Acer Aspire 4520

When Aspire 5572 got fried by lightning all was not lost. It's spirit was reincarnated into Acer Aspire 4520 which I obtained while I was back in Kampua Town for CNY. Technically everything is new except for some salvageable parts I scavenged from 5572 which are later added to 4520. Why another Acer? Well frankly speaking I don't want to waste all my would be ang pow on something at one go (this was before CNY and I had everything planned and accounted for), plus I spent 2 days scouring Kampua Town on the eve of CNY (it was no fun with all the jams and crowds) looking for the next best machine and eureka! I stumbled upon this little beast.

I was left with two choices of the same model that day, one 4520 with Intel and another with AMD with NVIDIA GeForce graphic card, both on the same shelf in the same shop with the same price tag. Basically it was love at first sight and I came back to that shop the next day. It was a quick decision, as my gamer side influenced me to grab the one with AMD AND the NVIDIA (gila good bargain wey). Here's the spec:

- AMD® Turion 64 x2 Mobile Technology TL-60 (2.0 Ghz, 2 x 512KB L2 Cache)
- NVIDIA GeForce 7000M (Wheee!!! XD No more lag playing big games)
- 1 Gb DDR2 (Originally 512, but was added with 512 RAM from 5572)
- 270GB HDD (Originally 120Gb, also upgraded with salvaged parts)
- 802.11b/g WLAN
- DVD-Super Multi DL
- Dolby Digital Live built-in speakers

Oh the 4520 have no Bluetooth (yeah wtf indeed, all the post-'07 pre-'08 laptops have no Bluetooth, hmm?) but never mind, bought RM50 external Bluetooth device so problem solved.

This 4520 is not to be mistaken with the one with Intel. The AMD processor version has a total white frame, whereas the Intel processor version has a black top frame and white bottom frame as seen here. And eerily the power button resembles X-Box 360's power button (click here).

I don't really enjoy having a built-in webcam. Why? Because you'll never know you might left it on while you are away doing something unimaginable in the background... But anyways the Crystal Eye webcam is nice, comes in 320 x 240 or 640 x 480 resolution. Very clear too, but have that 'rusty' effect in low light environment.

Here comes the customizations. I won't buy if I can't personalize it. Yes, the original crystal-ish back casing was nice, but I sent it to Apple Signcraft in Lanang that very afternoon for a full Hishamization. I wanted a vinyl with my name in VAIO curvaceous font style, and she gave me this. Never mind la, she did it for free. Plus Apple know my taste and preference for black and shiny stuff, and this was a job well done. I'll give Apple another visit on the next holiday to change the name font.

I also asked Apple to put another layer of vinyl on the left hand pad where the AMD and NVIDIA sticker were (hence the 2 lumps in the pic). Why? Because from experience, that part of the laptop will turn black after prolonged gaming use...

The OS? The new Windowz Hisham 2008. A Ham-made hybridized operating system composing elements from Mac OS X and Linux based on XP. No Vista. No more please.

Oh ya almost forgot. The 4520 cost RM1,999 only. That's why it was a good bargain. I've seen some markets in Oil Town selling them for RM2,099, that extra RM100 is a rip off. Apart from th RM1,999 you can add another RM298 to get 3 years warranty. Nifty.

Meet the Spartans

If you loved Scary Movie, Date Movie or Epic Movie, you gotta love Meet the Spartans. Yes, it's another spoof movie, and this time it spoofs 300, Transformers, Spider-Man 3, Ghost Rider, Shrek, Ugly Betty (?), Grand Theft Auto, American Idol and many more. It's kinda retarded and I know not all of my friends enjoyed watching it (I just enjoyed the spoofings and the senseless humor). But have to warn those who want to watch it, it's a bit gay-ish and perhaps has tad too much brand promotion...

"High-fives for the women, and open mouth tongue kisses for the men" -____-'''

Project: Cloverfield

Woops I almost forgot to conclude the project (due 1 month) partly because of my busyness. I just remembered it when the result for the unit in which I was conducting the project was released today. For those who recalled conversations with Ham regarding Cloverfield on MSN or e-mail, you were officially recruited in as test subjects whether you were aware about it or not. Thanks to all 'participants' of the project and uh, yeah I owe you guys kampua. Don't worry, I did good so can go for the RM2.70 kampua, when I'm back in Kampua Town...

p/s: I know, the movie was a let down, though the concept was nice. I was expecting 75% chances of it to be a let down (or more of a puke out but don't worry you're not alone) after all those hype. Note to self, never bring your boy/girlfriend out to watch the sequel (if there is one). And I think even pro Kingdom Hearts players won't be able to cope with the motion sickness X(

O-Week Sem 1 Degree

I've been a.f.k. for a long time because of the O-Week (plus the fact that my house in Senadin no line after the modem got fried). So this 2008 Semester 1 O-Week was divided into two parts, one for Degree and one for Foundation. Last week was for Degree (18th - 23rd Feb) and honestly saying I didn't feel the pressure I experienced with previous O-Weeks where Foundation and Degree students were merged together (manhandling 300+ students at once was a kick). Oh well let's just see what Foundation orientation next week will bring.

All the SOAR Advisors, STFUs and CV!s of the Degree O-Week Sem 1 2008. Oh and Pitchy the Pet Balloon.

License to Drive

Yay got a driving license upgrade from the big red P status to a Certified Driver License. I was supposed to renew the license on 20th Feb but I will be away and busy by then, so I renewed it earlier. Apparently you are allowed to upgrade your license 1 week before the due date but this comes with a cost. Instead of getting the standard 3 years, your prematurely renewed license will be only valid for one year. But on the good side you'll pay around RM50 instead of the standard RM105. The CDL is the pink laminated card with the P removed, something like this:

Happy Birthday and Happy V-Day

Yay todays is Kampua 4 Life's (blogspot) 1st birthday! Oh and happy Valentine's Day too. Haihz, no more V-Day Massacre guys...

p/s: After this Ham will return to Oil Town for the new semester, and won't be online for a while since the modem got fried. Refer to this post. And the image above is free, photoshopped for all God of War fans. Enjoy ^^

Nostalgic...

Today Ham rolled out to town and visited his wee old WTK kindergarten and St. Mary's primary school with Playboy J. He tumpang my Hyundai because his Mercz was sent for maintenance (brought too much girls on our CNY outing convoy on Sunday, I only brought 4 hmph), and first stop; WTK kindy.

We arrived at recess time, circa 9.30am. Caught up with Ms. Lee and others, who surprisingly still remember us both as we have left the kindy 15 years ago. Well they needed more time to recognize me because I changed the most lol. After a full recess chat to catch up on things we headed to our old primary school nearby (the WTK and St. Mary's is just side by side). Surprisingly met M who worked as a moral teacher there (noble job M, teaching kids to be good). And this time I'm not surprised our teachers who still teaches there still remember us, mainly because we left quite a dominant mark in the school wahaha (in a good way la). The rest of the St. Mary's school still remains the same, except that our great old principle Ms. Margaret Agnes Lee have retired after her surgery last month and now she is resting at her home (give her a visit some times if you're in Sibu). A new principle from Batu 15 will come to replace Ms. Margaret next week.
Hah, sweet memories, even though the school feels small when we were there but it still smells and 'feels' the same.

Anyways after that had breakfast, did some tweaking to my Hyundai at Taipan as recommended by J because he knows the owner (hey if people know other people they will give it for free, if only I have the time to let them repair my left door bass, Wee Wee was there too like usual). Oh and after that raced with J. just for the sake of it and maybe because we're tired of taunting each other to race over the years. It was a draw, and since J's Mercz is in the shop we raced in Daytona in Sing Kwong (obviously who races on the Sibu roads in broad daylight on weekdays...). That's that for my last fun day in Kampua Town.

Slow Line Lately?

Three of the five undersea cables that were severely damaged and caused disruptions across the middle east will be repaired by Sunday, one of them being repaired by Saturday, according to authorities currently dealing with the matter. The broken cables caused disruptions to thousands of people across Asia, and cut Egypt's internet capacity in half. Much of the Internet traffic was rerouted within 24 hours, but definitely made things difficult.

Cable operators say that the repairs are well underway. It is still not known why or how the cables were damaged, however it is unlikely to be a coincidence: these undersea cables aren't broken all that often, and when five are broken within the span of one week, there's clearly something going on that we don't know about.

Source: Neowin.net

Ham: I smell CIA's involvement in this conspiracy, or just terrorists. Either that or something is lurking in the ocean floor messing with those cables. Hm... May, look up Isaiah 27:1, Job 3:8 and Psalms 104:25. It could just be that camera-shy Cloverfield monster though, but I kind of agree with the idea of the fish sabotaging the Internet lines to make us "blind" before taking over the world when the sea level rises with global warming. Just like that Junji Ito's Gyo (Fish) manga, scary $#!+ there.

Our Ozzies and Kiwi Brothers Have Fallen, Too

Fellow Malaysian and Singaporean RFO players. All of you might be aware of Codemaster's (CM) tyrannical regionalist campaign against RMT (Real Money Traderism) and have banned all Asian IP addresses, leaving us with few choices of:

A) Wait it out and hopefully CM will unblock us
B) Forget about it and move on

C) Wait for the dedicated server
D) Uninstall the 4GB game and find something else
E) Leave death threats and flames in RF Forums
F) Forget about it and find a wife

And apparently our brothers in Australia and New Zealand were also banned just recently. And even more lately players from Canada, Europe and some parts in USA were affected. Let us have a moment of silence to respect their pain of undergoing the "mourning" stage for their losses (taken away from RF for 48 hours is pure torment, we've been there). Most of us has felt the pain along with South American and other Asian players last month. And even if we are in the "acceptance" stage by now, I guess most of us will still want to have a taste of RF grinding if we were given the chance. I'm not the type to post flaming threads, but I support all fellow Malaysian and Singaporean attacks on RF Forums, flame on brothers!

Threads links from our brothers fighting for our rights:
Malaysia
Singapore

Apparently CM came out with some sort of appeal where players can fill in in order to get unbanned. But mostly the replies are as interesting as watching snails copulate and were redirected here instead. Their reply:

Thank you for submitting your recent request to Codemasters Customer Services concerning RF Online.

After reviewing your account, we are unable to lift your ban unfortunately. This is due to the following reason...

You are attempting to play the game from a territory we are not licensed to operate the game in.

Just nice. That was really helpful considering I've poured hundreds of hours and loyalty into RF Online. Thanks a lot. You guys could've at least sent me an decent non-automated e-mail informing me properly beforehand instead of ma fanning myself trying to get unbanned. This is no different from racial profiling, except in this case it's IP address profiling.

R.I.P. 5!Я!/|\ (2007-'08)

Anyways, my condolences to RF players of other Asian, Brazilian and every banned countries; XVIII, WindowsXP, HelloMoto, Elranzer et. al. hundreds of other banned players.

P/S: CM (yeah in case you Google and stumble upon this post), not all of us Asians are involved in RMT. Most of us are honest players. Now I guess after banning us Asians, RMT was still rampant then you guys banned Oz and NZ in hopes of eliminating RMT for good (but RMT still there right? Most likely). Soon you'll ban the rest of the world. You've opened the Pandora's Box. You've doomed us all. Oh and I've boycotted your other games too. Cheerios :)

New Year of the Ratty

Gong xi fa chai! The Fire Piggy year has ended the previous 12th zodiac cycle, say hello to the new year of the Rat. I personally don't feel any different (minus the fact that I do feel this CNY was a bit less than mediocre level mostly due to the economy), but hey at least can get together with the family clan at the evening and enjoy the smell of gunpowder at midnight in Kampua Town.
This year's fireworks lasted from 11:55PM - 12:35AM. Not bad. Signs that the townsfolk are still able to be prosperous despite the price hike. View from my room facing the Civic Center before joining the chaos there. And no Tominaga-san we don't get saman here because even the cops join in the fray...

Okay let's see what will happen to us in the 4705th Chinese new year of the Earth Rat.

Rat
The Rat will practically meet with no trouble this year. He/she'll charm numerous members of the opposite sex, and can experience many love adventures. Moreover, his/her levelheadedness and wisdom will bring him/her the admiration and esteem of all.

Ox
The Ox will congratulate him/herself on feeling perfectly in his/her element. The New Year will bring him/her a pleasurable sensation of physical and mental well-being. Sufficiently wise not to make a drama out of every grain of sand, he/she will close his/her eyes on the faults of his/her close ones and will thus preserve his/her interior peace.

Tiger

A rather mediocre year will lie in wait for the Tiger. But the native can find the joy of living if he/she continues to devote himself/herself relentlessly to improving the fate of mankind, for it's by being useful to others that one can find happiness. Anyway, he/she will have an interest in getting out of himself/herself and to subscribe to a cause instead of remaining bored to death in a corner.

Rabbit
The Rabbit will find this year rather good. He/she will continue to win successes, especially in the field where creativeness is the key factor. But victory, however brilliant it may be, won't be enough for him/her and won't prevent him/her from having a painful feeling of emptiness from time to time.

Dragon
Luck will smile to the charming Dragon. He/she will prosper in many sectors of activity. And as far as amorous conquests are concerned, he/she will be among the luckiest ones. Will all that make him/her happy? It's little probable, for the native can't help having a feeling of dissatisfaction. He/she would have preferred, rather unconsciously most of the time, experiencing a profound and durable love instead of thrilling but transitory amorous affairs. He/she would also have wished to lead a richer and more intense interior life.

Snake
The Snake can expect some conjugal or family difficulties, just as many other people who'll go through this year. But, instead of taking the bull by the horns, that is, of trying to solve his/her problems with lucidity and aggressiveness, he/she may prefer burying his/her head in the sand - probably because his/her sign is also a winged creature like the ostrich!

Horse
This will be for the Horse the year of amorous fury. He/she will have a very hard time resisting his/her desire to indulge in foolish love affairs. His/her close ones will find it extremely difficult to keep him/her in the conformist path, not out of ethical considerations but out of concerns to spare him/her annoying complications. "Love, love, when thou holdst us, one can say: good-bye, prudence!" (La Fontaine). This will exactly be the case with the Horse!

Sheep
Eager for action, the Sheep may get somewhat bored this year and commit the worst foolish things. In order to canalize his/her energy into useful channels, he/she must join cultural clubs or participate in different debates and seminars.

Monkey
Profoundly convinced of the merits of traditional and conformist marriage, the Monkey will feel ill at ease in face of the free-and-easy attitude that will seem to prevail this year. He/she will probably react with much vehemence and awkwardness to this somewhat murky situation. His/her violent reaction might have undesirable repercussions on his/her general comportment, and particularly on his/her conjugal and family relations.

Rooster
The Rooster always considers life as a comedy rather than a tragedy, and this preserves him/her from pessimism and discouragement. He/she will therefore enjoy himself/herself this year, do foolish things, but will always keep a certain sense of measure. Moreover, he/she will study philosophers, particularly those who know how to make fun of philosophy, such as Montaigne and Pascal.

Dog
Some sentimental deceptions may be feared for this year. They'll be due not so much to human inconstancy as to a lack of imagination on the part of the Dog. Now everybody knows that routine and pedestrianism are the worst enemies of love!

Pig
The Pig may exceptionally encounter some financial difficulties, for his/her business won't be at top prosperity. But he/she should not wreck his/her health because of that by working excessively. On the contrary, he/she would better look for a good compensation in meditation and reflection.

Source: Chinese Astrology

New RM50

Whoa check out the new 2008 RM50. I got the limited edition with the 50 years independence logo at the back. And due to some kinda copyright stuff I photoshopped the word SAMPLE on them just to avoid trouble with the government.

Keroro K66

I caught a glimpse of this Keroro model while helping out with the CNY shopping. Being a sucker for model kits and Keroro, I bagged one home and I immediately realized my model kit tools were gone after my 2 years absence. All that's left is just my penknife and a pair of rusting pliers. The paintbrushes are still here but acrylic paint have hardened along with my Tamiya adhesives. It's not worth if I buy the tool kits again because I won't be at home assembling kits as actively as I used to. So this Keroro K66 here was made with whatever stuff I could get my hands on in my room. And since I'm in the topic, I'm gonna teach the real basics on model kit assembling for those wannabes out there. Nothing fancy.

STEP 1
After moments gazing at the box model arts, specs and the katakana you can't understand, remove the box plastic wrappers. Be careful though, use penknife, meat cleaver or anything sharp to do this as we don't want any damage on the content. Once opened take a whiff at the smell of a virgin model kit.

STEP 2
Count all the pieces to make sure you won't go back to the store to ask for a refund/replacement. But usually things from nippon rarely have missing parts.

STEP 3
Follow the instructions provided. Don't worry if you don't understand Japanese because the instruction are given in graphically easy-to-follow form.

CAUTION

DO NOT snap the pieces out of their frames forcefully as you'll end up with damaged parts and/or with hideous white snap-scar that will be noticeable up close.

Be a pro and patiently cut off the frames slowly with knife. Also you'll have to know where the weak point is (READ THE INSTRUCTIONS). Once you get used to it you'll only need to rely on your intuition to do this.




TIP
If your model kit is a mechanoid (have legs) try to start from bottoms up (ignoring the steps instructed). The sight of a leg standing is good enough to motivate you to continue. This is really good if the model takes 2-3 days or even a week to complete.


STEP 4
Once fully assembled, only then you can focus on sticking the stickers, air-brushing and other finishing touches to the model. Do the spraying and air-brushing outside. Various felt tip markers or even normal gel pen can be used to do the outlining.



Since almost all model kits don't come with the complete color of the actual thing several finishing touches are required. I have no need to explain the paint job part (just painting over the parts with the supposed colors). Outline stroking on the other hand is a method of applying black lines on the contours, just to make it look like the ones in the anime/manga. In other words, just click here.

Viola! A completed Keroro's K66.Outlining and paint job not yet applied. But hey, I love the model, and definitely Keroro piloting the K66 (he's fully articulated, except for the knees)