompile your own Linux kernel) and keep updated with the current affairs (e.g. a Digg addict), you should know about Hans Reiser being convicted for murdering his wife. Hans Reiser is the guy who wrote the Linux filesystem of the same name. He pleaded not guilty, but was convicted of the murder anyway, despite not having substantial evidence presented against him. In the news today, he lead the police to the place he buried his wife, in hope for lighter sentence.

So he’s definitely going to jail. Maybe he’ll befriend a Scottish eBay trader-turned-scammer, McRed, who can procure anything you can find on eBay. One day he realized that his cell is becoming too dirty, he got McRed to help him buy a Roomba. Little did he know, the Roomba can also tunnel a hole in a wall if it’s set to “Dig” mode. So it started boring a hole in the wall and he needed to cover it up before he got caught. Luckily, McRed could get him a poster of Angelina Jolie to hang on his wall. Apparently the movie Wanted[2008]DvDrip.AC3-aXXo.avi is the most popular movie being played endlessly in the recreational room there.

Now, he had to take his Roomba out to the yard everyday to empty its contents since it’s obviously collecting more dusts and rocks. And then one fine day, he and his circle of friends in there managed to secure places for temporary work at Netflix DVD rental processing center due to sudden increase of orders as Film Actors’ Guild (FAG) is on strike. Yeah, no new movies showing in theatres. During the stint there, he overheard Captain Hershey bitching over the high processing fees for a lottery that he won over e-mail from some obscure country. He then offered to help the Captain, suggesting that he can offer a smaller sum of his winnings to another person, one who would be willing to fork out the processing fees.

From that day on, he started helping out other guards in the prison sort out their spambox and covering up all the cache and browser history from all their pr0n surfing. He was assigned to help at the computer room, the only room where there’s a computer for use for the inmates to e-mail their wives/fans all over the world. Then, he was able to expand the computer room into a full-service internet cafe and even managed to get ASUS to donate eee PCs for the inmates to use. He even started to help some inmates get their CS diploma and RHCE Linux certification!

On the other end, he was helping the warden with ID theft scams by hacking the computers the inmates were using in the internet cafe. With the stolen IDs, they got more and more daring and amassed a big chunk of fortune in an offshore bank account in the Caribbeans. All that took up all of his time until the tunnel was ready. He managed to escape the prison via the tunnel and a national oil pipeline that happened to cut across the prison.

Upon his escape, he swiftly flew to the Caribbeans and withdrew all the monies from the scams and pinned all the crimes on the warden. When McRed finished serving his sentence, they met up in the Caribbeans and they both started an online casino called red34.com. And they lived happily ever after.

Somehow, the whole story had Morgan Freeman narrating it. Don’t ask me why. Maybe coz he’s God

Saw this today when trying to run the Remote Desktop Connection beta on my Mac:

Download Lastest (sic) Version? Seriously?

But that wasn’t bad enough, having clicked the link to download the “lastest” version, I came across this:

RDC 2 Beta Update

Please note: the beta expired on March 31st, 2008. Although the beta period has ended, you will still be able to use it by simply dismissing the pop-up beta expiration message. The new version of Remote Desktop Connection Client for Mac 2 will be available for download in April or May.

Microsoft… sheesh

So Demonoid is back, well at least the tracker is. And it’s now hosted in Malaysia. Malaysia truly boleh. And we’re moving up the chain, aren’t we?

No longer do we need to rely on manufacturing pirated CD/DVDs late nights at the factories, we’re now attracting foreign BitTorrent trackers to setup shop site in the country. So even if Google don’t end up setting up their big data-centre here, at least we can brag that the best BitTorrent tracker is now in town

You know those O’Reilly IT books that always feature a grayscale illustration of an (often time unrelated) animal on the cover? Make your own here at O’Reilly Maker. Here’s my very own cover:

If you’re unfamiliar on who is George Agdgdgwngo, check out this Wikipedia entry on Fonejacker.

So I’ve fully converted to the Mac platform since mid-2006. Got myself a Mac Mini at work, another one at home. And naturally, when it came to replacing my work laptop, I got a MacBook as well. My computing life since then has never been better, pulling myself out of the Microsoft plug.

However, my biggest pet peeve with the MacBook is how it gets stained easily. My palms sweat a lot, you see. And it leaves grayish patches on the MacBook’s trackpad and surrounding surface area. I’ve tried to keep it wiped down as much as I can, and I religiously wash my hands regularly while at work. Even bought the Ava Softpads that were washable and reusable. No dice. Threw away the softpads after it slowly turned darker and darker after each wash.

Finally found a good solution after scouring through various Mac user forums - Mr Clean Magic Eraser! Many thanks to Alban and Benet to get me some of the sponge pads since the product line is only available in US. If you have a MacBook, you’ll want to get it cleaned with this magical sponge pad!

This sponge pad is really effortless to use - just dampen the sponge slightly with water, squeeze off the excess water, and rub away on the MacBook. Within seconds the dirt starts coming off and got my MacBook clean in a couple of minutes. Here’s a picture of my MacBook after a quick Magic Eraser treatment:

Stop wasting money on stick-on pads, films to protect the MacBook. Just get the Magic Eraser instead - and it works on almost everything else. I’m gonna clean my bathtub this weekend with it

Garrr, today’s the International Talk Like A Pirate Day. Ye better be speakin’ piratey, ye scurvy dog! Now swab the deck, land lubber, or ye be walkin’ the plank and get locked up in Davy Jones’ locker!

Ok ok… I shall speak more like a real pirate….. u wan buy DVD?

When it’s dark and quiet, and you’re growing scared of the monster lurking in the dark…

… turn on your Macbook, and you got yourself a pretty night lamp. lol.

*took this photo while charging up Au Yong’s Macbook. The lights were off, and it looked kinda cool. haha. 

Yeap, it’s gonna be a Wiiless Wiikend. Was planning on going to Yodobashi Kawasaki branch to see if there’s any available. Just made a call to them and they said nope, no stock. Some stock did come in at 5.30pm, but it was all sold out by 7pm.

Right, oh well, it’s just gonna be a FACup Weekend then!

UPDATE on Jan 28, 2007 @ 1.45pm:

Scored myself a Wii! This morning went down to Itoyokado Oimachi branch at 8.45am and waited till 10am for the Wii purchase. They had 69 units in stock. Was the 7th person there. Though I’d definitely gonna score a Wii, but realized in the end that it’s a lottery draw. They were giving out tickets between 10-10.15am and then drawing 69 random tickets at 10.30am. Luckily, by the time they had 16 units or so left, my number was picked! Phew, otherwise gonna be a waste of my Sunday morning and a stupid grande cup of Starbucks’ cappucino.

Managed to set it up and updated despite not being able to read Japanese. Bought Wii Sports and the Wii Play Wiimote bundle, as well as the component cables. Now running 480p on my Dell 2407WFP monitor. Fun… can’t wait to play with others when Benet and tsewei come around.

After switching over to Mac, I gotta admit, I really love it!

MacBook rocks! So does my new iPod Nano. :p

And now, there’s iPhone!! (Although Cisco now fighting for the name’s trademark, oh well)

I was just checking out its features and all on the Apple website, and looking at it makes me think that these people at Apple really thought things through. It has all the clever little things that make using gadgets so much easier and fun, especially for tech-dummies like me.

Like, the whole touch-screen thingy, wow. And how the screen will switch between landscape and portrait depending on how you hold the phone. I mean, it’s not a big factor in choosing a phone, but it’s all these clever little things that make it so much better than everything else! Plus that fact that it’s a phone + PDA + iPod all rolled into one running on OSX! wheeee…

Actually, there’s no point I babble on so much. Just gotta see the thing itself. Unfortunately, it’ll only be released in the States in 6 months’ time. So for now, we’re left with oggling at it through the website.

Though I must wonder, how come no 3G ah? Everything so high tech, but no 3G?! >.< hehe, cos I was thinking, if it had 3G, and they sell it in Japan, the price will drop in no time, and Au Yong can get one, and then pass it on to me, heeheehee.

But seriously, they are leaving out the entire Japanese market as there are zero phones with no 3G in Japan! And Japan is such a huge market. Everyone buys gadgets, especially phones!!

And the Apple store at Ginza is so cool. A square box building in the middle of the street. I call it the Apple mecca for Apple worshipers. LOL.