haiku error messages

imagine if instead of the cryptic error messages you get from your computer, they are produced in haiku like these...

Chaos reigns within.
Reflect, repent, and reboot.
Order shall return.
- Suzie Wagner

Windows NT crashed.
I am the Blue Screen of Death.
No one hears your screams.
- Peter Rothman

Yesterday it worked.
Today it is not working.
Windows is like that.
- Margaret Segall

Serious error.
All shortcuts have disappeared.
Screen. Mind. Both are blank.
- Ian Hughes

Computer won’t boot?
Observe this most ancient rule:
Plug the machine in.
- Miriam Solon

Everything is gone;
Your life's work has been destroyed.
Squeeze trigger (yes/no)?
- David Carlson

Errors have occurred.
We won't tell you where or why.
Lazy programmers.
- Charlie Gibbs

more haiku error messages:
http://www.budtempchi.org/errorhaiku.html
http://www.gnu.org/fun/jokes/error-haiku.html
http://archive.salon.com/21st/chal/1998/02/10chal2.html

handheld media players

came into office this morning and my female colleague happily announced that she wanna buy the new iPod, the one that plays video.

i remembered last week at Sitex, that Apple kid was eagerly demo'ing it to us the video capability. that time hor, i thought - kua vileo on that thing?? zun bor??!!

now, i have nothing against iPod, in fact, i quite like it one, i think its one of the chioest MP3 players around. but hey, if i wanna watch video, i would wanna watch it big big ok! the screen on this baby only takes up 40% of the surface area, how to be big like that??

we had a lil' argument on this, me, the gal, and another of colleague who happened to like this iPod as well - we do this from time to time, so its a constructive healthy little 'discussion' la!

anyway back to my point about the screen. i think i rather go for the PSP or Creative Zen Vision but cannot like this compare la, MP3 player vs game console vs media player, not fair mah. so then what is it that i wan on a handheld media player? let's see...

Big screen
this is definitely a must! com'on, me watching video ok, and i not so young already. mai stress gua ay bak jiu (dun stress my eyes) le... 16:9 aspect ratio will be good if i am gonna be watch movies.

Good format and codec support
this one is also very important. now got many codecs like DivX, VxiD, H.264 and for audio streams, MP3, Ogg, AC3 etc. and they can be packaged into different file formats like AVI, MKV, OGM. so its important that the player can support many many standards. i choose simi, it plays simi... best!

Subtitle support
some ang moh shows, the characters like to murmur to themselves one. bopian have to read subtitles. now very used to reading subs liaoz. this is also one reason for the big screen.

Upgradable firmware & good developer support
of course if the player doesn't support so many formats/codecs its still ok as long as it can be flashed in later. and there should be good developer support to write these upgrades also. flashable but no one to write also no use wat...

Decent audio quality
i am not too particular about audio when it comes to watching shows.

Windows file system support
pls, i dun need another software to be installed just so that you can push ads/songs/movies to me i can transfer files to the player. i think Windows Explorer works jus fine. and dun make me reencode videos for the player hor. so ma huan...

for those reasons, i am still happily sticking to my trusty Palm Tungsten T3 with TCPMP (The Core Pocket Media Player). TT3 with the slider extended fully, i get a 16:9 screen which occupies like 75-80% of the PDA body. TCPMP is an open source software. they have a list of file formats/codecs it supports. but too bad, dun have subtitle support, and the internal memory on TT3 cannot be used for video files so only can store on SD card.

mabbe its time to upgrade... sis jio jio'ing me to go get LifeDrive. hmm... i need a sponsor. part sponsorship also can la. heehee...

birthday

this gotta be one of the best birthday i had in a long time. not so much for what i did but more in the knowledge that many of my friends remembered that this was my day. sounds pathetic? i think not. afterall, its the thought that counts.

dinner turned out to be better than i thought. apart from the 2 gals, there were another... guy and gal! in the first place, this was supposed to be a friendly dinner, so of course the more the merrier, tio bor? anyway it was steamboat at The Mushroom Pot at Orchard Point. food was pretty decend, soup was good, but service got room for improvement la.

finally, the last thing i did before the clock struck 12 mn was to have couple of Contreau with 100 plus with my lil' sis and my dad. pretty interesting concortion, if you ask me. it was mostly sweet from the liqueur and just a little salty from the isotonic drink. think i shall name it Ah Beng's Quick Charge.

Ah Beng's Quick Charge
1 part Contreau
2 parts 100 plus
ice
stir and served in high ball glass

i hope nobody had created this cocktail before me. if have hor, lemme know k?

bird day

today is my bird day. basically not much difference from any other day in the year. some years ago, forgot when liao, me began the practice of taking leave from work on this day. its my day ok, gotta be doing something other than work what! but this year no need, this year it falls on a Saturday.

so how i intend to spend the day? hmm let's see...

• start a blog
• nuah... (boring?! haha!)
• have dinner with chio bu's

start a blog
so that's what i am doing now - start a blog. so here it is, my first post, on my bird day. song bor?!! err... got feel a bit bit sense of accomplishment bah, hahaha...

i am from the personal homepages era and has been maintaining an online gallery of buddy pictures. guess the immediate plan will be to migrate those stuff over to this blog... slowly la.

nuah
basically hokkien for lazing around. usually i will be down at East Coast for rollerblading. but today my kakis all not free and as i am writing this, its pouring outside. don't think i wanna get my blades all wet also. then i have to service my blades after that... where got time?! hee...

have dinner with chio bu's
yes! highlight of the day! hopefully i will won't be too tired to post more after the dinner!
cheers!