Heretical Rantings

2010-09-04T05:17:00.001-07:00

Probably redundant, but due to lack of time and other commitments, i'm abandoning the blog for now. Cheers all.

Relationship fanboyism

2010-03-16T06:18:00.000-07:00

NOTE: This post was in response of an e mail. The e mail has not been disclosed at the request of the sender. The reply posted here is NOT a full reply, but a generic one that i thought i could share with the public. Read if for what its worth. Respect a person's cry for help.

Oh btw, absolutely have no idea what picture to use in this post. And since people complain about the lack of pics, i'll just leave something unrelated this time.

Thing is often we know the real answers to our problems but we subconsciously refuse to admit it.

I'll ask you this, and you are to answer my questions, to yourself, honestly and without bias of emotions. Emotions drown out reasoning, and makes one make decisions that are not always right.

1. You say she was everything, u gave up so much for her, u say u saw her and immediately knew she was the one. How? And no, telling me "you just know" or any sentence with the words "feel" or anything else to convey feelings is not the answer. Because feelings are biased like I said earlier. I doubt you can give me a satisfactory answer. What is a satisfactory answer? Imagine your baby sister tells u she likes this guy. And u want to know why.

This is an example of what's been happening to u.

Imagine this guy, who comes to u and says "dude why are u using that phone. Change to iPhone! iPhone fucking rocks! It does it's the best phone eveeeeeerrrrr"

And u ask him why is it the best phone ever. And he can't give u the answer other than "dude it just issssss"

Fucking stupid retarded brainless fanboy.

Compare him to yourself. See the problem?

Think about it before reading on, and read what I said a few times......

Thing is a relationship doesn't start out as THE relationship. A relationship and date is to evaluate your partner to figure out if she's the one.

When you skip the "trial period" and evaluate your choice (at the risk of making the girl sound like an object) and straight away decide she's the best, you become an annoying, "deaf" fanboy. No advice is going to get through to you, no flaw is going to be noticed, while every simple action will seem like a miracle. You become biased.

And for you it has had disastrous results! For in your actions you've screwed up your own ability to appeal and support your partner! Even if she is the one that u find to your liking in the end, she would find it difficult to find u to be the one for her. And if she does, well, she's a "fanboy" too. And two fools in love make for the worst, shortest realtionship.

I would recommend reading my blog posts "difference between love and relationships" and "how to get over a relationship". Read it and reread it.

It's not too late. It never is. Believe me, because I know people who have screwed up worse than u but make it through and find love.

Remember, while love is about emotions, never let emotions dictate your decisions. It is never rational. And irrational decisions are random, and fail as often as they succeed. They key is using emotions to complement your rational decisions

Iphone vs Windows Mobile : True review Part 2

2010-03-07T00:23:00.000-08:00

Much time has passed since my last take on the iphone vs windos mobile and times have certainly changed. Also i got some comments like "Dude, u've been using window mobile since forever and used iphone for only a few days, give it a go for a longer while".

And so i did. For almost a month now i've been using Iphone 3GS 32GB solely and here i am now, with my updated review on Iphone vs Windows Mobile.

If you would like to recap my earlier review here it is at

http://heretical-rantings.blogspot.com/2009/08/iphone-vs-windows-mobile-true-review.html

For a summary, here were the ratings i gave in that review

Work
Iphone 3GS : 4/10
Touch Pro 2 : 9/10

Amendments to review: Over the course of intensive usage, i'd like to amend my ratings and give the Iphone 3GS a new rating. I'd like to give it a whopping ....

Work (New rating)

Iphone 3GS: 1/10

Touch Pro 2: 9/10

Why the rating? I found out some additional stuff that made me want to throw my iphone against the wall several times! Firstly, by default, your iphone can NOT download files it does not recognise via Safari (its default browser). I usually go online with my phone to retrieve essential work files and now find that i'm no longer able to do that! Iphone only recognises .ipa files (installation files) and music files! Files with extensions it does not recognise cannot be saved!There is a plug in to solve that but by default you cant? Wtf?! And then when you have the plug in you then have to locate where the heck those files are saved. And even that you cant do by default! You need some third party software like IFiles to locate them. And FINALLY, even after all that hard work, there's no simple way to transfer those files into your PC/Laptop. Especially when its an office laptop and you're not allowed to simply install stuff in it. By comparison, windows mobile can download ANY files easily, is EASILY located due to the fact it has a file explorer AND you can choose where to save the file, and finally, all you need to do is plug your windows mobile into ANY laptop, and the laptop will recognise your windows mobile's memory card as if it were a normal USB Stick. How bloody convenient is that? BOOOOOOO iphone!

Multimedia / Games

Ratings

Iphone 3Gs : 8/10

Windows Mobile (CURRENT): 9/10
Windows Mobile (FUTURE): 3/10
(heavy realiance on emulators such as FPSECE, and ports)

Iphone continue to astound me with its gaming options. But i'd like to add that Iphone's video recording totally rocks as well! Superb frames per second, i can finally record a video without it being a lil laggy! Currently there is NO windows mobile (as at HTC Touch HD 2) that can rival this video taking capability. HOWEVER at the same time Iphone 3GS' camera leaves a LOT to be desired. Despite its pixels, it totally SUCKS at taking pictures, as even the slightest movements blurs the picture. In other words its anti shake function is virtually non existent! No problems with windows mobile and it takes better pics. It takes a third party iphone camera app called Genius to solve this issue. Yet again, Apple screws up. SO great video cam, downright horrible camera, evens it out, though i'm tempted to minus its ratings by one since i take pics more than videos.

But i AM reducing its rating by TWO for this. Get this, there is NO easy way to set your own customised ringtone for Iphone! What. The. FUCK! Yes its so bad i'm going to swear! With windows mobile you can easily crop songs u have with MP3 trimmer and have it as a ringtone within minutes. No can do on iphone, you have to actually PAY for some crappy cropped songs from iTunes! To be able to set your own ringtone is such a hassle and difficult even I gave up on it!

GPS

Iphone 3Gs: 5/10 (sufficient for walkers)
Windows Mobile: 9/10

New Ratings: Iphone 3GS : 8/10

Why the new rating? because there's FINALLY a proper GPS navigation program for iphone that does not absolutely require data usage from your operator! Its called Sygic! Now Sygic has been a while for a while even on windows mobile, so it isnt new, and its maps i believe is created by the same people who do Google Maps, so its not TOO outdated. That said however, there are a few new residential areas that are totally not in its maps. Taman Taming Indah (in Kajang) is one such area. But as an emergency Sygic does stand up for me. But due to the lack of community driven maps as Windows Mobile has the luxury of having (malfreemaps.com and malsingmaps.com) it only gets an 8 rating, not a 9. Its not quite there, but its close.

Thats it for now. Signing off,
Baronic

No time to update. The end?

2010-02-28T01:02:00.001-08:00

I havent got much time these days to update this blog. I've got lots to say, like a new review of iphone vs windows mobile based on my extensive use this time instead of a glance, but between coming back late at night from work, studying at night and moderating, simply just do not have the time for any updates. :(

have half a mind to delete the blog but i do know some people have linked it here and there. So i'll just leave it here for now till i'm free again.

New freewares! Xtrakt and Experiment 13, WVGA resolution only!

2009-12-26T07:41:00.000-08:00

XTRAKT (Racing and Shoot em up combination)

Features: - High quality graphics - Unlock many bonuses (player skins, tracks) - Good handling, easy to play - 10 different tracks that will ensure lots of hours of fun to unlock and play

http://rapidshare.com/files/210069982/Xtrakt__Release_Build_r6415_-_Menu_softkey_fix__-_090227_signed.CAB

Experiment 13 (Puzzle game)

The Xperia X1 came with a great game called Xtrakt, which is still one of the best games available on Windows Mobile. This time, with the Xperia X2, a new puzzle game is bundled. It’s called Experiment 13 and has fantastic gameplay with great graphics.

The goal of the game is to guide the character, Roy Tate, through a number of levels to help him get home. To accomplish this, you must obtain all the energy spheres found on each stage, which will give you access to a portal. You can jump and move around by pressing arrows on the screen. Other on-screen arrows will rotate the screen, so you can reach different areas of the world. Collect all spheres throughout the game and you win!

Note: because this game was intended for the Xperia X2, some features, like the accelerometer option, may not work correctly on some devices. The game is certainly playable though.

http://rapidshare.com/files/309146283/Experiment_13.cab

Ask Brother Baronic 1

2009-12-20T06:01:00.000-08:00

I've decided that letters/emails received from now on, will go under the heading "Ask Brother Baronic" for reference purposes.

QUESTION:

hello there. I'm Rogue, 23, and I've read your post about relationships. I also have a problem with my boyfriend. My bf is only 21 yrs old. When I met him, he was actually single for 3 years because he was hurt in his past. It was actually his first love, so memories left a wound in him. He gave all his attentions and affection to this girl that I wish I was getting. But they say it was his past and I should forget about it because he said he already did too. The thing is, he said he's changed because of what happened. Now, I'm the one whose suffering, I think. I envy his ex because like I said he gave that attention that I wish I am getting. The bottom line is, I'm the one whose bothered with his past and getting emotional with it. So we always fight over little things. Then, another issue is that, he looks at every pretty girls around even I am there. He even had a crush in one of my officemates here. He knows that I have this jealousy thing and he always tease me about his girl crushes or that pretty chick he sae, he sometimes do it intentionally to make me jealous. But I he loves me, I can feel it, it's just that I expect too much from him coz I want him to give me that kind of love he gave to his ex. But he said, it will be impossible, "he's changed".

Now, we're living in same house and we work in the same office and one department which means we're always together, which is good for me. But next year, he's going to pursue his dreams, finished school and work abroad. That makes everything worse for me. He told me about his plans, he said though I want to focus on my studies, I don't want to break up. But I'm being emotional again and overreacted, thinking of negative things, what if he found someone there or this or that. What if he neglected me completely etc. So we fight and fight about the issue, until one day, I decided to break up with him, I'm the one who initiated and he finished it. I thought it was the end. Then, I realized my faults, apologize to him and beg him to come back. We talked and make another solution again. Evrything was fine. But then, the other day, my officemate told me, he saw my bf searching his crush' name on FB. I confronted my bf, we fight, I pack up and he actually helped me carry my bag. But then, I realized again my fault and apology and promised not to do it again.

But, he seemed hesitant about everything now, he's afraid that it might happen again and he's tired of it. He said he wants to be alone, besides he's going to work abroad after studying and leave me here.:( He said he doesn't want me to get hurt again, he said he knows his faults and he said sorry to me. What bothers me when he works abroad is the thing he said, that he can't promise me to be faithful there, since temptations are everywhere. That's why I am so worried. I am bothered of the things he's saying to me, that he can't promise to be faithful...even at school. He said he was just saying the possibilites for me to prepared, he wants to see what will I do if this or that happen. He said he was disspointed because I easily overreact even when he's joking about girls, what if the bigger issues? how will I handle those? Sometimes, I can't understand him. He's tired of me now..I'm worried..I love him so much..he knows that too. Sometimes, I even think he wants to break up with me but can't do it because of pity. He knows how it feel to get hurt and he doesn't want to happen that to me. I don't know him anymore...what should I do?

Thanx!
Rogue.

ANSWER:

Is he your first relationship? I (and probably everyone else in the world) can attest to the fact the first serious relationship is bound to be something different and special. Special, in not necessarily the best of ways. For one thing we would young, we would be naive regarding our views on what our relationship should be like. Our only reference would be dopey soap operas depicting how love can conquer any obstacles no matter what. As we grow up, as we get involved, this view changes and reality sets in. No matter how much we "love" each other things are never going to work out if we cannot compromise and we both have several strong views that differ. So yes, a first serious relationship may start out in a typical soap opera fashion but it soon fade away. So dont live a relationship based on the big screen expecting a fully insanely all about you devoted little man puppy. I'm all for romanticism, but what you expect from him right now is a lil on the extreme side, and too heavily influenced by the big screen. And you can't expect him to behave exactly the same as when in the first. Its probably in some ways better for you too. The only thing thats contant in this universe is change.

"Checking girls out"

While i cannot vouch for his fidelity, i think the both of you, and i mean the BOTH of you should read the blog post i wrote regarding the differences between relationships and crushes. He should read it so he doesnt mistake a physical attraction or fetish as love. And you should read it because if you've read it, he's read it, and you both agree with it, then you've really got nothing to worry about. Its just a crush.

Men are genetically inclined to be attracted to more than one person, even more so than females. Females look for a mate, are generally more selective, and tends to stick with em because females only have one "egg" at any one time. Men meanwhile have a genetic impulse to spread their seeds as much as possible in order for evolution to carry on his legacy. This is of course highly general and does not apply to EVERYONE.

That said of course, it doesnt mean he has a right to hump every single moving thing. We are more than just the basest of animals. We can think, and more importantly we have emotional attachments that affects our thinking as well. It is just an explaination for his attraction towards other girls.

Its just a crush. He's just checking them out. And at the risk of advocating on his behalf, it does not mean he loves them. The most important thing is knowing the difference between attraction and love. (again the both of you should read my entry on the difference between love and crushes).

It is very good that he's letting you know all this. The chances of him cheating on is much more slim if he actually takes the decision to let you know about it than keeping quiet about it. If he lets off his pent up attraction feelings on you, he doesnt let it eat away at him and make him do something stupid. You should laugh with him, encourage him to open up, and if u want give a friendly reminder that you hope he knows that its just a silly crush and he knows who he loves and who loves him too. Dont discourage him from openning up to you.

Even if he checks her out on facebook, it would sorta depend. True. It seems a lil alarming. Maybe he's just entertaining his lil attraction a bit more. Maybe its something worse. Again it would depend on his ability to differentiate between love and crushes. But i do not think exploding as you did solved anything. Perhaps it would have been better to raise your concerns by asking him if you should be worried, tell him his actions are beginning to make you feel insecure.

But bear in mind it won't change his nature. Just he'll probably be more discreet about it. It wont change that he finds her attractive.

Regarding your other insecurities and worries, i don't know what you're referring to, but fighting about it doesnt resolve the matter. Neither does swallowing what you feel and apologising about it. You're merely sweeping the dust underneath the rub. As the dust pile grows you're going to have to deal with it sooner or later.

But he's leaving already. Next year. A long distance relationship requires a good strong foundation that results in trust. You have neither, due to lack of resolution of problems, and his self admittance that he may not be loyal. It brings into question his seriousness about the current relationship. I would say yes, you've already lost him, just have not gone through the formalities yet. You dont have the sufficient time you need to resolve the issues and build trust.

Perhaps it would be better to give yourself some closure by calling it off. You could still remain friends and you can keep your option open, perhaps you'll get back together again. But the current situation, i do not think its worth foreswearing how you'll wait for him. The current relationship's not worth it. And perhaps if you should evaluate if he's worth it. Because maybe he's just not ready for the type of commitment you're looking for, judging by his stand on long distance relationships. You're looking for love straight from the movies. He's looking for companionship. You want the warm feeling of being loved, while the thrill of attraction seems to still really affect him.

If you want to save the relationship, trust and communication is the key. If it cannot be done, perhaps the both of you are just not the right combination for each other. Or maybe its just a little too late, since he's already going overseas soon.

WARCRAFT 2 (WVGA version, totally smooth and non choppy)

2009-11-19T08:22:00.000-08:00

I got several e mails requesting for the WVGA version of warcraft 2 as seen at:

http://heretical-rantings.blogspot.com/2008/04/free-games.html.

I believe there are a few WVGA versions on XDA, and i tried them, and i've no idea what he did but damn that was laggy and choppy. rest assured this isnt the same file, and its smooth and perfectly playable.

I've gone thru every lua file and updated and made sure of its 100% playable, smooth and fast.

UPDATE: Argh crap i just noticed the in game is still VGA with the bottom blackened out. Gimme a while i'll look for a solution.

UPDATE 2: Pfft found out the problem, i left out some tilesets. Reuploading now, but i aint gonna wait, gonna sleep. Sucky upload speed. Will be ready at most in 24 hours. Check back soon. (its done already yay)

UPDATE 3: Working on recompiling the exe to show a proper Warcraft 2 icon. (its done already yay!)

UPDATE 4: Recompiled Warcraft 2 icon AGAIN, giving it a sharper icon worthy of WVGA screens. (its done already yay!)

DOWNLOAD LINK NOW AVAILABLE:

Unzip folder into your device and run. DO NOT unzip anything else like the campaigns etc. Just the main folder.

Remember game takes about 15-30 second to start. So dont click it twice. Just extract anywhere and run Warcraft 2

UPDATE 4 : http://www.megaupload.com/?d=G423OCLB

mirrors:

http://hotfile.com/dl/18071948/458e778/WARCRAFT_2_WVGA_-_Baronic.rar.html

Guys i dont mind you sharing my files around, but please leave credit where credit is due. I did quite a lot of work for this. Best regards, Baronic.

Orgasmic True Black WM 6.5.1

2009-11-11T17:02:00.000-08:00

ORGASMIC TRUE BLACK WM 6.5.1, HTC SENSE 2.1

Lookiit my Htc Touch Pro 2. Isnt it just orgasmicly sexy in all black? I got this by cobbling together several cabs i found over XDA. Base rom i used is Athine OS 6.5.1

The rom can be found here

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=556762

STEPS

1. Install B&W Slider, soft reset,

1A. Install Manila BK_All_Tabs soft reset (optional, dont need to do this if you want the weather animation at the Home tab. I hate the animation, so i do it)

2. Install Start Menu Icons, soft reset

3. Ensure your current theme is b16bGreenBlack, by going to start>settings (or all settings from HTC Sense Settings tab)>Home

4. Go to Pictures and Videos application, and choose Start Menu Wallpaper as your Today Wallpaper

5. Choose TF3D wallpaper as your HTC Sense wallpaper (related to step 1A. Dont do this if you want the weather animation at Home tab)

6. Go to File Explorer, and go to Windows/Start Menu/Programs, look for HTC Calendar and HTC People (the nonblack style ruins the whole theme look so you want to hide it). Press and hold on both these icons and choose properties, Read Only & Hidden.

7. Rearrange all your other start menu icons to the respective folder of your choice.

DOWNLOAD

http://hotfile.com/dl/17306216/4f324d6/True_Black.zip.html

again i take no credit for the files, thanks to everyone whoever made em!

The common pre LDR scenario.

2009-11-04T06:35:00.001-08:00

Some of the contents may have been edited to preserve anonymity.

Greetings,

When I was browsing the net for a relationship solution with a sore heart this morning, something directed me to your blog and here I am, emailing you for advice after reading some of your persuasive blog entries.
This story might be extremely complicated to you or some, so I'll try to make it simple and hope you'll be patient. And I apologize for any vague information given e.g. places or names. Thank you. So here is how it goes:

It was back in February that I met this special girl at this special place. It's weird to say this but she's couple of years younger than me; to be exact, she's 16. The feeling I had when I first saw her was pure crush, as I was attracted by her smile and open-minded personality. At first I thought it might just be typical crush which I'll forget on the following day. But things got worse instead. We constantly meet each other at the same place from time to time since, and each time we had had at least an hour to talk to each other, and we often made up memorable conversations. The feeling grows, and I felt really comfortable being with her, and the feeling just gets better each time.

I started texting and calling her two months ago after I got her private number. We even went out twice and everything was perfect, the feeling was so great. Since then, my mind is full of her; everywhere I go, everything I do. Whenever she's around I feel so complete, feel so intact; her voice is like a solace to all the problems and stress I'm undergoing. Before I knew it, I'm in love. It's strange but I really want her to be part of my life, I want to share her sorrows and happiness, show her my world, anything you can think of.

For some reasons she's not really into this kinda of relationship, even though she knows that I fell for her, still she asks me to wait, for don't-know-how-long, maybe after her studies. But there was this call 3 weeks ago when i slipped my tongue and told her that I'm leaving this country next year for my studies. It was then she went depressed and emotional on the phone and said the "L" word to me. It was bizarre, I felt guilty to have her say that word because of this reason, but it was beautiful. She allowed me to confess after her exams (which is 2 weeks later). Our relationship were great after that phone call, it was one of the happiest moment thus far. Just by reading her message she sent to me in a Sunday morning had made my day. At this gap of time I try my best every to make her happy, to cheer her up and to make her proud of me.

But things went incredibly awry two days ago when she said she was uncertain of this relationship and said maybe I shouldn't even confess to her, just out of a sudden. I asked her is it my fault but she said no. I asked her to tell me what's wrong and what's in her mind but she refused to tell me. I thought back of the things we said in between but nothing went wrong. She just cast that out in a sudden and I'm so helpless now. One of the reason she told me is that since I'm leaving, the emotion may kill her when we separate sometime next year. but won't I be suffering from the same pain as her? Why can't we just go through this together? Why can't we spend the rest of the remaining time happily together? She's quite a religious person and a obedient girl at home, but all of those have also point and directed her to me; her pray gave her a green light, her friends and even her family did the same thing; so why does she want to go against her own will and beliefs? Won't she just stop running around like a lost kitten and be honest to herself?

Since then my eyes filled with tears every time I think of that cause I'm scared, I'm scared that I'll lose her. It's less than two weeks now till the big day, and I really want to say or do something that will make her feel better or better still, change back to the things that were before. Maybe she feels uncertain or lost and still finding herself or maybe because of the EXAM. but what is the best thing I can do? I'm old enough to understand that love doesn't mean obsession, but I just can't help it. I know I won't leave her, but I need her love and to be loved, I want to be together... please advice...

This is actually very simple, and the problem lies in the fact you've misread her problems. She's actually already told it to you.

She's afraid that when the day comes for you to leave for overseas, that'll be the end of the relationship. She's calling it off now because thats what she believes will happen.

Have you told her your stand on whats going to happen to both of you when you leave? For how long? If its not permanent how will you keep in touch, how often will you come back for visits and how long? How strong a foundation will you have by the time you leave to help ensure the relationship will actually last the long distance? I won't say that a year is or is not enough to have a strong foundation as it varies from relationship to relationship.

These are all important questions and issues you must address and discuss with her, if you have not. As a matter of fact you should have done this from the very beginning if you are actually serious in this relationship.

If you do not intend to continue the relationship then the decision to end it now is actually the right thing to do. And i can actually presume this is your intention. When she tells you she is trying to avoid the pain of breaking up when you leave, instead of addressing the issue "LDR does not mean break up" you instead said "wouldn't i feel that pain too?". It appears you are resigned to a break up. Which begs the question are you mentally ready to go LDR.

While you've romantic and poetic in telling me while why you love her, but they've all been describing emotions, which tend to be biased. Ask yourself why you love her and give yourself objective reasons. What qualities does she have that makes her a suitable mate? "she makes me feel..." are biased points of view, and the ability to note objectively why you two would make a suitable couple and be able to last the long distance would truly prove that you are indeed the "crush" stage.

You may need her love and to be loved. But a relationship goes both ways. Do your best to reassure her of that the impending long distance relationship will last, and check your foundation. And the foundation of the relationship also has to go both ways. She may have all the traits you've been looking for, but if all she's felt for you has been a giddy school girl crush, then the relationship again will not last the distance.

Reevaluate your relationship. And discuss your reevaluation with her. Instead of your wants and assuming you are offering what she needs, find out directly from her and try to meet her requirements. It looks to me that what she wants right now is a vision that the relationship is actually going somewhere rather than a 1 year fling. So address this issue, and you'd only be able to address it best if you yourself can answer the questions i asked earlier.

Go ahead, kill someone today!

2009-08-25T02:50:00.000-07:00

Go ahead! Kill someone today! Its just 7 years in jail here in Malaysia after all. Malaysia boleh!

Killer escape: NGOs hit out at light sentence for former cop Abdul Halim Hassan
Submitted by amir azree on Tuesday, August 25th, 2009

Pauline Almeida
Tuesday, August 25th, 2009 06:47:00

WOMEN’S groups are outraged at the court for meting out a lenient sentence to a policeman who murdered
a woman whom he had an affair with four years ago.

They said by just letting him go without a deterrent punishment like a life sentence, the courts were sending
out wrong signals to the people.

The situation becomes more sensitive given that the offender was a cop who should uphold his duty towards
the people and country.

On Aug 20, former policeman Abdul Halim Hassan got only seven years’ jail for the murder of Tengku Teh Susilawati Tengku Akhirat, 20, from Kampung Pasir Baru, off Jalan Klang Lama.

Her family was devastated on learning that the 49-year-old father of five children escaped with a few years for the offence committed on the morning of Aug 6, 2005.

On that fateful day, Susilawati’s body was found in a box for a 29-inch television set near the University Malaya Medical Centre in Petaling Jaya.

National Council of Women’s Organisations (NCWO) deputy president Datuk Ramani Gurusamy said seven years is not deterrent enough.

“If you don’t give a severe deterrent then you are not sending the right message to the public. The seven years is definitely not enough,” said Ramani.

Empower, a non-profit organisation that champions human rights, executive director Maria Chin Abdullah said as a policeman he is supposed to protect life not destroy it.

“He has a special duty towards the country but instead he abused his position. I feel he deserves a life sentence for the violence he committed against the woman, and whom he took advantage of,” said Chin.

Besides, giving the offender a light sentence would not rehabilitate him either. For instance, in other (developed)
countries, there are therapists for rapists to help rehabilitate the offenders.

“In this case, there is a possibility of him going without receiving any therapy. So what guarantee does the State have that such offenders will not repeat their acts?” said Chin.

Cheshire Home president Khatijah Sulaiman said since this involved murder, the punishment ought to match the offence committed, taking into consideration public interest.

“It is important that the courts be consistent with penalties for a crime of this nature. Otherwise the people will be confused,” said Khatijah, an active social worker.

Iphone vs Windows Mobile. The TRUE review.

2009-08-07T06:37:00.000-07:00

The Iphone 3Gs (Iphone OS)

The Toshiba TG 01

As un-biased, un-fanboyist as a review can be.

Too many times I have had iphone fanboys bashing windows mobile users, and at the same time windows mobile users will be bashing iphone fanboys. Iphone users will often say windows mobile sucks, by actually comparing Iphone with a WM device that appeared on the scene at least 2 years ago! Technology isnt static, and i found it beyond retarded that the best argument iphone fanboys could give was comparing today's device, with yesteryear's device!! They may be a few well informed Iphone users that actually do some research before purchasing, but i find em few in between, and even rarer are those that have tried the latest windows mobile device itself LONG ENOUGH to make a proper comparison. At the same time however, i feel that WM users were neglecting the potentials the iphone device has.

I'm not gonna do some stupid device unboxing, or a video walkthrough. Google and you'll find enough videos on youtube to sate your appetite for those. But just F.Y.I, i have never ever trusted unboxing videos or video walkthroughs, as they are extremely superficial and never go in depth into behind the scenes.

That's what I, Baronic, am going to do now. I'm going to go in depth, to explore and truly compare, these two devices running on two very different platforms. I'm going to take two devices, the iphone 3GS to compare with the Toshiba TG01. Both came out at around the same time, and both, as of the time this review is written, is the best of each OS can be. How convenient.

OFFNOTE: If you would like to compare iphone with other than the TG01, you ought to compare with at least HTC Touch Diamond standards.

WORK

One of the most important features, which in the end defines the target market share the device is aimed at. In this case, Iphone has lost the battle. It can do some rudimentary stuff, with the help of a third party software called Quickoffice but for work, windows mobile beats iphone hands down. All windows mobile devices, including the TG01 comes with windows office, which is a simplified cut down version of your PC's windows office. But if u REALLY want to get cracking at your work, get a QWERTY WM device, like the HTC Touch Pro 2 or HTC Touch Pro, and combine it with Softmaker Office (google it) and u'll have a frickin full blown office on your device, and with the qwerty keyboard, u basically have a mini laptop, literally. Can you type fast on qwerty? I can type faster than my friend can when we're taking notes, for comparison, but its a lil tiring typing so fast.

OFF NOTE: While the qwerty devices like Touch Pro, Touch Pro 2, and Sony Erricsson Xperia are not as powerful as the TG01, they are still top of the line, and more than sufficient to fulfil the needs for work purposes.

RATINGS

Iphone 3Gs = 4/10
Standard Touch Diamond = 4/10
Standard Touch Pro (qwerty) = 6/10
Standard Touch Pro (qwerty) with Softmaker Office = 9/10

PLAY

And now we come to the play or gaming section of both these operating systems based on the before mentioned models. There are two important criteria available, the current gaming choices, as well as future implications.

Firstly, the current gaming choices. Windows mobile has a big collection of games already in the market, all with huge depth and great gameplay abilities. You've got Warcraft 2 which is free, Starcraft which is in beta, Age of Empires, and great RPGs like The Quest and Arvale. You've also got emulators which are currently ahead of the emulators available for the Iphone. FPSECE 0.96 is working great with final fantasy 8 and some others, while a more complete FPSECE 1.0 which will improve the gameplay and framerate ability of the emulator tenfold will be available soon. In stark contrast a playstation emulator for iphone is terribly lacking relatively.

At the same time, the games available for iphone currently have little depth compared to those on windows mobile. They are all more of a "instant action game" save for a few specially for iphone. You can spend half a day and finish a game on iphone and never play it again. Thats because currently the game developers for iphone are those that have been used to providing games for java platforms of Sony Ericsson and Nokia. So the reason for the low depth is because they are in fact, souped up versions of the java games! A great example is the Gameloft Asphalt 4, which everyone was hyped up about when it first came out. But stop a while and take a look and you'll realise its really a java quality game with little depth, but great graphics.

The GOOD thing about this is that, such games are relatively easy to develop, and can be sold cheaply (which is good for us consumers) because of the growth of iphone ownership. They can target for volume, hence set the price ridiculously low in comparison with windows mobile games. So in the future, you'll have an INSANE choice of games to choose from for iphones, that u can finish in half a day, but you'll hardy get bored because a new game is cheap, and there's always something new.

Growth of the gaming industry for windows mobile is extremely bad, with most games also from java ports. This is mostly because of the problem of piracy for windows mobile. Piracy, while catching up with iphone, is not much of a problem because of the sheer volume of iphone owners (and their ignorance of piracy). Developers for gaming for windows mobile make a loss, and are mostly no longer active. Developers for gaming on iphone should be able to at least survive. Hence the following ratings are the gaming ratings for the devices, and another rating will be given for the future it holds for the platform.

Ratings

Iphone 3Gs (CURRENT): 5/10
Iphone 3Gs (FUTURE): 9/10

Windows Mobile (CURRENT): 9/10
Windows Mobile (FUTURE): 3/10
(heavy realiance on emulators such as FPSECE, and ports)

Offnote: If you intend to be a dedicated windows mobile gamer, you'll want to aim for a device with AT LEAST HTC Touch Diamond specs and above.

GPS Navigation

GPS ratings are pretty straight forward. Iphone relies on Google Maps, and that's all it has. There is no good 3rd party navigation software. And google maps while accurate, has 2 main weaknesses. Firstly, there is no turn by turn navigation, hence totally unsuitable to be used while you're driving. That said it is more than sufficient for people who are walking. The second weakness is its reliance on data packages. Google Maps actively connects to the internet in order to function. If you have free data usage or already are using a fixed data plan, you may think you have less to worry, but also consider that in areas with bad reception, your google map is rendered useless.

Windows Mobile also has google maps, but it also has EXCELLENT third party navigation software, such as Garmin and Mapking to name a few that are widely used here in Malaysia. One time payment for the software, free maps from either malsingmaps.com or malfreemaps.com. It provides turn by turn navigation, which makes it WONDERFUL for driving. Also, because it does not rely on data connection, but GPS satellites, all you need is a clear view of the sky and you're good to go, regardless of your reception. There is also no additional upkeep of data charges if you turn off A-GPS (assisted GPS, uses a bit of data connection to get a better satellite fix).

Ratings
Iphone 3Gs: 5/10 (sufficient for walkers)
Windows Mobile: 9/10

Offnote: Ensure that your windows mobile has an actual GPS Chip to make use of third party GPS navigation softwares

User Interface Customisations

Windows Mobile has an insane amount of customizations while Iphone at most, you'll be able to edit the icons. But the actual UI cannot be changed. Windows Mobile comes with its own UI, and i personally love the windows mobile 6.5 UI. However that said, if you still love iphone's UI, windows mobile has SEVERAL 3rd party applications that can actually simulate iphones user interface. So you'll have Iphone UI, but on windows mobile platform. Other superb UI's to take note of for windows mobile is HTC's TF3D, and SPB Mobile Shell 3

Ratings Iphone 3Gs: 3/10 (low customisability) Windows Mobile: 8/10

Optimisations Needed

The good thing about iphone is that there is little tweaks or optimisation that needs to be done. Its basically ready to go, and most tweaks for iphone are simply battery saving tweaks.

For windows mobile, in order to properly optimise your device, you should do several registry tweaks as well as others. It takes a lot of time and effort if you're doing it on the original rom provided. The easy way out would be to hard-spl, and flash a custom rom which already incorporates all these tweaks, and additional cool new stuff. There is a saying within the windows mobile community that in the true fun in windows mobile lies in its optimisation and tweaking and flashing cooked roms. Like a laptop, sure you can use it as is, but you can tweak it to make it really shine. The downside is there is definitely some reading to do and some getting used to.

Many people who use windows mobile and says its laggy and what not, never tweak their device.

As a side note: ALL DEVICES should be restarted/soft reset once a day AT LEAST to clear up bad memory blocks and memory leaks. Doesnt matter if its iphone or windows mobile. Like a PC, left running for many days, you'll start to find it sluggish. Most users who complain about lagginess of device never ever reset their device, not to mention never tweak it.

For ratings based on how much work needed to be done to obtain your OPTIMAL device, windows mobile requires more work. This could either be seen as a pro or con, depending. For me, i find it a pro, as it is a joy to mod or as i put it, "Pimp up" my windows mobile device. But for a new user, the iphone does definitely seem easier.

Conclusion?

Looking for my conclusion? There is none. Both devices has its pros and cons, and one man's cons could easily be another man's pros. My personal opinion? If you're a pure gaming person, go for iphone. If its a general device which yet doesnt do badly at games, windows mobile is the way to go. For me, an iphone would only be my main device when i finally own my very own dedicated GPS device or iphone has a garmin support, and iphone has a good front camera and better back cam, better office software, and when the emulation for iphone has much better improved, since i currently cannot live without Playstation emulation and Gameboy Advance emulation on my windows mobile.

Devil's Advocate: Incest?

2009-07-07T01:58:00.000-07:00

Being a forum moderator i've seen so many types of controversial threads, mostly about the existence of God, abortion, homosexuality and stuff like that. But i've somehow never really seen anyone discussing about incest. Is it really so taboo that people are afraid to argue "FOR" incest, in fear of being a public outcast? I decided to try it, by attempting to promulgate a debate on incest, whether it was right or wrong. The answers i got was astoundingly immatured.

The link is here: http://forum.lowyat.net/topic/1086317

Now, i was trying to play the role of devil's advocate, after all debate can only take place when there is an opposition of ideas. So since noone wanted to do it, i had to take the role of the party arguing for it.

There were very very few satisfying answers. Most forummers from a knee jerk reaction resorted to religious bigotism and going as far as to "flame" me with all sorts of slanderous insults such as saying how i'd do my own sister, etc, for favouring incest. Apparently the meaning of the word "Devil's Advocate" escaped them.

Now, religious bigots will be religious bigots.

But what was extremely surprising was that most of the people who insulted and flamed me, were actually people whom i know had brains! I'm pretty sure most of them could carry a good debate if it was about abortion for example, but the moment i mentioned incest, all of em screamed like someone lit a fire under their backside. The word incest was like a switch:

"Say incest to switch off intelligence and bring in the stupidity". Rationality simply just flew out the window. So yea, i wasn't able to debate much in that forum, with bigot hubris flying from every direction, but i did have a fun debate with a friend of mine on MSN, also a member of the forum.

And i breathed i sigh of relief. I was beginning to fear that I was a moderator of a forum of idiots. There was still hope. Anyway, here's the conversation. Mind you it was around 2-3 a.m.

Hawk says:
wow
you're expecting a proper discussion in kopitiam?

Baronic says:
haha
yea
its funny tho
to see how people straight think about doing siblings
incest doesnt mean doing siblings at all
it has nothing to do with shagging

Hawk says:
it leads to shagging

Baronic says:
why would it?
it seems to be a common misconception

Hawk says:
if it didn't, it wouldn't be that sort of relationship
lol
I love my sister

Baronic says:
u could always adopt

Hawk says:
but I have no sexual/reproductive thoughts of her

Baronic says:
me neither
but its food for thought
i';m just asking why is it wrong

Hawk says:
so the dynamics of the relationship is different lol
society views it as taboo for the obvious birth defect problem

Baronic says:
yes, so what if the relationship produced no offspring
even, abstinence if u must, would it still be taboo?

Hawk says:
well personally im fine with it being with offspring or not
one step leads to another
that's how society rules always works
so they try to stop it from starting

Baronic says:
hmmm
why the bias that it leads to another

Hawk says:
its a generalisation, that is often true

Baronic says:
i've heard of clergymen who are married but practice abstinence for example

Hawk says:
look at it on the larger scale
rather than on the individual scale
then the rules starts to make sense
which is why pre-marital sex rules came about
the whole "only have sex with the person you love", "marriage is sacred" "its special" etc. etc. is really a smoke screen

Baronic says:
hmmmm touche
now lets says, despite the taboo, the couple goes ahead
and proves to be capable of abstinence
should they be shunned by society?
is incest wrong, in THAT case

Hawk says:
they shouldn't, but they will be
to preserve the integrity of the "rule"
if they're lucky
the society they're in will turn a blind eye to it
and just ignore/tolerate

Baronic says:
they shouldnt, but they will be u say, to preserve the integrity of the rule
elaborate?

Hawk says:
if society excepts the acception
*accepts
sorry I just came back from a drinking session lol
*accepts the exception
it sets a precedent
which others may choose to follow
and if they allowed one exception
why not others?
then the rule starts to fall apart

Baronic says:
it sounds very objective
but while in objectivity, it makes sense
the taboo appears to be more on an emotional level

Hawk says:
people get emotional about rules

Baronic says:
something like, blind faith, following the herd, he says she says they say its wrong, so i follow

Hawk says:
they grew up with those rules

Baronic says:
without really thinking about it

Hawk says:
and when ppl break those rules
and it gets "accepted"
they themselves can't accept it
cause it would more or less
invalidate their entire life
of course if your mental capacity is higher, this wouldn't affect you
but the majority of population do not have that capacity

Baronic says:
society norms can change, for example lesbianism and gays. what it needed was precendence i believe

Hawk says:
yea, slowly
so you see the point of setting precedence

Baronic says:
yes. actually i do see that the percentage of incestual relationships has increased
some has offspring, some dont
while its frowned upon
the increase itself is sort of like an exclaimation mark
because its what happened at the dawn of gay-ism and lesbianism
i think if society, on the whole, stopped the herd mentality, and really thought for a moment

Hawk says:
we're far... far... from that mark

Baronic says:
it would actually be fine for incestual relationships PROVIDED there is no offsprings

Hawk says:
even the support for gays and all that

Baronic says:
do u agree with that?

Hawk says:
exhibit herd mentality
as I said, im fine with incestual relationships, with/without offsprings

Baronic says:
yea
its not fair to ask, if you'd have incestual relationships with your sister of course, simple because you dont have that sort of feelings
and to ask it is not an argument at all. rather an evasion of a debate

Hawk says:
if i recall
there's a biological component to prevent incest

Baronic says:
what do u mean? the genetical problems?

Hawk says:
think of it from a evolutionary perspective
you get attracted to certain fitness rules
likewise when it comes to genetics
we can actually "detect" difference in genetics
although we don't realise it
so ppl with the same genetics
tend to not attract us

Baronic says:
yes, science has shown that sweat actually holds some truth in what u said. u will not be find the faint smell of sweat from the person with the same immune system appealing.
but what has that gotta do with incest?

Hawk says:
you could view it as a physiological defect
or a social disorder
i don't have solid evidence
but i would bet
that people with incestual relationships
tend to not be very well adjusted socially

Baronic says:
hmmm
isnt that because of society itself, shunning them?

Hawk says:
no
i would hazard a good guess
its because they can't compete on normal terms
so they do the next best thing
sibling love -> sexual love
since love already exists between siblings
its just missing one component
so they use that instead
as its the easy way out

Baronic says:
owh, i get what you mean now
i got mixed up with which came first, social disorder or incestual relationships
good point
how about the scenario where you find out your fiance, is, on the eve of your wedding, your long lost sibling
the social misfit theory wouldnt fit then

Hawk says:
irrelevant
cause at that point
you've passed the stages already

Baronic says:
sorry, what is irrelevant? which stages u referring to?

Hawk says:
the stages of attraction, building the rapport and so on
psychology plays a part in this as well
if you didnt know its your sister
you would treat her like a normal lady
but if u knew beforehand
you probably wouldn't pursue it
but once you're already in it
I really don't see why it shouldn't continue

Baronic says:
true true
haha, i take my hats off to u dude

Hawk says:
what u doing wearing a hat in the house
lol

Baronic says:
its been bloody fun, i never had such a fun debate since high school, mind if i share this and use i as material for my next blog post?

Hawk says:
sure no prob

There is another amazing read here, i found in another blog, regarding incest. Read it and its comments, you'll find it very insightful

http://darwinianconservatism.blogspot.com/2006/10/so-whats-wrong-with-incest.html

Lol, this must be my most "heretical" blog post to date

The Difference between Love and Crushes

2009-06-11T19:50:00.000-07:00

Q: How to differentiate between love and crush? The sources on the internet often contradict so I need the pros to discuss. Possibly Baronic?

Crushes and Love

Crush is that rush of feelings u feel all of a sudden. especially when u meet someone new. Those so called "love at first sight" is never love, they're ALWAYS crushes. You cannot fall in love with someone you do not know. U have to understand the person intimately before you can consider that you're in love.

Crushes are merely a surge of attraction u feel for someone, whether its just a physical attribute you're attracted to, or a character trait. You can suddenly notice and learn to like the character of your close friend and have a crush on them. (if its your close friend, and u understand her very well, its possible to skip the crush phase and go fall in love as u understand the person already)

Although a lot of people think, "oooo i got a crush on someone, i cant get over them, help T.T" thats actually pure BS. They watched too many korean movies. As i said earlier a crush is merely a very strong feeling of attraction.

One can even have a crush on SOMEONE ELSE while being in love with another. You can totally love your partner and still find someone else who has a trait that u like, attractive. WHich is perfectly normal and fine. What matters is what your proceed to do once you already have this crush

DIFFERENT OUTCOMES WHEN U HAVE A CRUSH

i) accept that u find this person very attractive, how your heart skips a beat every time u see the person, and keep telling yourself how much u "love" her and cant live without her, which is stupid and self detrimental, as you havent even dated her yet, and you're already encouraging your lil crush to go to the extremes. Or worse, if you're already in a relationship, you convince yourself to leave the person u love for the person u THOUGHT you're in love with.

ii) Accept that you find this person attractive, and let it slide. let it sorta wash over you. Don't fight it down exactly, since the more u try to NOT think of something, the more you tend to actually DO think of something. Just accept it. understand it. "Ah, i'm having a small crush on this person. i wonder why. oh its because she's always cheerful. that's nice." and walk away, knowing that this is the kinda trait that u like. In time, this attraction will dim itself down or fade away, as long as u learn to accept it and let it wash over u.

iii) If u are single and find that u wish to pursue the crush, you must first again, like step 2, learn to accept it, and understand it. Learn to to think "ah, i have a crush on her. i think hmmm, its because she's really cute when she smiles, its physical attraction". Once u understand your crush, and its trait, as in whether physical or what not, u can try to ask her out perhaps, to get to learn her more. Because u UNDERSTAND your crush, u know what to look out for when u date, to ensure you're truly compatible. (fine she's attractive when she's happy, when she's sad? other habits? etc)I'm not saying be a robot and analyze the relationship like one, but understanding and knowing how to judge a relationship objectively, rather than being like a giddy school girl who only knows how to say "i love him i love him i love him" without understanding why, can help your relationship TRULY last long. You have foundation, you have compatibility, and if u can handle the emotional aspects of the relationship, then you've found a mate.

Then your crush will evolve into love, and you probably cant really tell the differences. I wont go and describe how a person in love would behave as it varies. But remember, you cannot "love" a person when u don't know the person

If u get rejected and break down a cry like a rejected puppy, you're in step i)

Here's something i got from teenadvice, which i agree upon, to complement my last point. See bolded ones.

Signs of a good healthy relationship

You can't help but smile when you see her/him and s/he is always smiling back.
You feel comfortable and secure in the relationship and really trust your partner not to hurt you; ie, there is no need for jealousy or suspicion.
There have been good times and bad times and through, or in spite of, them all you have remained together.
There are no major dramas in the relationship; ie, you do not test one anothers love, engage in relationship foiling gossip or feel the need to play games.
You each do kind and thoughtful things for the other "just because" and doing them makes both people feel good.
Outside pressures are few and far between; there are none or only minor issues with peers, friends, family and teachers.
There is no violence in the relationship at all -- NONE!
You enhance one another, neither one of you presses the other to do things that may lead to harm or that the other is opposed to doing.
The things that make you different do not push you apart; ie, different religions, cultural backgrounds or personal beliefs.
There is no sacrifice, only compromise.
Sex or no sex: it doesn't matter, either way it isn't an issue and nobody has been pressured to do something they weren't ready to do.
You know that everything you feel is returned in kind by your partner.

Pocket UFO (freeware)

2009-04-14T23:43:00.000-07:00

The Pocket UFO is a remake of the popular game of the last century X-COM Enemy Unknown (UFO Defense) for the Pocket PC devices. The game is a turn-based strategy with the RPG elements. The excellent graphics and exciting gameplay are attracting the gamers all over the world till present.

Features:
* 9 landscapes
* 11 enemy types
* 3 armour types
* More than 40 ammunition objects
* Amazing gameplay
* Excellent graphics

A totally freeware game, Pocket UFO is a superb strategy game with some RPG elements. Insane amount of gameplay time, i always have Pocket UFO with me no matter what PDA i own, nor what rom i've just flashed.

Somehow however, Pocket UFO sometimes crashes on (tested) HTC P3600i, a QVGA PDA device. I can only surmise its due to the fact it doesnt have enough ram due to some memory leak.

However, i've finished the game and tested on Touch HD, Touch Pro and Touch Diamond. And no bugs at all. It'll be a bit hard to pick up at first though so here's some tips.

Stay away from cities under attack at the beginning, its extremely hard when you dont have the tech to fight against the advanced alien attacking the cities.
Attack as many UFOs u can find, if they crash/land, raid it.
Get at least 50 scientists constantly researching. You unlock more research options the more u research.
Dont bother with base defence unless you have laser defences and up.
Research Laser Tanks A.S.A.P and constantly manufacture them and sell them for funds.
Do not underestimate the power of proximity grenade. However once u start to face tougher aliens, you'll need the alien grenade.
Plasma weapons own.

DOWNLOAD LINK: http://rapidshare.com/files/34092766/pufo_126_cab.cab

Of Long Distance relationships and breaking up.

2009-03-03T07:19:00.000-08:00

hello. I've read some of your articles about romance in your blog and I really like them. This is my story and I would like to hear what you would say about it, and advices you may give. Me and my high school sweetheart were together for about 2 years. We broke up 2 years ago. The reason.. I'm staying where I am now, and he's leaving for his studies. It would take about 6 years to complete his studies in KL and US. We broke up before he left, it was his idea. He mentioned about us going different paths, and would not see each other for a long time. He did not give me any promises to wait for us to graduate or ask me to wait for him, although I wished that he could at least ask.

He's more mature than me, and maybe he knows that he can't 'tie' me since he's not sure about his future, if our long-distanced relationship would survive. Actually I don't mind waiting for him at all, but I never told him that. I didn't want to give him any burden when he needs full concentration on studies. He told me that if we're really meant for each other, even the east and west can't separate us. When we broke up, he told me he wants to focus on his studies and would not think of having any girlfriend yet.

I took it as a promise he gave that he would want me back someday if he wants to be romantically involved with someone again someday. We were each other's first love, and the only love until now. I missed him a lot in these 2 years after we broke up. Sometimes I just wonder if he misses me too. We accidentally bumped into each other last December when he was back from KL and it really caught me off guard. We were both shocked. Not even knowing what to say. I wished so much that he would talk to me, but he didn't. (Well, I didn't take the chance start a conversation too.) On my birthday, he would send me an sms and wish me Happy Birthday.

I was really thrilled and that was the only present I wanted. So, I sent him an email, telling him how I felt when I met him that day. I told him I didn't email him or call him or find him in msn because I'm not sure if he feels comfortable that way. But today, he sent me an offline message saying that he read my email and he told me to drop by anytime when i wanna chat, he said he doesn't mind. I don't know if he has already gotten over me, but one thing I'm sure is that I still like him, and part of my heart is telling me to wait for him. I've never met anyone that makes me feels the same way after we broke up. I've tried to get over him again and again, but sometimes I still believe there's possibilities that we would be together again someday. I keep reminding myself that he's just being friendly, and it has nothing to do with any other special feelings. But I couldn't persuade myself. What do you think about my story?

Is it very silly of me not to tell him that I wanted to wait for him? Or I shouldn't even be waiting at all? It was really tough for me for the first half year after we broke up, because I agreed the break very unwillingly, although knowing the reason is really reasonable. It's the best for us. I'm looking forward to your advices, and thank you for your time. Have a nice day and God bless you.

Well, nothing can really be done about past actions and paths u both have taken, so i'll advise u what u can do now. not on what ifs. Firstly, you need closure, one way or another. You've told me that you've explain how you felt, but what about his reply? did you confess that you still have feelings for him? Did he give you an answer, that provides closure one way or another? If he still has feelings for you and he's unattached, both of you should seriously get back together. You both have nothing to lose and everything to gain. Matter of fact, you should even forward your e mail to me, and probably my reply, to him. Ask him for an honest answer, and respect his decision one way or another. Do not be desperate for an affirmative, because him being with you because he fears you won't be able to stand rejection or because he pities you is no way for a relationship to last. Be brave, and confront the matter like adults. What you've told me was very informative and they're all things that he really ought to know, more than anyone else. At the same time, tell him you will respect his decision anyway, if he doesnt have any more feelings for you, let you know, so you can have closure and move on. However, if he has feelings for you but feels that it's fair that he should let you go, then forward the following at the bottom to him, or rephrase and tell it to him or something. Because honestly, both of you were fools to have ended a relationship that seemed to have every chance of success, yet it was halted prematurely due to some misconceived concept that you were both doing the OTHER a favour.

"Of long distance and breaking up"

I've seen this a dozen times, and it still never fails to put a frown on my face, at the injustice and pure stupidity of this situation.

The scenario: Boy and Girl has a healthy, steady relationship. They've got good foundations. They're in love with each other. Suddenly Boy / Girl has to go overseas for some reason, usually to complete his/her studies. What happens next? Right out of a Korean soap series text book : They break up in order to not "force" the other to hold on. I know what a majority of you are thinking.

"That sounds like a good idea, why force your partner to hold on to you, long distance, JUST IN CASE he/she meets someone better?"
Right.

So why get into a relationship in the first place then?

"Hi there. I'm deeply in love with you. And you are deeply in love with me. But let's not get together JUST IN CASE we meet someone better".

Or if you prefer, how about an old JUST IN CASE joke? I'm pretty sure everyone of you, even those who says that the scenario seems like a right thing to do, has laughed at the stupidity at this joke. Well then, read this joke again, and compare it with the scenario.

"Hey, son, go fetch me a pail of water, and make sure you don't spill a single drop or i'll whack you!" "Okay papa." As the son turns to leave, the father suddenly turns around starts to whack the crap outta the boy. "What was that for papa?" "JUST IN CASE."

How is it any different from this scenario? Has the foundation of the relationship changed just because you're physically apart? Is the reason you love each other at all influenced by the distance the both of you are from each other? When you said you loved him, did you ever say "I love you because you're near me". Well, unless the only reason you two love each other is for the great sex you two are getting, then distance hasn't really affected the relationship has it? The beauty of the modern day is it's just so easy to stay in touch with one another, no matter how far you are from each other. You can communicate in real time, anywhere with a mobile, and even see each other via Webcam or Video Call. Plus, both of you can always take a flight to see each other during the holidays!

So why jump the gun?

Why break up over something that hasn't happened yet? Have both boy and girl tried long distance relationship yet? Both party has not even experienced any troubles yet, and not even tried it, so why break up on an "what if" or "just in case"?

What's that i hear?
"Oh, this is to prepare for the event that it does happen."

Oh in that case why not take a gun and blow your brains out RIGHT NOW? You know, give yourself a quick and clean death (figuratively speaking), JUST IN CASE within the next 10 minutes you're going to die an extremely gruesome and long death.

So you see, breaking up isn't "preparing" for the worse, or even "self sacrificing". As you can read above, it doesn't help anyone. Because if both parties read this, and both truly love each other for reasons besides good sex, they'll both definitely want to continue the relationship. Its just plain stupidity.

PREPARATION

If you really DO want to prepare for the possibility of finding someone new, or finding that long distance is not working out, perhaps it would be a good idea to talk it out. Agree that if either one finds someone better, or finds that long distance isn't working out, both parties should not be afraid to voice it out.

BUT YET, doesn't this already sound familiar? Is it at all different from a normal close distance relationship? Sure you two love each other with all your hearts and soul but you both realise "shit happens". You both may or may not fall in love with someone else. Its a mutual, silent and unspoken understanding. Yet does that mean you both should not give this a try?

If you live your life always fearing what ifs, then you'll never live life at all. Why bother to eat, sleep, love, when there is a possibility that something (u can basically put anything horrible here) may happen?

"Self sacrifice", when noone gets happy, when noone has anything to gain, isn't being noble. Its being selfish. YOU alone are afraid, and because you are afraid of something, you wish to avoid it, and create self delusions that what you're doing is for the betterment of both parties.

Comics by Azyzephre, Pon and Zi

Playstation on Windows Mobile (Freeware)

2009-03-02T02:07:00.000-08:00

With enough ram, you can most definitely play some if not all Playstation games on your Windows Mobile device. Its advisable that you have at least 20mb of usable ram on your device in order to properly play without crashing! This means of course devices that come with the usual 64mb of ram will probably have some problems as they have around 17mb of usable ram. But you can give it a try anyway, and i'll teach u and give u what all you need to start right away!

First, the file itself. The bios needed to play Playstation games already been included, so all you need is the iso or img file itself of the game.

http://rapidshare.de/files/45763623/FPSEce0.09.6_beta.zip.html

Simply paste the entire file in your storage card of your device. You can create a shortcut and paste the shortcut in /Windows/Start Menu/Programs/Games for quick access if you wish.

Once there, start the program. Go to Options > Bios > and choose SCPH1001.bin bios. It should automatically load the right directory, but if you don't know where it is, its in the FPSECE file, Bios folder. (duh)

Now you'll need an iso or img file of the game itself. You'll have to rip it yourself, or use uncle google since my blog does not support warez or piracy. Yippee yay yay. Use this to rip.

http://oludovic.free.fr/PocketISO.rar

Paste the files into ISOS folder (duh duh).

And you're good to go! Its that simple! Once you start an iso, you'll need to configure your device so that it runs smoothly. For now, before u start to load an iso, go to options > Misc > and tick FPS counter for reference.

Load an ISO.

Now you'll see the game running with a controller and you'll see FPS. The greater the FPS, the faster the game runs. Different games may work with different FPS. Some games run perfectly fine, while others are so slow they're impossible to play on your windows mobile device.

You can try to increase the FPS however. After starting the ISO, look at your controller pad. See the OPTIONS? Its between your TRIANGLE, SQUARE, CIRCLE , X and your Directional Pad.

Click it. You'll see FRAMESKIP. You can choose to increase frameskip to increase FPS.

But beware, the more frames you skip, the more jerky the game will get. A game that runs fast but too jerkily is just as bad as a bad FPS game.

I myself don't usually choose more than 3 FRAMESKIP.

You can change the FRAMESKIP any time during the game. Save the game as how you would normally, there are card 1 and 2 options already available in the file so dun worry about it.

NOTE:

Games that i have tested that work fine are Final Fantasy 7 and Final Fantasy Tactics. Turn based games are usually the most suitable.
Landscape may not work. So test it early, not halfway through the game. If it hangs at least it hangs early to let you know it doesnt work.
Final Fantasy 7 is about 1.2GB. Yea, OMFG. So be prepared lol. Or you can try Final Fantasy Tactics its about 300MB.
Audio on some games may suck donkey, Final Fantasy for example. You can switch it off the same place where you change FRAMESKIP
Switch off Framerate display when not testing, it consumes extra CPU cycles and can slow down / drain more battery
For VGA devices (touch pro) to change to landscape, change your display to GAPI. That's before you start the iso, under Options

Have Fun!
Yours truly, Baronic the PDA-trician

Poem : My Dreamy Reality

2009-02-21T09:11:00.000-08:00

After a long vacation from poem writing, i wrote this, for my dearest Wong Chee Mun, my lovely girl, who has always been there for me. Friend, lover, confidant, you are everything i could ever dream or wish for, and you are more than anything i could ever hope for. I love you, and i want you to know i meant every word of it, from the bottom of my heart, from the core of my soul.

My Dreamy Reality

You can lay down here beside me,

As i wrap myself around you,

Rest if you will your weary eyes,

But tell me not,

To do so too.

You can drift away if you must,

Smile and smell the sandman's dust,

You may dream your wildest fantasy,

But lock me in this moment,

And throw away the key.

For all old dreams of riches,

Falters before the wealth i possess,

Of having this woman in my arms,

An angel from the highest heaven,

A maiden of royal noblesse.

As seconds seem like hours,

And hours seem like days

How could i wish for sleep,

When i can bask in your gaze.

When my arms wrap around,

You drown out all affliction,

How could i ever have enough of you,

My little sweet addiction.

Your voice is the sweetest song,

Your breath the refreshing breeze,

Your caresses the reassuring touch,

That sets my mind at ease.

Your scent stirs my soul,

More than the freshest rose,

But while the rose may wilt and die,

My love for you grows.

Your laugh is my reason for smiling,

Even as your smile makes me laugh,

If i ever had a reason for living,

Its for u my better half.

So kiss me not good night,

Sweet dreams and all that's due,

for no dream could be sweeter than,

Reality here with you.

Copyrighted 2009 @ Leong Seng Chee

Wide resolutions, or standard?

2009-02-16T06:46:00.000-08:00

I'm making this post in the interest of enlightening current and future PDA users about the new trend of WVGA and WQVGA. With the age of Wide screen devices, its important to understand the limitations.

It is important for now to understand the implications of what the new product lines mean to us, especially for hardcore PDA gamers.

First off, when third party games are created, they are usually created for the standard VGA or QVGA resolution. Now, QVGA resolution games will work on VGA (except for a minority) while VGA games will not work on QVGA.

With a Wide resolution device, whether WVGA or WQVGA, these games or applications no longer function at all, or if they do, leave a wide black gap or even worse, you could see the background of your Today screen.

For comparison, it would be like a game running on three quarters on your PC screen.

When this happens, the game will either crash, or hang your entire device, forcing a soft reset.

However, that being said and done, a WVGA or WQVGA does have advantages, such as a superb multimedia device, especially for movies. Also there are new game developers that are coming out with games for Wide resolution devices. But unfortunately, while these are big timers such as Gameloft, their games are sadly rip offs.

Seems to me like its a trend that JAVA games are being ported from normal mobile phones into windows mobile format. And the gameplay and all are exactly as you would expect from a java game! I woudnt mind paying the usual 3 bucks or so for a java game, but such games are being charged at least around 10USD per game! In the good old days, such games are exclusive PDA games, but now we're paying such a high price for what is essentially a JAVA game! You'd want to be careful, and proprely get a demo for the game before paying for it, especially stuff from Gameloft. From experience, Gameloft does have good games, for a java game, but its usually completed within an hour. Taking into account the price you pay, its not really worth it. So that being said and done, gaming on WVGA or WQVGA is still rather crippled.

Another important point to not is the lack of hardware buttons on WVGA and WQVGA screens. Companies such as HTC seem to be aiming for estatics rather than actual function. While touch sensitive like "buttons" are admittedly much more stylish and sleek, but most 3rd party games NEED such buttons in order to play. A fine example would be Worms World Party. Hence, the games that MAY function on WVGA or WQVGA now have a new challenge. They have to be totally unreliant on hardware buttons, or they'll be unplayable. QWERTY is not considered hardware buttons as most games cant use them anyway.

These are the things you should take in mind when considerring new products such as HTC Touch HD, or any other wide resolution PDAs with lack of hardware buttons.

Perhaps when we see more games designed to be totally Wide resolution compatible or less hardkeys reliant. But right now, as far as i can tell, HTC has downgraded their new product lines in order to specifically compete with Iphone.

They are probably targetting people who have never used PDAs before, usual handphone users. Which is why since Touch Diamond, most PDA owners are totally newbie PDA users. Before this, most of the PDA owners are people who upgraded their current model. Personally, i'd stick with a standard VGA or QVGA reso with nice hardware keys, until the day i find games such as POWDER, Worms, The Quest, Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2, Call of Duty 2, and more uninteresting.

The Iphone, while being a newer platform, has actually more gaming possibilities than the new WVGA / WQVGA devices with no hardkeys.

This is Baronic, signing off

Pocket Chip's Challenge (FREEWARE)

2009-02-01T05:17:00.000-08:00

I almost came in my pants when i found Chip's Challenge now available for windows mobile, and such a classic puzzle game is a MUST have in your pocket pc. Oh i remember i used to play it when i was a kid and call my dad whenever i needed help lol. Here's an overview.

Chip is willing to do anything for Melinda the Mental Marvel, more than anything, because he wants to join Melinda's exclusive computer club, the Bit Busters. Finally Melinda has offered him membership, but on one condition! Chip must find his way from one end of Melinda's magical clubhouse to the other, picking up cosmic computer chips along the way.

If that sounds easy, then you've never been to Melinda's magical clubhouse. It's awesome inside, but tricky, and a little scary too. There are teleports, invisible walls, force floors, water traps, locked doors, and plenty of monsters. There's magic, mystery, and behind the scenes there is Melinda, keeping score on your progress and providing helpful hints.

As you succeed in helping Chip move through each level of the clubhouse, Melinda gives you a secret password that allows you to return. And Melinda rewards perseverance. If she thinks Chip has tried long enough and hard enough on a level, she'll let him sneak through to the next level. But it takes a lot of perseverance to impress her. How big is the clubhouse? 144 levels is the rumor. But some claim that Melinda is still building. In any case, it defies dimensions so don't get lost.

Note:it will freeze while playing when you get a text msg only if you have show me message on and if you receive a phone call it will freeze. Also dont try to use the open file option in the main menu it will goto a black screen and you will need to soft reset your phone.

Also you can change the level pack by renaming cclp2 chips and calling the original chips, chips1 so you dont overwrite the original levels.

CONTROLS: touch screen or dpad to move and to pause touch the little chip in the lower right hand corner and it will give you a game option and a level option select game and hit pause to select level choose the level option and either goto: NEXT,Restart,Previous or GOTO. You dont need any password the goto option just type in wat level you were on or wat ever level you want.

Download it here: http://rapidshare.com/files/185266714/Chips_Challenge.cab

Making something for Valentine's Day

2009-01-24T08:38:00.000-08:00

If there's anything more exciting and fun than giving a present to your loved one and seeing their face glow, its the joy of actually making this present for her. As my girl's birthday, valentines, and anniversary were practically within the same month time period, i decided, instead of buying something, i wanted to make something! Something that would cover nicely all three events as a present. Of course i'll be taking her out for some nice food as well. Anyway, as i impulsively abandoned the vanity mirror she actually asked me to get for her birthday and walked past rows of shops, i was wondering what the heck i was going to make?!

I do do some oil painting back in the old days, but handicraft was generally out of bounds for me, and definitely out of my comfort zone. Unless its painting, unfortunately my imagination and capability of managing and manipulating materials to look pretty is just beyond my average handicraft skills. But still, i was so hyped up about the idea, i wanted to give it a shot anyway. I've never before made something for anyone (poems not included).

So i came across this shop in 1Utama, its sorta like on the bridge linking the old and new wing together, towards the end of the bridge, towards the old wing side. A nice well stocked shop with ample arts and crafts supplies! I spent about half an hour just walking to and fro in this shop thinking of the various combinations i could make before one of the shop attendants offerred some advice. After another 45 minutes, i walked out, and had already blown my budget, by almost 200% lol. But still, i was really hyped up with the idea of doing this. So this is what i did in the end.

The box costs about thirty bucks, and has various shapes and sizes. Of course price would vary based on design and size. There was one i really wanted to get, a nice mini cupboard to put on the table with cute drawers for jewelry. But it costs about 130 bucks. lol. Bad idea for a student like me.

Paint was another 30 odd, plus another 30 for Gloss. I decided to not go for the filler that i was recommended to get, nor this nice paint with glitters in them. I simply didnt have time. It was kinda impulsive and unplanned and i had a 1 week deadline. Filler itself would take almost a week to properly dry.

I recommend painting it in one direction, and buying a smaller sized brush to paint those tight corners. Make the whole surface even, dont keep doing a small part over and over again. When its done, then you may try to apply another coating. I applied three coatings. Make sure the paints truly dry and not just dry to the touch.

WARNING : Should dry fast unless you applied too thick a layer of paint. Avoid it, spread your paint and don't let it pool.

I recommend using a good quality nylon brushes, not those cheap rough brushes u usually find at book stores. Around 4 bucks a brush depending on size.

Use a pallet and make sure u shake the bottle of accrylic paint before pouring. Don't pour out too much first.

WARNING: I highly recommend using a plastic to put on the table. Newspaper would stick to the paint and come out and tear and stick on your box. A nightmare

For me, it took around 4 hours between coatings, with air conditioner on to make the room dry and under the sun.

I then wrote my poem which i composed for her (the first word in every sentence also reads I Love You). XD Pen costs about 20-30 bucks i can't recall. A special all surface pen.
After that. Apply the gloss. Be slow and light across the words, so that they don't run! I then cut out the wood carvings i bought (another 30 odd bucks), and pasted them as imaginatively as i could around the box.

I then pasted the mirror i bought, all with strong UHU glu. Other super glue would work as well. Incidentally, while i was still working on this, my girl and I were out shopping (window shopping) in Sunway Pyramid, Asian Avenue. She spotted this felt like material which she said was "so pwetty!!!". Its actually to be used for handphones and such. So i decided to tell her to choose one which i will incorporate into her surprise present. (i told her i was making her something, but didn't tell her what. Wanted to torture her with the suspense. heh heh.)

So she picked a pattern out, and i used it as the inside of the box. Its soft to the touch, and not very expensive, around 20 bucks, and gives it a posh look and feel.

When she finally openned the matching pink wrapping paper i used and finally saw her present, she was absolutely bursting with happiness! The smile and wide eyed happiness she displayed as she hugged and kissed me will be a memory i will cherish till the end of days. Despite blowing my budget, i'm absolutely glad i did what i did for her. The adventure of doing it and the anticipation of seeing her reaction was extremely exciting. And after so long of not doing any art work, it was a sweet and delicious reminder of why i used to do oil painting. Once classes start though i'll never have time unfortunately, sigh.

If there's anything i regret, is i wished i had more time to really soup up my present for my baby. She may love it, but i always feel like i could have done something more.

For references for people who may wish to try this and get a feel of expenses.

Box: RM 30 (vary on size and quality)
Brushes: RM 10
Accrylic Paint: RM 30 per colour
Gloss: RM 30
Wood Carvings: RM 30
Pallet: cheap, u can use anything, negligible
Thick Felt for the Bottom: RM 10 (cut to fit, u'll have left overs)
Velvet Material from Sunway Pyramid: RM 20
Mirrors: RM 20
Pen RM 20

Total: RM 200

Memory and joy of giving the present, and the love she showed me: Priceless

The dangers of buying "ap" or "overseas" set devices.

2009-01-13T08:13:00.000-08:00

I've always advised friends and customers to always stick with original items, from authorised distributers. The fact is small fry companies offering electronical devices at cheaper prices, with their own warranty, simply cannot afford to provide the real quality warranty u expect from authorised distributers. The most they'll offer is "service" warranty, which matters squat as stuff like LCD screen of your PDA for example, would cost about 25% of the entire PDA cost. An authorised distributer such as SIS for HTC products would change it free of charge if it isnt caused by end user.

This is a conversation i had with a Lowyat.net user, who came to me for help.

skyll:

hi.
dada just tell me dat u mayb can help me to solve dis prob
i just hardspl my phone when suddenly the usb connected the pc and the phone pulled off and disconnect.
the problem now is my phone cant be restart or charge.i tried pull off the battery and try 2 insert back after several sec.
do u know how much it will cost me if i send my phone 2 shop or any chance i can do it by myself to fix it?

pls.just bought it less than 1 week -,-

Baronic:

.....sigh, must be careful la bro. not sure if it can even be fixed. can u even switch it on? i'm not sure how much the charge is.

skyll:

=.=. i am very in deep trouble now. the main problem now is i cant switch it on.

i just ask ppl at gombak shop. 1 shop just said that they need 2 flash my ic and it will cost me around rm180.

another shop wanna me to drop the dopod to their shop for several days b4 they could actually know the main problem.

the situation is i when i pull of the battery and try charge the phone it will on the red led.but when i put back the battery and try charge nothing will happen and no yellow led.

u know sum1 that really pro in repairing hp?

i just need my phone to be work again and i dun actually mind the cost. but i hope it will not exceed rm200 coz i just bought it at rm750. -,-

make me wanna cry now =.='

Baronic:

thats the problem when u screw up hard-spl. quite honestly i dun think it can be repaired. if the gombak shop only charge u that 180 if its actually repaired then fine, otherwise dun bother. chances are its a permanent brick. especially if it cannot even turn on. i'm sorry bro.

skyll:

i just send it to d shop that i buy it.

1st of it. i am really disappointed with the shop want to claim warranty so i din have to bear the cost.but the shop cheated me.after about 3 hours waiting he said 2 me that water had entered the phone and now the is is totally broken. how the hell dat water can go to my phone when i know the story behind it.he wan me to pay about rm180.

i went to other shop to repair and they said to me that my phone is already into water. now i know that they intentionally put the water so the warranty will be void.

so. i dun have much choice now.i need 2 bear the cost of the phone by myself.the shop is located at petama complex. do u know anybody or anything that i could do so i can make them bear all the cost coz it is obviously see they cheat me.

can i make any police report about this coz it really make me feel angry when i think bout this?

thx

POWDER (FREEWARE RPG windows mobile)

2008-12-04T04:48:00.000-08:00

Your goal is simple: dive to level 25 of the dungeon to reach Baezl'bub, slay him, and return to the surface with his black heart. Plenty of nasty monsters stand in your way, however. Fortunately, the dungeon is littered with useful equipment.
This is a roguelike originally developed specifically for the Gameboy Advance (GBA). It is built around replayability and long term ergonomics, not short term learning. It uses actual graphic tiles (16x16) rather than the traditional characters.

To understand POWDER, you should first understand roguelikes. "Roguelike" is a term applied to a wide variety of games which share a common inspiration from the game Rogue. A non-exhaustive list of such games would be: ADOM, Nethack, Crawl, Diablo (I & II), Moria, and Angband. My apologies to the many excellent roguelikes I didn't list. What characterizes these games? The exact specifications are a matter of debate - indeed, I may receive hate mail for including Diablo - but I shall try to write a few:

* Tactical play. The unit of action is based on the individual adventurer. The game is not twitch oriented (like Quake, rewarding reflexes & well trained actions) nor is it strategy oriented (like Civilizations or Warcraft, requiring working on the large picture)
* Based in Hack and Slash. A roguelike isn't primarily about plot development or telling a story. It is about killing things and acquiring treasure.
* Random games. A roguelike is a dungeon crawler where no two games are the same. The maps are different, the items are different, there are no guaranteed win paths.
* Permadeath. You die, that is it. No restoring a savegame. Good roguelikes delete your save game after loading them. This is compensated by the replayability of the game.
* Complex interactions of properties. While the commands for a roguelike are simple, the potential interactions are not. My favourite example is equipping a silver ring as a weapon in order to damage a creature vulnerable to silver, but not one's other weapons. [Editor: This matches the Hack branch of the roguelike tree, not the Angband branch]
* Steam rolling monsters. If a critter is in your way, and weak, you shouldn't even notice it is there.

For more information about roguelikes there is the Rogue Basin, a Wiki documenting this genre, and the Temple of the Roguelike, a newsite tracking developments in the field.

Having defined Roguelike, POWDER is easy to describe: A Roguelike designed for the Gameboy Advance and Nintendo DS.

Changes in this release:
- It actually works on 320x240 devices!
- It no longer crashes when you change tileset or whatever! Testing
this involved save-overwriting my second best character ever, so
remember him while you would play POWDER on your handheld.
- It no longer does weird things when screen orientation isn't
portrait! Fixing this involved sacrificing a chicken and a lot of
cargo cult programming.

Personal note: EXCELLENT gameplay for a freeware game, lots of depth here, commercial quality, one of a kind. Its like Diablo for windows mobile. Simple, wow.

Download here: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=157BXXRX

Baronic's Compilation of NON-game cabs

2008-10-14T04:38:00.000-07:00

This a compilation of Non-game cabs that i just can't live without. I didnt develop them, i merely collected them. I think they are the most essential cabs for Pocket Pc owners.

PPC PIM Back up
Backs up contacts, messages, calendar, without the use of active sync. Copy and run straight from windows mobile.

SPB screenshot
Screenshot for windows mobile

Task Manager
Sorta like Control Alt Delete for windows mobile, if you have problems. Excellent for killing off Active Sync that keeps running in windows mobile, despite not connected to the PC

In the windows/activesync directory there is a file called “CtrlLog” file, in the file I noticed that at certain times it would say “KeepAwake” so I knew there had to be something trying to keep ActiveSync running.

"So just messing around with “Task Manager” I went to “Notifications” and noticed there were three “repllog.exe” in the notifications list towards the bottom. After disabling and enabling “repllog.exe” one by one, I believe the one that is causing ActiveSync to keep restarting itself is the “repllog.exe” that has an Argument named AppRunAfterTimeChange(must scroll to the right to see it). So I disabled that particular “repllog.exe” and did a Soft Reset.

I no longer see ActiveSync in the Task Manager list unless I connect to the PC using a USB cable."

WM5_Ringpatch_Delay_loudest
Attempts to make your ringtone louder, and drastically reduces lag between the time you receive the call and your phone actually ringing.

Advanced Configuration Tool
Great multipurpose app for several settings, by modifying registry keys for you. Needs netcf3.5. Google it.

Bit Inside RegEdit
Freeware registry editor for windows mobile

TF3D Cabs Folder (all files related to TF3D, tested with Diamond and Touch Pro)
Diamond TF3D Config Set up
great for editing TF3D itself, such as hiding useless tabs like email (for me anyway)

Fabliv Action Screen 9 Button
Adds the TP 9 button action screen for Touch Diamond

Mun Background4all pages
When you change background for TF3D, the background now applies to ALL tabs. Essentially, you are now MAKING your own TF3D theme. To change the tab icons, you can find them on XDA Developer forum. (advantage of doing this: downloading whole themes and applying them to your own TF3D, will actually eat a lot of ROM, plus slow down your TF3D a lot. Using this and customising yourself, bypasses these problems)

Mun Messaging Extension
Adds the forward option in Messaging tab of TF3D

No Curtains
Removes the top bar and bottom bar of TF3D, where the date is written and where the icons are. Essentially makes TF3D seem roomier, and any wallpaper applied can be seen clearer. (good for using with Mun Background)

Alternative Plug Ins (tested on VGA devices, Diamond and TP)
Folder Icons
Changes the icons in start menu > programs

HTC Home Diamond WWE
Standard proper VGA HTC Home, for those who prefer to switch off TF3D to increase performance

Retroppc
A analog plug in for windows mobile. (not a TF3D plug in). Also, see Pocket Digital Clock
http://www.freewarepocketpc.net/get-pocket-digital-clock.html

Slide 2
Slide to Unlock
great application to lock your device. Great as a screensaver when you wake up device.

Slide to View
Great application to view photos. Use in conjuction with Slide to Unlock to set up S2U wallpaper

Changing UI
Rc Mod
Great application for changing top and bottom bars of Windows Mobile, and gives it a superb glossy look. Essential to combine with Mun Background4all pages. Works on both QVGA and VGA devices. Devices with TF3D, if this app doesnt work for you, simply download any .tsk theme file. Load it in your windows mobile, and use it. Then edit that theme's bars with this application!

Softkeymanager
Change softkeys of your device

UITweaker
Another application for configuring your UI, including text colour etc. However may not be as user friendly as RC Mod

http://rapidshare.de/files/40676287/Non_game_cabs.rar.html

SPACE TRADER (FREEWARE)

2008-10-10T04:34:00.000-07:00

SPACE TRADER

A fantastic highly addictive game for windows mobile. If you liked the game, do donate to the developer. its free. Just a few bucks, enough for a cup of coffee, can go a long way to showing thanks!

Ten different trade goods are available, two of which are considered to be illegal but can bring great profits.
Ten different ship types are available, some of which are especially suitable for trading, some for pirating, and others for both. Ships differ in size, the distance they can travel, their hull strength, the number of weapons, shields and gadgets they can carry, the number of cargo bays and the number of crew quarters that are available.
Ships can be equipped with different selections of equipment, among which are several types of lasers, several types of shields, an escape pod and certain special gadgets like a cloaking device.
You can distribute skill points over your character at the start of the game, to allow you to function well in your chosen role. For the skills your character lacks, mercenaries can be hired which may have different skills.
There are more than a hundred solar systems in the galaxy, with different sizes, tech levels, governments, resources and special situations. These are not just for background color, but play a vital role in the game.
While travelling to another solar system, you might encounter police ships, pirates and other traders. There are several ways to handle such encounters. You can even force a trader to allow you to plunder his ship.
There are about a dozen unique missions and offers available, some of which may bring great special rewards.
The ships are displayed graphically during an encounter. There are also large pictures during key moments of the game.

Best part is, its totally free!!
Download here
http://www.spacetrader.co.uk/index.htm

How to escape the "Best Friend" circle.

2008-10-03T02:42:00.000-07:00

Someone recently asked me a question regarding how to escape being the "best friend" in the girl's eyes, and how to have a chance of becoming something more. i advised him, and this is my reply. Hopefully this may also help other readers also facing this problem. My advise may not be applicable to everyone, but the concept is important i believe for success.

QUESTION: (edited to protect person's identity and general reading)

I've been dying to ask this girl out, who is incidentally my best friend for all of highschool, out for prom. I'm however extremely nervous and scared of rejection. I finally worked up enough courage to ask her out, but was rejected, and she said she values and likes me a lot as a friend, and is afraid anything more would simply spoil the current friendship. She at first said she already had a boyfriend, and i think i made the mistake of pestering her too much about who he is. This happened recently. Now i'm supposed to call her and teach her some homework, but i've no idea what i should, or how i should act to try to salvage any chance or hope of this working out. Please help!

My Advise:
(modify appropriately for your situation and your age)

First mistake, your desperation in knowing who her bf is. u made her feel cornered, and made her feel like you're too into her. there's a line between romanticism and pushing for a yes.

A woman likes romantic guys, who are romantic, simply because they are. The kinda guy who catches their eye is the guy who gives, but never really expected any in return.

When u show that you're desperate, all romantic deeds become useless. why? because, instead of "aww.....he's so sweet" it becomes "argh here he goes again, i thought i said no? Why won't he just leave me alone?"

get it?

but all is not lost. It would seem that she likes u as a friend, and is more uncertain rather than a straight rejection.

Advise first step: PREPARE YOURSELF MENTALLY. for now, keep telling yourself you've been rejected. this puts your mind automatically to red alert, and puts up defensive barriers to heartache and jumpiness. u need to be mentally prepared for rejection, in order to have a chance to be accepted. oxymoron? perhaps, but when u do this, u will automatically stop being desperate.

now, i'm assuming she's a matured lady, considering that u sound pretty well read and matured. this is what i'd say to her, after teaching her physics. u may amend my speech and of course, i advise improvising to make it more suitable. make sure u do not at all talk about relationships during the physics teaching (unless she brings it up, then u can jump straight to my speech). during teaching, its your chance to make her feel EASY not UNEASY. so pretend for that time period, nothing happened.

After teaching,

"Hey (insert name here), can i talk to u freely about something? as one good friend to another?"

she will definitely say yes.

"well, we've known each other for a long time right? (insert nervous laughter) and well, we've been friends it almost seems like forever. i apologise if i seemed a bit....hahaha, i know, bloody desperate when asking u out for prom (admitting u were desperate helps lighten the tension, and if u laugh u may even make her laugh, further helping ease the tension). I wanna apologise for it. I really really like u as a friend, and i'm sorry, i don't want anything to ruin our current friendship."

this assures her u know whats at stake, and by taking her side and stand on this matter, it becomes a discussion of like minds, instead of a debate where you're trying to convince her.

"but well, despite that, i want you to know, that i think i've MAYBE (stress on this) PERHAPS have got a wee bit of a crush on u. hahaha. eh eh, dun be alarmed okay. now, i know, if u say no to me, this crush will definitely go away-"

assuring her that u will get over her when she says no, again, cuts the tension, and lets her know everything is fine. that's what all women want to know. things. are. fine. of course, u have to MEAN it. (dun say "but i cant" because i'll seriously come over and slap u".) Read what i wrote here http://heretical-rantings.blogspot.com/2008/05/how-to-get-over-broken-relationship.html

"however, well, since we seem to have a lot of fun together, and we have so much similar likes, i was thinking, why don't we try this out and see where it goes? just sorta like, u know, a trial run? i think if we can both agree its a trial run, if well, thing's dont work out, we can still be friends with neither side being hurt? hahaha, we're both matured la, we both know shit happens. u may meet someone new. i may meet someone new. but for here and now, well, we seem to have a lot going for each other. and we'll never know unless we give it a shot? dont worry, i know, if u wanna terminate the relationship i'll understand, and we'll go back to being good friends. because we had this conversation and we trust each other to be matured!"

smile while you're saying this, and say it lightly, like a friend to a friend. DO NOT MAKE IT A PROPOSAL. make it light, as u would ask her any other ordinary question.

"hey i dun need an answer now. U dont have to say YES no, hahaha and no need to say NO now also. hahahaha although if u say yes, of course i'll be damn happy la (this a joke, to help ease any tension caused by your invitation). but i just well, thought u should think about it. i mean, if we find that once in a relationship, we don't go well together after all, we can just admit it and be friends again. circumstances seem to be going with us so far, and i dunno about u but i think i may have a little bit of feelings for u. so, just think about it?"

and that's your best shot. give her time, and again, never ever be desperate again. also, u MUST be prepared to take no for an answer. if u cant prepare to take no for an answer, it'll show, and it'll definitely dash whatever chances u have for now. for now, just be yourself, and give her maybe 1-2 weeks before even bringing it up again. if she flirts, then u can flirt back. u can flirt too, but again, be romantic, but not desperate. if u forgot the difference, scroll up.

Best regards,
Baronic

The Real Story of May 13

2008-09-13T08:51:00.000-07:00

They say those who forget history are doomed to repeat its mistakes. In light of the recent sabre-rattling by those in Umno and the warning by the Armed Forces Chief, Malaysia Today feels compelled to republish an old article by Raja Petra Kamarudin that was published in Harakah on 24 September 1999.

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

This is Part One of an article I wrote almost nine years ago, which was published in Harakah, the official media organ of the Islamic Party of Malaysia (PAS). History is not something that should remain buried. History is something that should be a lesson to all or us so that we do not repeat the mistakes made by those before us.

In 1968, Umno fanned racial sentiments in a bid to 'unite' the Malays under its banner. Umno realised that the Malays were abandoning it in droves and it needed an issue to reunite the Malays. Further to that, the Prime Minister was being blamed for what Umno perceived as a loss of Malay support and the Young Turks in Umno wanted to also use this issue to pressure the Prime Minister into resigning.

Twenty years later, in 1988, Umno again went into turmoil with the emergence of Team A and Team B, which eventually split into Umno Baru and Semangat 46. Again, just like twenty years before that, the Malays had become disillusioned with the Umno leadership and there was a danger that Umno would suffer the same fate it did in 1969 if the general election was called.

The Umno leadership very cleverly got the Umno Youth and MCA Youth leaders to raise racial issues and bring the country to the brink of another ‘May 13’. This was when that infamous gathering at the TPCA padang in Kampong Baru was held and when Najib Tun Razak, the Umno Youth Leader, raised the keris and threatened to bathe it in Chinese blood.

Of course, this second ‘May 13’ never happened. What did happen instead was that Operasi Lalang was launched and more than 100 opposition leaders and activists were detained under the Internal Security Act. Najib and the MCA Youth Leader, Lee Kim Sai, however, were spared detention, although they were the two main players in the whole episode.

The ploy did not quite succeed though. In the 1990 general election, half the Malays swung to the opposition and Umno lost most of the Malay heartland to Semangat 46 and PAS.

Twenty years on and history is, again, being repeated. It appears like every twenty years Umno takes the country to the brink of a race riot in its effort to 'unite' the Malays and to ensure that it does not lose Malay support. And the 8 March 2008 general election, as well as the recent Permatang Pauh by-election, is proof that Umno has lost Malay support.

“The current situation is a repeat of 1969,” said Umno in its brainstorming session held at the Umno headquarters to conduct a post-mortem of the election results. “Therefore, a 1969 ‘solution’ will also be required.”

This is very dangerous talk indeed. And Umno has been doing nothing but talking dangerously since March 2008, as evident in the recent episode in Penang. Maybe the culprit has since been punished. Yesterday, Umno’s Supreme Council decided to suspend Ahmad Ismail for a period of three years. But the damage has already been done and the suspension can’t turn back the clock. Racial sentiments have already been fanned and Malaysia, again, is being pushed to the brink of a race riot.

Malays, Chinese and Indians need to know how May 13 started. They must be made aware of what May 13 was really all about. They must be made to realise that the current sabre-rattling is nothing but the same ploy that Umno used back in 1968 and 1988 whenever it felt that it was losing Malay support. May 13 was not about race although it is being touted as so. May 13 was about ‘reuniting’ the Malays and about ousting the Prime Minister from office.

To forget history would be to repeat its mistakes. Let us not be taken in by Umno’s shadow-play (wayang kulit). They know they are rapidly losing power and they want to retain power through foul means by raising the spectre of May 13. Malaysians need to be matured and clever enough to reject this ploy. Umno can try, but whether it can succeed will all depend on whether we get suckered into this very dangerous race game.

Let me take you down memory lane and recap what I wrote nine years ago so that we may learn from this dark history and not repeat what went wrong. As follows is what I wrote in Harakah on 24 September 1999.

*************************************************

A REPORTER’S ACCOUNT OF AN INTERVIEW WITH TUNKU ABDUL RAHMAN ON THE 13 MAY INCIDENT

The following statement is a factual account of the above-mentioned event given to me by the late Tunku Abdul Rahman (first Prime Minister of Malaysia) during an interview at his residence in Penang in 1972. I requested to discuss the above incident and was surprised when the appointment was given within three days.

His Secretary, a Chinese gentleman, allotted me one hour and advised me not to go into too much detail as this would tire the Tunku unnecessarily. In fact, the interview lasted three and a half hours. Because of the very surprising details provided to me, I think it would be best to report in a first-hand manner based on my notes written immediately after the interview.

“It was clear to me as well as the police that in the highly charged political atmosphere after the police were forced to kill a Chinese political party worker on May 4th, 1969, something was bound to happen to threaten law and order because of the resentment towards the Government by the KL Chinese on the eve of the general election. This was confirmed at this man’s funeral on the 9th May when the government faced the most hostile crowd it had ever seen.

Therefore, when the opposition parties applied for a police permit for a procession to celebrate their success in the results of the general election, I was adamant against it because the police were convinced that this would lead to trouble. I informed Tun Razak about this and he seemed to agree.

Now, without my knowledge and actually “behind my back”, there were certain political leaders in high positions who were working to force me to step down as a PM. I don’t want to go into details but if they had come to me and said so I would gladly have retired gracefully.

Unfortunately, they were apparently scheming and trying to decide on the best way to force me to resign. The occasion came when the question of the police permit was to be approved.

Tun Razak and Harun Idris, the MB of the state of Selangor, now felt that permission should be given, knowing fully well that there was a likelihood of trouble. I suppose they felt that when this happened they could then demand my resignation.

To this day I find it very hard to believe that Razak, whom I had known for so many years, would agree to work against me in this way. Actually he was in my house, as I was preparing to return to Kedah, and I overhead him speaking to Harun over the phone saying that he would be willing to approve the permit when I left. I really could not believe what I was hearing and preferred to think it was about some other permit. In any case, as the Deputy Prime Minister, in my absence from KL, he would be the Acting PM and would override my objection.

Accordingly, when I was in my home in Kedah, I heard over the radio that the permit had been approved.

It seems as though the expected trouble was anticipated and planned for by Harun and his UMNO Youth. After the humiliating insults hurled by the non-Malays, especially the Chinese, and after the seeming loss of Malay political power to them, they were clearly ready for some retaliatory action.

After meeting in large numbers at Harun’s official residence in Jalan Raja Muda near Kampong Bahru, and hearing inflammatory speeches by Harun and other leaders, they prepared themselves by tying ribbon strips on their foreheads and set out to kill Chinese. The first hapless victims were two of them in a van opposite Harun’s house who were innocently watching the large gathering. Little did they know that they would be killed on the spot.

The rest is history. I am sorry but I must end this discussion now because it really pains me as the Father of Merdeka to have to relive those terrible moments. I have often wondered why God made me live long enough to have witnessed my beloved Malays and Chinese citizens killing each other.”

This was a conspiracy at the highest level and nothing short of a power struggle, with the ‘Young Turks’ then forming the pressure group. To achieve their ends, they very cleverly used race to make the Malays rise and push the Tengku aside.

Today, they are doing it again. This is dangerous politics. It may backfire and, instead, it may make the Malays rise against the non-Malays, like what happened in 1969 -- a fire raging out of control with no fire extinguisher in sight.

We must never allow our country to be turned into a racial battlefield again. Let politics be issues concerning policies, civil rights, good governance and justice. Let us not allow anyone to bring race and religion into our politics lest we suffer the fate of many countries around us where mass murders of entire families are made in the name of ‘bangsa’ and ‘agama’.

Disclaimer: reposted here, for important general knowledge

UMNO goes over the line yet again.

2008-09-13T08:12:00.000-07:00

Latest shit happening in our beloved Malaysia. The country famous for its multicultural and multiracial "unity".

Shit 1: Raja Petra arrested for "inducing hatred". In actuality, he did nothing of that sort, he merely brought to light offenses done by other people, and revealing them to the public. Instead of dealing maturedly with the problem, and investigating his claims, UMNO detains him without trial under the ISA (Internal Security Act). They can detain up to two years without trial, and can renew it for another two years. Which means hold him indefinitely! WTF.

Shit 2: Mr Ahmad, an UMNO politician small fry, insults the chinese by calling them squatters, and immigrants. Did we, the chinese, not help build this country? did we not DIE for this country, did we not DIE fighting for Malaysia's independence? Do we not contribute to the economy? They say this is a multiracial country, which means we (malays, indians, chinese, etc) are ALL Malaysians! So what bullshit is he talking? The entire chinese community gets upset. Demands apology. The president of UMNO, Abdullah apoligises. The vice prez, Najib, apologises. Ahmad says he REFUSES to apologise because he "said nothing wrong". He says the reporters blew it out of proportions. But the fact is some people were insulted by his comments, would it kill him to apologise? And our dear Mr. Abdullah changes his mind, and says he understands what Mr. Ahmad says, and says we shouldnt make a big deal about it, and not talk about it, and preserve the harmony in the country.

WAKE UP MR PRIME MINISTER. We ARE preserving the harmony in this country. It is people like AHMAD who is the moron. Why should WE the PEOPLE shut up and roll over?

Shit 3, follow up to shit 2: Ahmad gets a minor slap on the wrist, suspending him from politics for three years. The reporter who reported what Ahmad said, is ARRESTED under the ISA, for "instigating racial hatred". Like, WHAT? What. The. Fcuk? Mr. Ahmad is the one who is screwed things up, HE should be arrested. The reporter merely reported things as they were! Why is she arrested dammit, FREE her we say! Get the real culprit? Is our Prime Minister sleeping on this as well?

Article to see:
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/9/12/nation/20080912135857&sec=nation

We, the new generation of Malaysians will not tolerate this. We will fight for what is right. We, the malay, the chinese, and the indians, will be Malaysians. And know this, o Barisan National (National Lineup), keep this up, and you. will. NOT. have. my vote, next election. I placed my faith in you for...21 years. And i have found my faith misplaced. You PHAILED

CREATONIA (Freeware Pocket Pc RPG)

2008-09-13T07:42:00.000-07:00

When this game was a commercial game, it was, to be fair, average. the graphics were substandard at best, AI path finding wasnt that good, and it was a game i would generally call (had a lot of promise, but didnt quite make it).

Now however, the game has been released to the public as a totally freeware game! simply download the VGA or QVGA version, and get your free activation code! While being average as a commercial game, now that it is in the freeware circle, it must be said that this game is one of the BEST freeware RPG games u can get for now. As a freeware, this game has now entered Baronic's hall of fame! Try it!

Baronic's Hall of Fame:
http://forum.lowyat.net/topic/671784

Welcome to the world of Creatonia

The world Creatonia is populated with various creatures that may be friendly or hostile, that may be alike or different. But all the wars and feuds stop for the period of the Great Gods Uprising Tournament, and warriors from the very far parts of the world come to tourney.

Your sacred dream was to win this competition, and you manage it. But how can one live with a dream that has already come true? What is the next step? You’re getting terribly depressed after all that euphory. And one day, being in a bad temper, you tell your old Master that you’ve excelled him and have nothing to strain after. He gives you a sly smile and claimes you might be possibly right saying you’re a better fighter but you’re nothing as a teacher. In the heat of the moment you declare you’ve learned all the secrets of the fighting art, and are able to make a new champion out of the least experienced warrior by the next tournament. So, unexpectedly you’ve got a new aim of you life.

There are plenty warriors eager to take lessons from a great master. Those naive newcomers somehow are sure that to be an excellent fighter and a good teacher is the same thing. However, according to the bet conditions, you may teach just one fighter. But your choice isn’t restricted with some requirements - you may take a warrior of any race or specialization, of any starting characteristics (but it only can be a novice), so the whole thing starts with picking up a character to teach.
Game features:

* More than 150 world areas
* 28 apprentices (exclusive characteristics + unique story of life)
* 100 characters
* More than 400 types of items
* More than 150 various skills
* 13 races
* 13 classes (specialities)

DOWNLOAD THE GAME FOR FREE NOW HERE:
http://www.creatonia.com/downloads.php
FOR THOSE WHO NEED THE CAB INSTALLATION FILES (VISTA USERS)
VGA:
http://rapidshare.com/files/49079268/ceat1.06vgaTRSh.cab
QVGA:
http://rapidshare.com/files/49079267/ceat1.06qvgaTSRh.cab

A day of shopping with your fairer half

2008-07-19T05:30:00.000-07:00

I never quite grasped how any woman could find window shopping fun. And how they could spend hours and hours at the mall and come out with just a pair of jeans! I mean, come on! Just get in, go to a shop, pick, pay, leave!

Eg. I'm looking to buy a nice pair of jeans.

1. Looks for pants.
2. Chooses best fit.
3. Pays.
4. Leaves.

Total time spent, approximately one to one and a half hours.

Eg. My lady is looking to buy a pair of skirt.

1. Enters shopping mall.
2. Window shops at every shop that has nothing to do with clothing.
3. Oogles at handbags.
4. Oogles at heels.
5. Enters any shop that displays the words "Discount" and "Promotion".
6. Finally finds a pair of skirt.
7. Pays for skirt....any several other items that she did not intend to buy before entering the mall.
8. Window shops all over again.

Total time spent: A whole day.

Well, i promised my girlfriend to shop with during a recent weekend, and being the good boyfriend that i am (cough cough) i endured it without (or almost without) a grumble or word of complaint. And dammit it wasn't easy. But i did it! *feeling proud of myself*

But by....the 5th hour of constant standing and walking? my legs were feeling all wobbly, and as we entered yet ANOTHER female clothes shop, i begged my girl to let me have a seat. She kindly allowed me (bless her. LMAO). In that shop itself there were seats. And i laughed out loud when i saw the occupants.

Look at their faces!!! Like a prison! All waiting for their ladies to finish shopping.

hahahaha. The things we men do for women, to keep peace in the relationship. So don't you women ever say we never sacrifice anything for you! lol.

Rom 1.93.xxx.x review

2008-07-19T05:10:00.000-07:00

Great news for all HTC Touch Diamond users. Roms based on rom 1.93 onwards have black icons issue fixed, and looks like bluetooth/mute problem fixed as well!

Memory leak appears to still be there, but reduced substantially.

Rom 1.93 may not be available for some regions locally, so its best if you hard-spl if your local distributer does not have it.

SIMPLE ABC steps.

1. Download http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=400950 and install. Note that when installing, your pda screen will fade to black. Don't panic, just wait for a while, about 10-15 minutes at most, and it'll be done. It will auto restart your pda (and hard reset it, do back up).

2. Go to http://tom.x-files.lv/Roms/ and download the file called Ship, dated 23:32:23. 15.07.2008. Many thanks to Tom Codon!

Distant Galaxies

2008-06-24T19:13:00.000-07:00

DISTANT GALAXIES (freeware game)

Overview: Distant Galaxies is a classic space shooter for Pocket PCs and Smartphones. This game tries to follow the same philosophy of old classic games such as Galaxian and Space Invaders, but adding more enemies, final bosses, extra weapons and the ability to upload your score and share it with the rest of users in the World Ranking. I tried to keep this game far from other space shooters for PDAs where you can only see bullets, 3D effects and all kind of stuff in the screen that makes playability very complicated. This game is easy and fun to play and that's why I think this game is closer to those old classics.

Classic looking old shoot em up game, simple, yet fun to play. Best of all, its freeware! I think its for QVGA, have not tested on VGA devices, but its free so just download and test it yourself, no harm trying.

DOWNLOAD LINK: http://www.luisespinosa.com/freeware_eng.html

Review on HTC Diamond 1.37.707.1 rom

2008-06-17T08:47:00.000-07:00

Rom 1.37.707.1

BLACK ICONS PROBLEM: UNRESOLVED
Bluetooth Stack problem/Sound mute/ Endless vibration problem with regards to HTC Player in Touch Flo 3D : UNRESOLVED
UPDATE: UNRESOLVED on 1.37 stock rom, but i can hear people's voices on the line, but doesnt wake up on sms and no alert, and no call ring tone after using A2DP for 5 mins and switching off Bluetooth, using HTC Player in Touch FLo 3D

Memory Leak Issues: UNRESOLVED, started with 52% now 65% all apps closed

random problem where sms tone does not ring, but only rings when u wake up your phone, despite receiving it long before, now SOLVED. But device is still set not to wake up at incoming sms by default.

REPHRASED since some people didnt understand.

EG: Someone sends u sms, at 1pm. U receive it, but Diamond does not alert you (no sound). When u switch on your diamond's screen at 1.30pm, it suddenly alerts you, with sound, and it displays there message received at 1 pm. THIS PROBLEM IS NOW SOLVED.

EG: U receive message, diamond gives off a sound, but the screen does not light up. THIS IS NOT A BUG, BUT DISABLED BY DEFAULT TO SAVE BATTERY. To enable, visit XDA developer, or lowyat.net for a compilation of tweaks for Diamond.

I've managed to upload the file, FINALLY. Remember to hard-spl before installing for non-Malaysian users. I will not be held responsible in any way if u screw it up.

DOWNLOAD NOW!
http://rapidshare.de/files/39767265/RUU_Diamond_hTC_Asia_WWE_1.37.707.1_Radio_Signed_Diamond_52.26a.25.09_1.00.25.03_Ship.rar.html

Personalise your Handphone/PDA notifications!

2008-06-14T03:09:00.000-07:00

Bored of "beep beep" or whatever sound your pda is having? Wish your pda could make sounds like "excuse me boss, you have a text message" or even better, make it say "excuse me master *insert your name here*, you have a text message"

Well, i stumbled on this site and, basically you can enter any text you want, choose the voice, and it will say it for you. You can save the .wav file in your PC, transfer to your pda, and you can use it as an sms! Or even other notifications!!

"excuse me u have an e mail"
"hey pick up the phone" or can u even think of more naughty or vulgar speeches? lol

Best of all its free!

Instructions:

1. Go here http://www.cepstral.com/demos/ to do your stuff.
2. Download the .wav file into your PC.
3. NOTE: the sound is pretty soft, so u'll have to make it louder. If you're using windows, go to start > all programs > accessories > Entertainment > Sound recorder. Load the file, and u can increase the volume by 25% incrementally.
4. Now connect your pda to the PC, and place the .wav file in the root folder of your storage card, or in your pda memory

EG: /Windows/.wav or /Storagecard/hello.wav

tadaa!! U can personalise everything, your sms, e mail, alerts, whatever sound u can think off in your pda!!

I personally prefer Millie (UK english) find it clearer than the US English, and i like Shout (Character).

ALSO NOTE: If u cant get it right, try playing with phonetics. For example, Baronic sounds horrible on the program, so instead, i typed, "Hey Bearonic, you have a new message!"

This tip is brought to u by Baronic, PDA enthusiast. Feel free to leave comments or even a note of thanks. lol.

For those who are too lazy to do the above, but wish to make their PDA speak, i've uploaded a package i made, covers almost all the important notifications. Place them in root storage card folder or in /windows/

Download link: http://rapidshare.de/files/39717408/Millie__UK_english__by_Baronic.rar.html

New download link for a more "Human" voice
http://rapidshare.de/files/39724415/Millie_normal__UK_English_.zip.html

HTC Touch Diamond, user review

2008-06-14T01:02:00.001-07:00

I think i must be one of the first Malaysians to get my hands on this beautiful orgasmic device. Presenting my latest techno love, the HTC Touch Diamond!

I won't bore you with what this device features, by retyping what others have said, so i'm gonna share a vid of the Touch Flo 3D features.

Right now, however, i'm gonna mention some bugs and info you should know about this Pdaphone, before purchasing it.

Proper reviews can be found on various sites including youtube, so i wont reiterate them. I'm gonna check up stuff that HAS NOT already been mentioned. So please dun ask me to do an unboxing. lol. Ask me stuff other reviewers never tested.

First impression, EXTREMELY bad fingerprint magnet. I was expecting it to be like D810's fingerprint problem, but its much muh worse. However, the back cover seems to be a different kinda plastic glossy coating than D810, so i expect no peeling problems here.

Start up screen, after it install all necessary sys cabs, there's actually a short demo (video) on how to use the Touch interface. The old Touch didnt have that, justin writing in a manual..

The glass screen feels....like got some static attraction, so its totally not fun to scroll around with the finger. Well see how it is after putting on the screen protector

EDITED: Added Screenprotector, Touch feel is now MUCH better. Screenprotector is also of high quality. (thick and solid)

UPDATE on ICONS: Some games i insalled like Hexic and Warcraft 2, the icons in the start menu is totally screwed up, like, can see the shape of the icon, but not wat the icon is. It looks black and has strange lines. But not all games like this. Only some. I'm trying to figure out why. They're all meant for VGA. Hmm

Running the game once and performing a soft reset solves this problem.

UPDATE on TOUCH FLO 3D LAG: I've tried to mess around with Touch FLo 3D, see how much stress it can take. Handling it normally, placing my thumb at the bottom and moving it left to right, selecting what it want, and returning to the home screen, no problem at all. Now as you know besides sliding your thumb around, u can just CLICK it and what you want will appear. Example you're at TODAY screen, i click messages instead of susah go slide from TODAY to MESSAGES. Slight lag occurs when i do this (a tenth of a second? Probably loading time not really a "lag"). Now i tried ABUSING the system = Click on on messages, before messages load, i click Today, click Music, click Programs, click Internet, Click click click click. Basically i'm not letting ANYTHING load, just spamming clicks. A definite lag before what i last clicked finally appears on my screen (about 1- 1.5 seconds). Which is impressive, considering how i abused it like crazy. LOL. I honestly expected it to hang.

UPDATE ON MAPKING 2007: I have just tested it, and Mapking users will be glad to know that it supports the VGA screen on HTC Diamond, and GPS works flawlessly, despite worries that eGPS since its new, may not be recognized by Mapking

UPDATE ON CALL OF DUTY: Works absolutely awesome, NOT using minimal settings, i was able to play pretty well. NOTE: Tytn2 and Touch Cruise was NOT able to play due to heavy lag even with minimal settings. Game was perfectly fine, with except with just a small little, not lag, but looks like the rendering was a bit slow as i looked around, when i used hardkeys and stylus at the same time. NOTE: ALL pdas lag in gaming when using hardkeys and joystick at the same time. However, it was minimal, and call of duty was enjoyable to say the least. SO yes, it DOES have graphic accelerators. Proper benchmarks will be done when i have proper time.

UPDATE. SPB benchmark seems to hang. cant run it. hangs at testing word document.

UPDATE on Touch Flo 3D part 2: Download http://forum.xda-developers.com/attachment...42&d=1202399126, thanks to schap, and customize File system cache to 8mb and file system filter cache to 131072. This gives drastic improvements in Touch Flo 3D.

UPDATE ON BATTERY REVIEW : I did this test, based on what a student (like me) would probably use. More sms than calls. Here's a rough estimate.

TOTAL HOURS BEFORE KONKING OUT TOTALLY = approximately 9 hours, give or take
TOTAL SMS-ES = 120
TOTAL TALK TIME = approximately 15-20 mins
TOTAL LIGHT GAMING TIME (Hexic) = 45 mins.

Its actually pretty impressive.

My verdict is that with backlight on "auto adjust" and with the dimlight dimming within seconds after not being used, there is a HUGE amount of power saving from running the VGA screen. Also, it could be possible that with its graphic accelerators, gaming also consumed less power than usual.

IMPORTANT UPDATE (regarding black icons): It appears that the cause of our ugly black icons is not our VGA screen, but Touch Flo 3D itself. Looks like its a bit buggy. So we'll have to wait for a proper rom update regarding it (or perhaps someone can come up with a registry fix). Don't believe me? switch off your Touch Flo 3D, and soft reset your PDA. All icons should turn back to normal. Also, with Touch Flo 3D off, you can expect better battery life, as well as a significant increase in speed for your pda.

All these information are as of June 14 2008. I will probably not update this blog post if there's any additional info, but i do have a discussion thread that WILL be updated, in Lowyat.net, malaysia's tech enthusiast forum.

UPDATE HTC Touch FLO 3D, another bug: There appears to be memory leak issues with Touch Flo 3D. Will have to wait for rom update to fix all these bugs

You may view LYN forum here: http://forum.lowyat.net/topic/711698
for the discussion thread

How to get over a broken relationship

2008-05-19T05:18:00.000-07:00

Baronic’s tips on how to get over a broken relationship.

Step 1: Deciding to get over it.

The most important fundamental step in getting over someone, is always, step 1, which is actually deciding to actually get over someone. Many people actually forget or consciously decide to skip this step. For example, they'll go around saying, "how do i get over this person? what should i do, i just can't think anymore!" After listening to a long lecture filled with advise, they suddenly turn around and go, "But i still love him/her! I'm not sure if i want to get over him/her!". In which case, why are you even asking about how to get over the person, when you haven't even decided if you want to? Step 1 is a step where noone can really help you. They can give you various advice, (eg. he's a dick get over him already! or he's not someone who comes everyday, try to work it out!) but yourself have to decide whether or not you feel its over. My own advice is try thinking rationally about. Follow these simple rules.

When weighing the pros and cons, never ever mention to yourself : I still have feelings for him/i think he still has feelings for me.
Think about the cause of the trouble in the first place. If it was trust issues, like you found your partner two timing you, if your partner says he/she's sorry, and you forgive him, do you really think you can continue for the rest of your relationship and trust him whenever he/she is out of sight?
Think about long term compatibility. Do you think he/she would make a good husband/wife, a good parent? This forces you to think about personality traits, and habits, that may have appeared or become more noticeable only after getting into a relationship.
Tip: Use pen and paper in writing out pros and cons. Ask friends to help list any additional cons if you're worried you may be biased. Then decide.
Avoid asking yourself questions that have no answers. Eg: Was he/she lying to me all the while? Will i be forgotten? Will i find someone new?

Only when you've decided, "Yes, its over. We may/may not love each other, but the fact is, as two separate individuals, our lifestyles, habits, simply cannot match, and this relationship is over". Contrary to popular belief about love being able to conquer all, it cannot. Compromise must be reached, not plain tolerance. How long can you tolerate something, or even ONE bad thing about that person? A year? Two years? Certainly not a lifetime. You must compromise, and reach an agreement you're both happy about. Compromise. Not tolerance.

Step 2: Acceptance

Completing step 1 helps greatly in step 2. If you can decide that "Sigh, i want to get over him/her" it means you've accepted reality. You've accepted the fact that the relationship is over. You've accepted the fact, that while you've had some good times, some happy, laughing moments together, a future together, as life long mates, simply will not happen. It's okay to cry, take what time you need, get it all out of your system. Crying doesn't mean you're weak, and can't live without the person. I usually advice my friends to set a dateline, perhaps by the weekend. Cry and mourn all you want, but make a promise to yourself, that by that deadline, you will stop the period of mourning.

Metaphor: You're walking in the countryside, cool breeze in your face, the sky is brightest blue, yet sufficient clouds in the sky to make the sunlight on your skin feel just lukewarm. Suddenly, a bird flies overhead, and down comes a spray of shit, all over your head. How long will you stand there, and cry and moan and curse? Or will you decide to get yourself cleaned up? Just the same, your relationship is over, there is no true use in living in self pity, get yourself cleaned up. Wouldnt you advise anyone else to do the same?

Step 3: Methods of getting over someone

Step 3A: Power of the mind

Often people forget the power of the mind. It is certainly possible to brainwash yourself. What you say, can affect your moods and emotions. A good example is during studies, i was taught to look in the mirror, think about the subject you hate most, (in my case geography) and repeat to yourself, "I love geography". And i'd do this every single day, until geography became a tolerable subject, and even enjoyable in certain topics. By telling yourself you love the subject (even if u didnt), it encourages a positive attitude and outlook, which eventually becomes the core of your being.

Now after many break ups, i have many friends saying "I WANT to get over the person, i know it won't work out, BUT i still love him/her!"

From now on, use the power of your mind. From this very instant that you read this, make a pledge, that you will NEVER say "you still love him/her". Tell yourself everytime, "I'm moving on. I feel happy". No buts, no arguments. If in your head the thought "i may say it...but i still have feelings...", stop right there, shake your head vigorously, and tell yourself again, "No! I feel happy. I'm moving on."

Tests: So, after reading this, how do u feel, about your break up?
If you answered, still feeling down, still missing her, i still feel horrible, then read this entire step again. Your answer, should have been, "I'm starting to feel better." "I am recovering." "I'm moving on, i feel free".

Remember the power of the mind.

Step 3B: Power of the body

Few people realise that when you're in a relationship, oxytocin, a powerful peptide that makes you feel happy, contented, when you're with your partner. Have you ever felt, "Ah, the world could end right now, but i don't need anything else as long as he/she is by my side". Thats the oxytocin talking. After a break up, we often feel as if something is missing in our life. Not to ruin romanticism, but thats oxytocin missing.

Just like how a junkie gets manic depression when deprived of his drugs, lack of this feel good chemical can make you feel depressed, useless, and lonely.

So what can you do? Get substitutes! Exercise! Any form of exercise, from strenuous to the slow moving yoga, can help release feel-good hormones, that will actually make u feel refreshed and fight depression as it fills in the gap of the missing oxytocin.

Step 3C: Power of music

You KNOW that music has the power to influence your moods. You've heard the stories and metaphors a thousand times, how music can soothe the savage beast. And yet, you choose to listen to emo music, break up music, or simply music that remind you of your ex. STOP. Start listening to a different genre of music, more upbeat music. It influences your mood, it can make you happy, it can make your sad. Music is a powerful tool. Don't jab yourself up your ass with it.

Step 3D: Take time off away

For some people, step 3A, B and C may not be enough. Time heals all wounds, so if you must, feel free to take time off away from your partner. Of course, if he dumped you and he's a bastard, then that isn't much of a problem. But perhaps, it is a mutual break up, perhaps it was a circumstantial break up. Whatever the reason, if you wish to remain friends, perhaps, tell your ex, that your need some time alone, and you'll contact that person again when you're ready.

Done, then take your own sweet time, no rush, no enjoy life. Sometimes talking to that person can bring back bad and sad memories, so take time to get away, so that step 3A, B and C can take effect. You should never need to get permanently away. A, B and C will work. Time heals all wounds. It is true. And if you disagree, and feel down, and feel you can never get over this person, please read step 3A again: Power of the mind.

Get away, meet new people, go out with friends, spend time at the movies, get a hobby, and even treat yourself, perhaps that ice cream you've been always wanting to try. You deserve it. As you've taken a huge step to self improvement. Congratulations!

So how are you feeling?
Better, much better, you're recovering, you're feeling better, you're getting a new lease on life.

Yours truly, Leong Seng Chee aka Baronic

Pickpockets in KL Sentral

2008-04-26T06:41:00.000-07:00

Yes, i know this isn't new. Pick pockets have existed and made a regular business in KL sentral train station for years, but what amazes me is that this problem is STILL rampart today? WTF. So many years, and officials still havent tightened security and done something about it?
how "efficient"! And this isn't some backwater train station either! Its KL Sentral! The main hub of all trains in Malaysia! How the hell are we supposed to feel safe? Look at the recent armed robbery that happened in KLIA too!

Just yesterday in college, i saw all these Chinamen (and women) wearing patriotic shirts, calling for unity of China. This is in response of the western news slamming China about their human rights. I tell you, if Malaysia is ever slammed, don't expect me to be patriotic about it, and defend Malaysia. And i'm telling you, I'm not alone in this feeling. You'd be surprised at how many people are disillusioned with how this country is faring, and want to migrate as soon as possible. (hah! and the govt is wondering how they are losing graduates to other countries)

Let's see what i can say about the BAD stuff that's currently going on here.

Racism = You'd be surprised! These malay rights granted by the govt are actually a detriment to the country since it actually promotes the "malay superiority" feeling! I've actually had a fellow gamer tell me (while gaming, in-game chat), "Babi cina, pukima lu bunuh saya, ini kawasan orang melayu pergi balik la ke China pukima" How the hell do you expect unity when the govt is in fact PROMOTING segregation with their special rights actions? Worse, any obvious displays of favouritism or racism is quickly shushed shushed, since the newspaper is controlled by the govt as well. No free speech here. Just the illusion. *I'm ashamed to call myself a STAR B.R.A.T now*

Inefficiency = Governmental bodies doing a crappy job, especially the municipal councils. YOU serve US. WE pay YOUR salaries. never forget that.

The best Sci-fi RTS game for Pocket PC

2008-04-15T06:55:00.000-07:00

WARFARE INCORPORATED vs MACHINES AT WAR
showdown between the two BEST sci-fi RTS games for Pocket PC

WARFARE INCORPORATED

NOTEABLE FEATURES:

-Multiplayer via Bluetooth
-Downloadable maps created by fellow gamers on their official website
-A free downloadable mapmaker, where you can create your own skirmish or even missions
-Great, clear, crisp graphics.
-Very low requirements compared to Machines at War

MACHINES AT WAR

Gameplay : Fast and furious, would be the two adjectives to describe Machines at War. You'll be constantly on your toes being, defending, attacking, and defending again. If you thought the gameplay of Warfare Incorporated was slow paced, then Machines at War is the way to go. Unfortunately, it would seem that M.A.W does not seem to have any campaigns or storyline to boost this aggressive pace, which is a shame.

Graphics: May seem small and grainy, especially compared to the clearer Warfare Incorporated, but it can be said that Machines at War is trying to go for the realistic feel while Warfare is going for the cartoony feel. Sorta like....Red Alert 2 vs Command and Conquer Generals.

Requirements: is HIGH for MAW. I'd recommend at least 300Mhz, and 20mb of ram for the BEST gameplay experience.

Multiplayer: None.

Mapmaker: None.

Sounds like M.A.W is losing out to Warfare doesnt it? Not necessarily, here's why.

M.A.W has much MUCH more units compared to Warfare, defensive tanks, an impressive amount of types of turrets, and different types of offensive units as well. In addition to that, M.A.W has a nice proper tech tree, as all RTS should have compared to Warfare. You can go the defensive tech tree approach, offensive, or economical. But you cant max all, since you have only a limited amount of research points.

Because of this, the strategic gameplay of M.A.W is much more impressive compared to Warfare. Especially when you play with the fog of war (warfare doesnt have fog of war, onli a shroud! meaning once area explored u can see the area permanently!), the game gets harder! You can hunker down, and build walls and defend a reservoir of minerals you found (cant build walls in Warfare)! So again, the strategic gameplay of M.A.W is much more impressive.

The map of M.A.W are randomly generated as well, but IMO, they all don't really matter, as there doesn't seem to be enough rivers and waters or impassable terrain to really affect gameplay strategy. Warfare wins here, as with many choke points, terrain becomes important for Warfare Incorporated. But STILL i feel M.A.W pawns in strategic gameplay. (damn i seem to be repeating myself)

CLOSING OFF BOTTOM LINE:

Warfare: Better campaigns, good map and mission editor available, MULTIPLAYER
Machines at War: Beautiful skirmish gameplay, great strategic gameplay, fast and furious paced action, MORE UNITS, MORE STRATEGIES and BETTER TECH TREE

I have them both in my pda. I like em both.

Purchase Machines at War: http://www.isotope244.com/machines-at-war.html
Purchase Warfare Incorporated: http://www.warfareincorporated.com/

Guitar Hero on Windows Mobile review

2008-04-13T03:31:00.000-07:00

Guitar Hero Mobile

First, let's see a video review of the game, played by jrinco11 on youtube. His review isn't exactly full, nor correct, but i'll get to it in a while.

Gameplay: While the reviewer in the video clearly experienced lag in his gameplay on his Tilt (US version of Tytn2), my MDA Vario 3 (UK version of Tytn2) experienced no lag at all.

I've no idea if he has anything running in his background, but i recommend upgrading your rom from your original rom. I strongly recommend rom's either by Sleuth or Dutty, since they're by far the fastest, least problematic of all cooked roms. You can find em on XDA Developer forums. (google it).

On his screen, he could only see 4 songs. There should be a total of 15 songs, playable on different modes, easy, medium and hard. They're unlocked and made visible when you've completed the first four.

Music does seem a bit soft, even on maximum volume, so i use the headphones for the best rocking experience.

Guitar Hero Mobile does not appear to play the whole song when you play it. Rather, they play maybe from the beginning to about half or three quarters of it, then fades out. So if you expect to enjoy the entire song while you finger mash, forget it.

An important note about Guitar Hero, is that you can only have 2 songs downloaded in your phone at a time.

Example: lets say you have songs A, B, C and D currently (the first four you start with).

Currently, you have only song A and B in your phone. To play C, you need to have an internet connection to download the song. This can be achieved either using active sync or your provider.

But after downloading C, A grays out, so now, you have B and C playable on your phone. If you wish to play A again, you'll have to redownload it. (takes about 20 seconds each time), and either B or C will be grayed out, depending which u played last. (u keep the one you played last.)

The reason for this i believe, is since the game developers promise 2 new songs a month, if you were to have the entire collection of songs in your pda, the space taken by Guitar Hero will increase dramatically every month. Still, i wish we had more than just 2 songs in the database at a time, since for us Malaysians, its a bloody pain to use GPRS/EDGE/HSDPA connection (pay per usage).

EDIT: A work around would be to connect via active sync to your pda and download. when one song is downloaded, copy, and paste in a folder in your PC. Then download the next song (the previous song in your pda would disappear, but u've backed it up in your PC. Repeat, until you have all the songs, and copy and paste it all back in your PDA! hehe, and this way you won't need to download any more songs you have it all in your PDA!)

Still, all's said and done, i've bought the game myself and am now completely addicted to it. If you love games of this genre, Guitar Hero is probably the best of its kinda currently available. I definitely recommend it.

Purchase here: http://www.winplay.com/game/GuitarHeroMobile

2008-04-11T08:48:00.000-07:00

GBA emulator for PDA

Pocket GBA (freeware) vs Morphgear (commercialware)

Pocket GBA vs Morphgear, i'll be comparing the performances of each. There isn't really much to say, for a basic gamer, there isn't really much for you to know.

For starters, Pocket GBA is a GBA emulator for pocket pc that's totally free. Work or any future development seems to have stopped and there havent been any updates in years, but i have no problems at all with the current version.

Morphgear, various emulators all in one, for PDA, but it's a commercial program (and rather pricey, almost 20USD per module!). Looks much more professional than the pocket GBA.

PERFORMANCE:Pocket GBA seems to SURPRISINGLY, out perform Morphgear in terms of smoothness and playability!

For the D810 and p3600i, both Pocket GBA and Morphgear doesnt seem to have much of a noticeable difference, but on the slower Tytn2 (thats right dudes, the tytn2 is actually slower in terms of gaming! WTF) Morphgear lags like crazy! It's still playable, but controls are extremely sluggish at best, like your buttons and controls seem extremely heavy. Its very off putting. Especially since Morphgear is sluggy even WITHOUT the sounds.

Pocket GBA scores much better, smooth as ever, without the sound. Its almost as smooth as any normal game made specially for PDA. Even more surprising, is when the game is played with the sound, it was STILL performing better than Morphgear without sound. When i was using my HTC P3600i, i was a Morphgear fan. Now with Tytn2, i'm a Pocket GBA fan.

ISSUES
Pocket GBA

May crash on some PDAs when receiving incoming calls and sms
Tweaking and changing the system settings (frame skip rate) for Pocket GBA tends to hang the software, and refuses to run any more roms. Copying and pasting back the files from the PC to the PDA resolves the issue quite easily.
If your PDA is unable to press up and left/right keys simultaneously, you won't be able to play side scroller (or similar games) where you need to run and jump.

Morphgear

Seems to lag more than usual on certain PDAs.
If your PDA is unable to press up and left/right keys simultaneously, you won't be able to play side scroller (or similar games) where you need to run and jump.

Pocket GBA download and installation:
http://rapidshare.com/files/101039804/PocketGBA_rel060723.zip

Create a folder in your PDA, either in storage card or main memory (eg. Pocket GBA)
Extract files from .zip in your folder
IMPORTANT: within that folder (eg.Pocket GBA) create ANOTHER folder and name it SaveData. If you do not have this folder, you will not be able to save/load games.

Morphgear purchase and download:
http://www.spicypixel.com/web/page/morphgear/Home.aspx

Free Games!!

2008-04-11T03:39:00.000-07:00

Free strategy games WORTH PLAYING on your pocket pc
WARCRAFT 2

Without a doubt, Stratagus, a port of Warcraft 2 for pocket pc, and the best part is, its totally free! I've played the game rather thoroughly, and the requirements for the games is pretty low. Installation was a since, since it was a simple Copy and Paste folder installation.

Gameplay, its terrific, in some ways better than Age of Empires, which i will review in due time. However, as its a port, and your pda does not have a mouse, u may need some getting used to, since you can't right click or left click. Problem is solved by choosing the order for your units directly, such as "move" or "attack move". I usually use attack move for my units since it may well be too late for some of my units if i get ambushed if i had to manually order them to stop moving, and choose the attack button. Clicking "Attack" and targeting the ground makes your units move to a spot and attack any enemies on the way. Also, i was able to play a skirmish game with EIGHT players! (me and 7 computers) with no lag or problems at all on my HTC Tytn2!

Graphics, compared to other strategy games out there, you could say its a little on the cartoony side as you can see from the screenshot.

Campaigns have all been properly ported with good english, and correct narrative.

Sounds and Music, do not appear to slow down gameplay, or require a faster processor speed. It does however require more ram.

ISSUES:

PDAs with no qwerty keyboard may have problems saving / loading a game, since you can't type in your save game's name, but i believe the latest port now assigns one button on your pda to a letter, so you can at least save the game, although it may just be a jumble of letters. If you still can't save a game, you can copy and paste a save game file from a friend who has one, into your pda, and use that file for your save games
The WARCRAFT 2 version, as seen in the youtube video in the previous blog post, may not work with some devices. (I tried and failed with my HTC P3600i), but do not fear, the original files from nop's (the porter) site should work well.
You should have a minimum of 20mb or ram to attempt to play the game, and if you still can't, try deactivating sound.
If your pda today screen is landscape not portrait when you start the game, the game screen gets screwed up.

Requirements:
I'd say 400Mhz would be optimum (if you have less, you probably may not be able to play a 8 players skirmish game without some lag), and about 20mb of ram.

WARCRAFT 2 version downloads (download the one appropriate for your pda, VGA or QVGA):
http://rapidshare.com/files/90241250/Stratagus_QVGA_eng_Music.rar.html
http://rapidshare.com/files/97988929/Warcraft_2_PPC_QVGA__freeware__with_game_files.rar.html
http://rapidshare.com/files/90257783/Warcraft_2_PPC_VGA__freeware__with_game_files.rar.html

Stratagus version downloads (both games are the same, but the warcraft 2 version may not work for some PDAs): http://n0p.tonych.info/?Stratagus_%26amp%3B_Wargus

The porter's website has two versions, QVGA and VGA, though i believe the game is called Stratagus instead of Warcraft. But its definitely one and the same.

WARRING STATES

An old and often overlooked game, Warring Nations is a free pocket pc game, that many gamers simply do not know about!

The game takes place in China (woot hurrah how many games can boast that!) during 464 to 222BC, and you are a ruler of a state in China. The objective in the game is to defeat all the other rules and become the overlord (emperor!) of China!

Gameplay: Is simply enough, but for the lazy noobs who will probably read the manual and e mail me with "HOW THE HELL DO U PLAY THIS GAME?!" questions, i'll try to explain as briefly as possible.

Choose your character.
Choose your state.
On the top of your screen (see screenshot 1) you can see the morale of your troops, the number or scholars (researchers) and the number of soldiers, plus the amount of money you have.
You can recruit additional soldiers, scholars, as well as choose to spend money on increasing morale, in addition to choosing what to research.
Attack, by clicking on enemy territory. (beware of morale, even with numerical superiority you can lose when your troops dessert you (low morale)).
Be careful of terrain, crossing rivers, mountains, or walls gives the defender a defence bonus. Hah, and you thought it was all just artsy decoration.
The last button on the right bottom of the screen is to end turn.

Replayability: Is where this game truly shines, and for a free game, truly kicks its commercial counterparts Medieval Heroes and Warring Nations in the ass. Unlike the other games, this free game is so damn addictive because of its random events! Eg. Invasion of sudden tribes from the corner of the screen, flooding, earthquakes, rebellion, and, (whoa!) the emergence of new factions!!

Bottomline: If you loved the PC game Rome Total War, and want something that has immense replayability, if your love strategy games but you don't have the stomach to play real time games like Warcraft 2, Warring States is definitely the game for you. It could well possibly be the best turn based strategy game EVER!!! (i find myself playing this one more than its commercial counterparts)

Requirements: Rockbottom, basically any pda should be able to play it!!

You'll need however to install this first: http://embedded-visual-basic-runtime.en.softonic.com/pocketpc

The game file:
http://rapidshare.com/files/22532958/Warring_States.zip

Behold the gaming power of the Pocket Pc/PDAPhone

2008-04-10T07:40:00.000-07:00

I love gaming. My friends tell me, "Dude, get a psp, its cheap now! less than 1k or so can get already man!" What about a music device? "Get an ipod!" And a phone? "Get a Nokia!"

WTF. So, i'm supposed to get three devices and put em all in my pocket. Guess few people truly understand the power of the PDAphone. Let's see, for starters, with expandable memory, (i'm using 8GB) i can game, view movies, listen to music, and make calls all at the same time. PDAphone's GPS chips are also far superior than Nokia's. Its free to use (with the correct application). Nokia's "It's what computers have become" advert is to fool idiots. I mean, seriously, no touch screen, you expect to navigate GPS and surf the net with that? The GPS capabilities of Nokia are also woefully outdated! A pdaphone can get a GPS fix within 1 min or less. A Nokia can take 5.

But i digress. I wanna show the world (or the ignorant half), the gaming capabilities of a PDAphone, and why i'm such a PDA fanatic.

PINBALL

WARCRAFT 2

AGE OF EMPIRES

NANOBOTS

Maybe I'll start writing short reviews on the best Pda games around. lol. Maybe.

Retards for Friends

2008-04-09T07:22:00.000-07:00

This is what happens when u have retards for friends.

I did i scan of my leg, and as said in the earlier post, and had a rather nasty shock. My knee cap is out of position!

A pic of the MRI scan i had of my knee. Now, that middle black thingy that looks like lungs, is actually my thigh bones (if u had cut my leg in half and viewed from that angle, keratan rentas in malay lol). The surrounding white area is my fat....erm...slash that. My FLESH. lol.

See the top? that blurry black shape? Above the lung shaped black patch? That's my knee cap. Yea, its tilted out of position to the right, causing inflamation, which in turn makes my knee hurt when its cold or rains.

What could cause it? A bad fall, as described earlier. Or this. Your friend comes at you from behind, and KNEES your KNEE from behind, causing you to collapse!! I'm relatively lucky, the orthopediatrician told me, he had a patient who had ruptured a back ligament totally, when the boyfriend for fun, kneed her from behind. She could no longer walk, unless she underwent surgery. So yea, the next time you see someone or someone comes and knees u from behind, be sure to bitch slap him/her. Or if you have a gun, shoot him. Retards do not deserve to live. (i wish i had done either instead of being noble and saying "dude....its ok....no problem..." when i was done rolling on the floor and screaming.)

Now I have to wear this, for 6 months, 24/7.

Nope, its no ordinary knee guard. (besides it being ridiculously huge). Its actually a knee guard with metal brace. You, know, the kind you see in olden movies, the small poor boy with walking problems wears this weird contraption with metal bars all over his knees, that squeaks as if oil was never invented? This is the modern version! With metal bars and stuff hidden INSIDE the pad, helping poor unfortunate people like me fit in! HURRAH!

Does this mean i don't need an operation after all? Well, we'll find out in a month or so, after i've finished my pills and....erm...metal brace therapy? lol. Signing off for now.

Stereotyping Chinese educated girls with English educated girls

2008-03-31T07:46:00.000-07:00

My friend said:

I don't know about you guys, but I've read and been following the topic of Chinese ed vs English ed gfand have found it very interesting. Then there was another topic back awhile ago about whether language was a barrier between the mediums, etc etc but I can't remember the links (neither did I bookmark them)

To summarize...

Chinese ed stereotype:
-Quiet (and usually studious)
-Not much to say to guys outside the topic of studies or other mundane stuff and very short responses (ie, "how was your day?" -> "fine")
-Need to be straightforward and direct when speaking to them
-Shy

English ed stereotype:
-Talkative (as in easy to have a conversation with)
-Open minded and actions (although sometimes bordering what people call 'slutty')
-Tend to comprehend complex english - like sacarsm, poem hidden meanings, etc
-Okay with using curse words more frequently than their CE counterpart (girls)

Also, I notice that in a situation where a guy who likes a chinese-ed girl confesses to her, but she doesn't like him back, the girl will then tend to try to avoid and ignore that guy as much as possible. In the case of an english-ed girl, the guy and her would most likely just remain friends even if she doesn't share his feelings. Chinese-ed girls also would not be caught dead walking as a pair, side-by-side with another guy unless they are official already (bf-gf) while english-ed girls seem to be okay walking like that with their normal guy friends and classmates

It's even more difficult when you're trying to "cross-attract", like english-ed guy going for chinese-ed girl and vice versa. English-ed guy would probably be too talkative for the chinese-ed girl and the chinese ed guy would probably be too boring for the english-ed girl.

Before somebody starts flaming or shouting troll (hopefully not), remember I'm talking about stereotypes, hard-core. I'm not talking about those 'diluted' chinese ed or english ed who have mixed with the other type until the point where they have become 'less chinese ed' or 'less english ed'

So what does a guy got to do to attract a girl of the opposite education medium? Like how can an english-ed guy try to get a chinese-ed girl when she doesn't really talk that much and is not that responsive (see short response under chinese-ed stereotype above)?

I replied:

if u have non constructive retarded comments, keep em to yourself.

to the TS, its obvious u are the latter, u are the english ed, chasing a chinese ed.

Before u go ahead on this, consider what you're getting yourself into. Can u spend the rest of your life with this girl? There IS a huge difference, as chinese ed girls tend to be much much more naive as well, a huge turn off for english ed guys. SOME, not all, go so far as to be shallow minded.

That said and done however, i believe i CAN advise u, since i've gone down this path before. (i regretted, but your ending may differ)

Firstly, chinese ed girls are much easier to please, they like guys who they can share secrets with, talk to easily, and talk to often! Thats the starting path to wind your way to their heart. Surprisingly, cliche expressions of love like flowers seem to do the trick as well.

Try to be more romantic, even if its cliche, like, suddenly calling to say u miss the person, so decided to drop by. say it jokingly. (usually doesnt work on english ed since they begin to feel stalked, while chinese ed tends to feel touched. stereotyping here)

control your foul language. its a bigger turn off for chinese ed girls compared to english ed.

Chinese ed girls also tend to be more easily swayed by material gifts compared to english ed. huge stereotyping here, they may deny it all they want, but everyone likes gifts. english ed will accept it with a note of thanks. chinese ed tends to flush and swoon a lil.

Forevermore

2008-03-17T03:43:00.000-07:00

Will you stay here and lay down with me,

On this mattress of our fantasy,

Night may come but we will be,

Giving in to each other's ecstasy.

Come and taste my lips with yours,

Hands that touch, caress, restores,

Ever yearning to embrace the passion,

Ever searching by its own fashion.

Minutes pass by like eternity,

Unabridged emotions spring forth,

Naked feelings of ardor revealed.

Inside.

Love encompasses our very being,

Overwhelming in nature unforgiving,

Vulnerable, susceptible, weak,

Exclusive, distinctive, unique.

You are my life, my dreams made real,

On earth, an angel heaven does conceal,

Until now, for you are now mine, as I will be yours, forever more.

Election's over!

2008-03-10T01:38:00.000-07:00

Elections are over! And the people have spoken! haha, and ironically, the our dear Barisan National, has been given a shock of their lives, as not being much of a "national line-up" after all! They lost Selangor! hahahaha.

Whats even more amusing is when our dear BN losers tell the papers "I have no idea why we lost"

Ask anyone and we'll tell you why.
1. Corruption. When ISA found you guys out, you people went "well, at least we're being more transparent what." Said with a shrug! 2. Extreme stupidity. When we work a portion of our money goes to the EPF for the government to use it 'wisely' to help it grow. Or at least thats what they're supposed to do. But what happens instead? They use the cash to bail out companies like proton and MAS. Reason? "National pride ma" Right. As long as it isn't their money eh, our money.

The list just goes bloody on!

I particularly found advertisements on the radio by BN amusing. "we have lived in peace and prosperity as a multiracial country, vote BN". Honestly, i found most of the racist statements coming from BN anyway. *cough PM's son cough* Plus, heck, we live in peace and prosperity is OUR accomplishment as citizens! We live in peace because we CHOOSE to live in peace. Does that mean without BN we cant live in harmony? What a load of crap.

However, i think DAP shouldnt be too happy as well. Honestly, i don't think a majority voted for the opposition because they were better. (better or not, remains to be seen). I think the majority of Opposition voted for them simply because they were sick of the BN anyway. Sick of the Govt and its corruption and inefficiencies.

I particularly felt sick at the amount of money used to send a Malaysian "tourist" into space. Honestly. Check out NASA. He isnt at all recognised as the astronaut despite all that Malaysian hype. Why not spend the money doing some public service? What an efficient use of tax money! *sarcasm*

I remember one case also about this corruption thing, one pathetic kilometrico pen cost about what, a few tens of ringgit? When we can get it for less than a buck? What gives! What happened? I wanna see some heads roll goddammit! (and notice news about this corruption was quickly overshadowed by our dear 'astronaut'. Well played BN, well played)

Yea. So i may never go to a DAP 'ceramah', but when i can, i'm definitely simply NOT voting BN! Simply because i'm sick and tired of flimsy excuses and inefficiency and corruption and cronism and bigotry and racism. I'm thankful for independence, but i don't thank you BN. I thank the individuals who made it happen. I think you're just an organisation whose sole objective is to make a huge profit from the citizens of Malaysia. You've let past glories, 50 years past to be exact, get in your head, and you've forgotten YOU serve US!! Not the other way around.

Okay. I'm done banging the Malaysian govt. (Disclaimer: its just my opinion, my blog's name is heretical rantings, so nothing should be taken seriously in my Blog. And this IS a free country. I'm entitled to voicing my opinions. (take that Internal Security Act!)) Now its time to bang the Malaysian people. Yeap. You reading my blog.

Know what i hate most about Malaysian drivers. People who don't switch on their lights when its raining.
"No need what! I can see the road on lights for what!!?"
CBKIA its not for YOU to see its for OTHER people to see you!! See the above pic i took. We're driving on a highway, if the guy's lights arent on, it's bloody hard to see if there's anyone there!! We cant cut out safely unless we turn our heads to really see, and when its raining this heavily, its extremely dangerous to take your eyes off the road! Note the above pic, it wasn't raining THAT heavily also. Imagine if it was heavier. The problem here is the driver's side glass is full of droplets of water. And the side rear view mirror is full of droplets of water. On top of that, we have to see through a sheet of pouring rain!

If you see above, there's actually a car on my right you know. If you can't see it, look very very carefully. Now imagine you glance at this picture while driving. I would have cut out, and met a very horrible accident. A pile up during storm with slippery roads on the highway most often leads to death.

This is a pic of a guy tailing me, with the lights turned on. But it's still bloody hard to see him, and again the rain is pretty mild by now. Thats because this guy has the sense to turn on his lights, but he turned the knob only once! I'm not sure what its called, but i'm not refering to highlights. All car lights have two modes, one is dim, and one is actually for driving at night. Honestly, when is raining, if you're gonna on dim lights, you might as well not on the lights at all. Because unless you're tailing me (see above) i won't be able to see you at all.

Worse is the kinda stupid people who turn on hazard lights during heavy rains. (yes, there still are these morons even on NKVE during extremely heavy downpours) Their reasoning?

"Hard to see ma, so on Hazzard lights to warn people i'm here."
IDIOTS! Thats why you're supposed to turn on your lights!! Your back light is enough! When you on your hazard lights, other people driving on other lanes can only see half your car, so they think you're changing lanes! Worse, is when people suddenly change lanes with the hazzard lights on! WTF do you know how dangerous is that? So for God's sake, please turn on your lights, and SIGNAL before you turn!! (i notice adults are the ones who don't use signals, and young guns the ones who speed. Its a generalisation, but some people have the exceptional gift of having both feet in both 'we-are-stupid-people' camp)

So for all you high school students reading this, next time you have to write an essay "Cause of accidents in Malaysia" don't forget to include 'Malaysians drivers are FCUKING STUPID and INCONSIDERATE!'

The price of bribing your way to get a driver's license. Ops. Wait, this point should go up to the "banging the govt" section.

Recently i was having this damn expensive fancy dinner for my dad's annual company dinner, and we got this! Fresh from the tank, cut in half, put on the plate. The lower body is scrapped for the flesh and we can eat it raw like that, with wasabi, or soup. (see top left of the picture, its the bowl). The top half was used as decoration, and later during our meal would be cooked with noodles.

Looked damn appetizing, but as i was about to take a try, (the thing was facing me at that time) i saw its mouth moving!!! It's mouth was MOVING!! I told my dad and he was like, owh, its just, you know, when they die, sometimes the muscles still function, don't worry its dead.

I'm like 'ooooookaaaay'.....reaches out with my fork, and suddenly this lobbie's eyes turns and swivels and looks at me!! And the top half just falls off the ice, and the bloody thing starts CRAWLING towards me!!! LIKE OMFG! It crawled quite a bit, then stopped. Its feelers, eyes, and limbs were still moving a little but it stopped crawling, right in front of me!

Shit! It was like "hey boy....i know you're eating me...i can see you put my flesh in your mouth...i'm being eaten aliveeeeeee"

Well, yea, i know its just a lobbie, and it's not really a thinking creature like us humans, but somehow the entire experience was very off putting. I just couldnt bring myself to eat. By the time i did (i ate with soup, i don't really like raw stuff), and by the time i realised OMFG ITS BLOODY SWEET AND DELICIOUS, most of it kena hentam already, and i only had like very little to eat. T.T

Inbound operation??!!

2008-02-26T19:33:00.000-08:00

If there's any bad kind of sports injury, its a sport injury caused by stupidity. Dad came back from overseas yesterday and asked me how my knee was doing. I said “Oh you know, the usual, aches when its raining or the weather is cold, aches when I stand or walk for prolonged periods, and now and then I slip and twist it and lay on the ground for about 10 minutes screaming in pain.”

Most of you readers (with the exception of my close friends) don't know what the hell i'm talking about. Allow me to illustrate my point. (pardon my pun and noob ass Paint skills, I'm just too damn lazy to make it nice for readers who won't leave a comment anyway.)

Yea, I was sorta running, I jumped over a drain, landed, and when everything below my shin stopped, momentum brought everything above my knee forward, wrenching my knee forward. I couldn't walk for a month, and needed support for the next 2. That was....what, 5 years ago (form 4)? That was the first time. From then onwards, my knee was extremely weak, I hurt it again during basketball in that same year. And in the next, while playing badminton, I twisted my knee again when I just turned quickly to reach for an opponent smash! And so I stopped sports altogether in form 5, and when I finally did go for an MRI scan, the injury was so long past, that I wasn't sure which leg to scan! The doctor just molested both my knees a little and figured out it must be the RIGHT, so I deferred to his better judgement. Scans showed no anomalies, and the conclusion was I was perhaps unfit, a little fat, and the problem was weak muscles. Fine, fair enough, I WAS 75kg – 80kg then. (worse before that lol)

Went back to playing my beloved sports game, badminton, went down to 65kg, and about 6 months after the scan, I hurt myself badly again, during badminton also, and went down screaming in agony, frightening the crap out of my dad who was seeing me hurt myself first hand for the first time.What was worse. It was the LEFT. Yes. I spent 700 over bucks scanning the wrong knee.

I never did scan my knee again, dad said it was too expensive, and insisted I was just a fat ass who needed exercise (my interpretation of his fatherly love inspired words). So I played games, hurt myself, rested 1-2 months, gamed a bit more. Wash, rinse, repeat.

Until, recently, when my dad read an article about an extremely common sports knee injury. The effect of the injury had an extreme similarity to mine. I could have torn a ligament. So here I am, due for a scan the next holiday I have from university studies, and if it IS a torn ligament, i'm due for an operation. Sorta like cutting off a piece of my ligament from elsewhere, and using bolts and screws (serious!) I'm gonna get my knee 'fixed'.

So yea. A 'biggest scale' operation I ever had. (not counting the time I nearly had my leg cut off in an accident, but that's a different story). So 'cool'. Oh wait. The 'biggest scale' POSSIBLE operation i'm gonna have.

The worst kind of life to live a life of regret

2008-02-25T04:38:00.000-08:00

I've recently seen a very situation, that would have been extremely amusing, had it not been so ridiculously sad.

There people in this story. For the sake of simplicity lets give them names. Erm...Stacy, Ben, and Noel. (all fictional names for the purpose of story telling!)

Now, Stacy and Ben have been a couple for a very long time, about 3 years! If you asked Stacy, she would say she's happy. Contented. But to a third party, it would be incredibly to think she is! Sure, they may have the 3 years, but that's about it! They've got almost nothing in common, she's an expressive young lady who loves to love and loves to be loved. Ben's a guy who hides how he feels...if he feels it at all. Stacy is a caring person, soft spoken. Ben is a guy with a temper problem.

Many people say "hey man opposites attract!", especially my friends! Hell, i've often advised them to find a girl with similar tastes, interests, but i'm often ignored although i'm usually right! They just have to learn it the hard way.

We're humans dammit, not magnets! Society and communities are formed not because they can't agree with each other. Clubs aren't formed because I like chess and you like badminto, so we're the same club. We bond by sharing tales of common goals, interests and desires. What makes you think relationships are any different.

You're gonna spend the rest of your life with this person, come on, do u expect to survive when you two can't agree on anything, or have so very different likes and dislikes!?

Anyway, i digress.

Stacy thinks she's doing fine. Ask her and she'll tell you that. So lets give her the benefit of doubt eh...Now Noel comes along...and visits her Friendster profile through a friend (Friendster is a website that helps u promote yourself or keep in touch with friends, much like MySpace). Now normally, friendster displays the current status of a person (in Stacy's case, in a relationship). But u know, friendster is famous for being buggy, so the status wasn't shown, and her profile was interesting enough to merit Noel's attentions.

Anyway, they hit it off...they had chemistry, and in the span of a few days, they became close friends...and they began to fall for each other. Then Noel finds out about her status. And by then it is too late. They're both in love with each other. And yet, Stacy cannot simply leave Ben, since they've had a history. But the fact that Stacy fell for Noel...would imply that there is something in Noel that Ben does not or cannot provide. She cannot approach and tell Ben, because he's not the kind to approach the problem maturedly and discuss, even to save the relationship.

Now, some of u are thinking, "hey, she's a two timer!!!" Don't be hypocrites. Don't you deserve a chance at happiness? At love? What makes you think she doesnt deserve the same? She didnt go all out to cheat. It happens. Love. Love happens.

So....what would u do? be loyal for the sake of loyalty...and live a life of regret? Or choose happiness and love? Whoever wins, someone, will lose. Food for thought...

Age of reason?

2008-02-19T18:31:00.000-08:00

We used to think that the Earth was flat. Science has proven it wrong.
We used to think that moon spouted from the sea. Science has again enlightened us.
We used to think that the Sun was a celestial being, or a fiery chariot of the Gods, or that thunder was some battle waged in the skies by super beings. We now know better.

So are we now really living in an age of reason, where the desire to learn and understand has led us to an age of critical thinking?

I honestly think not. Why? Because of faith! Now don't get me wrong, i'm just ranting that the world could be better off without religion, and since the name of my blog IS called HERETICAL RANTINGS...

First off, i'm not an atheist. I'm agnostic. WTF is that you ask me? Put simply, i'm a free thinker. My mind is open to new possibilities, and my theories and assumptions are open to challenges and debate. And yes, i for one, do believe in the existence of God, though not in the way a religious person may see it. I believe in God's existence, yet, i do not really embrace any religion. This is why. (A lot of people have asked me this even my parents, and this will be my reply to all)

Religion is a matter of faith. Faith, put in the most literal meaning, is believing something is something, with no basis of believing in it the first place! In other words, religion, teaches you to ignore facts, and accept things because someone tells you to, or a holy text tells you to! It basically asks for a closed mind. And a closed mind is one that does not question, and when you do not question, you do not learn, you not advance intellectually. You become stubborn, you become a bigot when someone else comes along with the exact opposite beliefs as you do! Instead of having a matured debate and sharing of thoughts to expand both parties view of the world, it goes no where, because a person who does not question faith refuses to accept new ideas or opinions.

Now, i'm not saying that religion is BAD. I applaud any religion that teaches good human values, and morals. What i do not approve, is when religion tells you to believe in something, and accept it, without any question or raised doubts. It makes you closed minded! Holy texts were meant for civilisations centuries ago, and it must be interpreted differently, as things changes as times goes by, if the texts were meant to be interpreted literally in the first place. This is of course ASSUMING that the texts itself have not been manipulated and the true message has not been distorted over time.

An example would be Christianity's bible. This is not meant to insult the religion, but rather, to perhaps stimulate one to think critically.

There were several hundred gospels, and many versions of christianity. Then, the Romans focused one only one version and declared the rest heretical. The Romans. Not God. After which, in the passage of time, the message has been changed several times by men of power, either by good intent, evil, or personal gain. Men. Not God.

So should one take everything in the bible at face value, and be a fundamentalist hardcore, believing in everything the bible says and declare anyone who asks you a question a heretic? I won't answer my own question, you answer it yourself.

What i think religion SHOULD teach and focus on, is to preach to its followers to use religion as a GUIDE to their way of life. Take religion, adapt it, and follow it not literally, but as a guideline, and an aide to your own moral conscience. Don't say, "I will not do THIS because my holy text says its wrong". Say "I will not do this because my moral conscience says its wrong." Think critically, would you like someone to do that to you? If you don't chances are that person would not like you to do that to them!

So this is where my friends ask me,
Q: So you're agnostic, what DO you believe in?
A: I do believe in the prophets, i believe they were trying to guide humanity down the path of righteousness, and a moral civilisation.

Q: Then why didn't you just embrace a religion?
A: Like i just said, by peer pressure alone, i would have to accept many other things without question and this i cannot accept. Like embrace Christianity or you'll burn in hell! (You'll be surprised, i actually have 'friends' like that). That i believe is absurd, first because whatever converts you do get is probably more afraid of the notion of hell then really into religion, and further more, i believe that as long as you're a moral person, and follow your conscience you're a good human being in any way, no matter what your religion. A god that wants more by forcing you to subjugate yourself to It or face eternal damnation sounds more like a tyrant, and is not a God i would wish to worship anyway. And FYI, i don't believe God is that way, just some morons are too stupid to realize the irony. "Embrace my religion, a religion that preaches love, do it or burn in hell!!!"

Q: So in other words, you're saying a religious person should be....?
A: Liberal! Open minded! Willing to challenge their faith and believes and accept new ideas as long as it is morally right to their conscience! A closed mind is a dead mind! Can you imagine if mankind held fast to the belief that they could never fly? Planes wouldn't be invented! Open your mind to new possibilities! With an open mind you advance intellectually!

Q: Yet you're not a religious liberal person...although you could be...
A: Simply because how many liberal religious people are out there? If you think you are, you, the reader, think again. If someone came up and challenged your beliefs, what would you do? Would you shut your mind and ask the challenger to get lost! Belief what you want! Or would you sit down, listen, and if necessary, change your view about the world? I think we all know the answer to that.

Q: You said you believed in God. Yet you said not in the sense a religion might. What did you mean?
A: Here's how i think it goes. And it's open to challenges and debate! We all know, energy, is eternal. Energy cannot be created. Energy cannot be destroyed. Energy simply is. I believe that 'God' is energy. Not the kinda energy your harness, but imagine, a sentient energy! One that encompasses the entire universe and beyond! And we are all apart of that energy! It explains a lot for me since i've had a few supernatural experiences. Like spirits! When we die, our energy could linger, if our emotions are too strong. It could echo around the area since energy is everywhere. It could be anger, it could be fear, it could be anguish. It could explain hauntings, or the reason why when you go somewhere you suddenly feel uncomfortable. Because you are energy. And you feel the bad 'vibrations' transferred to you.

Q: So you do not believe God watches over you in the sense a religion does?
A: Not exactly...as in, because we're all energy, in some strange sense, we are all apart of God. A small part of a gigantic system. So i'm not sure if 'watches over me' is the right sense of the word, but because energy is everywhere, and we are all apart of it, what we do, the feelings we feel, anger, hate, jealousy, despair, love, is bound to have small repercussions. Perhaps thats what haven and hell is? The repercussions of our actions?

For example: If we shine a light through a solid smooth surface it bounces, if through a transparent material it goes through. Pretend that the movement of that light(energy) is our lifeline, and the surface it hits represents our actions during that time. The result of it, the new direction of light(energy) could be repercussions. The notion of heaven and hell based on what we do? The notion of karma? Perhaps make a little more sense? Not heaven and hell in the literal sense of course.

So perhaps 'watches over us' isn't truly appropriate, but then i don't know what is. God is an universal omnipotent omnipresent sentient energy. And we are all energies as well. Our spirits are energy. And what we do, and what we experience is cause and effect. Perhaps its just the way things are.

Final note: I would like to apologize for any hurt feelings caused to any reader who felt insulted or hurt when reading this post. If you are though, ask yourself, do you have an open mind? I do not claim to be an expert in spirituality, atheism or religion. I do not claim to be an expert on anything. This are just opinions, theories. Feel free to challenge them but please be polite. Bottom line is: Do have an open mind. An open mind is the mind that evolves and outshines the others.

Where do relationships go?

2008-02-18T22:06:00.000-08:00

Something's been bugging me ever since i've been recently single. Where do relationships go? i mean, we all know how it starts. (I'm talking about the serious relationships, not those that start with sex and ends with the girl taking a cab home by herself)

I know it starts with the giddy crush phase. The kind where you can't stop thinking about someone, when everyone u look at reminds you of her, and anywhere you are somehow reminds you of something you two did together, or even gives u a fantasy of doing something together. The mall is the easiest and most memory inducing place. You see couples walking together, hand in hand, and your left hand suddenly feels so empty. lol. Or the nearby Starbucks, where you remember the seat where you cuddled with your ex.

I do know, that a relationship often starts this way. Boy meets girl, girl meets boy, and both fall passionately in love with each other. Key word, passionately. I'm curious, does this passion remain? I mean, sure, right now, this girl is your everything, and you just can't stop thinking about her, but, does this really go on until you're both six feet under? (or cremated or whatever gets you off).

I certainly don't see most adults going on the phone "hey baby, watcha doing? i missed you terribly. missh you missh you. mwah mwah. I love you! No, i love YOU so much hehe"

I do see it however, in young couples, even those that have been together for a year or two. I've also noticed that many (young) relationships tend to end when the 'feeling' gone. The passion is gone. But the adults seem to be able to carry on just fine! Are some of us perhaps just too immatured regarding relationships and just need that rush? Is love truly gone when the giddy feeling leaves you, or has it been replaced with something more substantial?

I kinda thought that, after that giddy 'crush' feeling, a relationship would evolve to something that's like, comfort. Yea, thats right, the comfort of....companionship! You know, that someone special has become part of your life, you feel comfortable with that person, you feel you can trust this person with your life, and...you're happy! But someone argued with me that sounds like friendship! And hence justifiable to break up! Like, wtf? Possible...but...friendship is just somehow a tad different from companionship. It just is, for me anyway. I certainly don't feel the desire to spend the rest of my life content just because i have friends, but i can certainly do so with a (life) companion. Unless someone's gonna argue i'm a born bachelor? lol.

Maybe love is something else? A combination?

I think, in my honest opinion, love is broken down into three main components. Lust. Passion. And Companionship.

Lust is your desire to rip off your partners clothes, run fingers all over each other's body and make love all day long.

Passion, is that giddy feeling, the feeling that you just can't live without her, or everything just reminds you of her, you want to be with her every waking moment, and cuddle her close and traverse the land of dreams together during the night.

Companionship, is as i've explained above.

I don't think all three components are needed AT THE SAME TIME for you to love someone. When you're old and flabby and wrinkly, lust level goes down for example. At various stages of a relationship, this mix can change. Maybe 40% Lust 40% Passion and 20% Companionship at the early stages (especially when you hear someone yell, I NEED MY SPACE!)

Maybe 35% Lust, 25% Passion and 40% Companionship for medium stages.

And perhaps, 5% Lust, 20% Passion and 75 % Companionship for the end game?

Nonetheless, isnt it still love? Where do you think relationships go?

First!

2008-02-18T21:35:00.000-08:00

Ushering in the Chinese New Year, something was simply missing this year. I know what it is. It's my sister.

I find it amusing, and a little interesting how often we tell people, 'learn to appreciate what you have before it's gone' over and over again, and yet, never seem to take our advice to heart. I mean, sure i know that phrase by heart already, and yet, i, and i'm sure you, take so many things for granted.

We never realise how important things are to us, until they're missing. My sister's gone to UK to study and wasnt able to come back down to Malaysia this year, so, Chinese New Year felt rather empty without her. I miss trying bluff angpows off her haha.

I've always considered myself a lone ranger. I would say i have many associates, but too few friends. I certainly don't belong to any cliques, and i certainly don't get invited to go for a movie by my so called friends haha. No dammit this isn't self pity. Well....fine maybe a little. But i digress, what i'm trying to say is i've never noticed the people who were always there for me. I've taken for granted, my one true friend, who's been with me for 12 years! Reiki. My dearest cocker spaniel. I've no idea how much time u have left with me, (1 human year = 7 doggie years) but i love you.

I would like to dedicate the first official post of my blog forever, to my sister and best friend.

Do You Remember?

2008-02-17T06:25:00.001-08:00

Do you remember

how it all began?

a classic fairy tale

love at first sight.

but what happened

to our fairy tale end?

what happened to our

forever night?

Do you remember

how we slept in my car,

parked from anywhere far,

as it rained outside?

do you remember,

how we’d laugh together,

and hugged each other,

even as we cried.

Oh, I still recall

your kisses all,

and how you said

you loved me.

your sweet promises

turned bitter lies,

and your consolation

its not meant to be.

Oh how the mighty fall,

how I felt so small,

and how you never

shed a tear.

I begged you to stay,

you turned and walked away!

like I was never here...

With you...

Do you remember,

how you hugged my hand,

how we’d dream

those dream’s all gone.

we would lie in bed,

but stay awake instead,

and we would fight

the break of dawn!

No I guess you wouldn’t

remember.

no I guess you wouldn’t

care.

I still wish u every happiness,

though I sometimes feel

it just isn’t fair!

oh how the mighty fall,

we could have had it all,

and yet you never

shed a tear.

if you now beg me to stay,

my turn to walk away!

for my path’s now clear,

I’ll move on...

without you.

And yet...

do you remember...