chuyeow.wtf

Rails and penis enhancements

2008-01-25T13:34:26+00:00

Funniest bug report I've seen on the Rails issue tracker</a>: http://dev.rubyonrails.org/ticket/10919</a>. Be sure to read the comments, and the resolution:

I appreciate that penis enhancements are the norm for most of the commenters here, but their use is definitely not widespread enough to justify fixing this.</blockquote>

Time.now.obsession = PSP Slim

2007-11-29T14:27:21+00:00

</div>

Jeanne d'Arc</a> is a great little SRPG</acronym> I'm enjoying right now - I don't even want to start Final Fantasy Tactics</a> until after I've completed Jeanne d'Arc.

I have a Nintendo DS Lite as well and I have to say that I'm more of a PSP gamer where portable consoles are concerned. There just weren't that many involved games in the DS (except Puzzle Quest) and coming from a big fantasy CRPG background kinda made the DS a poor companion on train and bus rides. Being able to play videos on a large screen (relative to the iPod video I carry around all the time) is awesome. It's not an iPhone but it's good enough for watching videos!

Best JavaScript library project roadmap I've seen

2007-11-15T14:24:27+00:00

The mootools developers look like they are having fun defining their project roadmap</a>:
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MooTools Plugin to uninstall Internet Explorer from any machine within network range</blockquote>

Moar wiurd SSIDs

2007-09-14T17:11:15+00:00

Following my previous post on SSIDs</a>, I saw this today when I fired up my MacBook on the bus:
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Some of the ones I liked from the comments</a> are:

broken</li>
youneedbettersecurity</li>
INTERNETS THROUGH THE AIR</li> </ul>
Have you seen any amusing SSIDs today?

What's your SSID?

2007-09-07T20:10:44+00:00

After seeing this amusingly-named SSID</a>, I thought it'd be fun to post the SSID of my wireless network at home:
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The name is completely not my idea so I claim no credit - I stole it from my girlfriend's brother, who conceived the SSID of "AssAssID".
What's your SSID and have you seen any amusing ones? Or is yours one of the bajillion 'linksys' or 'DLINK' SSIDs in existence?

MMORPG called "Outside"

2007-08-13T18:59:56+00:00

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Seen at http://chickencrap.com/c.php?c=980</a>.
I thought it was funny (I was a hardcore World of Warcraft player). All the features are so true too. Fully PvP</acronym> rawr! The penalty of death sucks though - if you thought the experience point penalty in EverQuest was bad, think again.
This post got Dugg</a>! I had quite a few giggles reading the comments there</a> and those posted here</a>. And yes, I think that is KL (Kuala Lumpur) Tower in the picture.</ins>

How to install Rails, the wrong way

2007-07-30T17:34:25+00:00

I've always thought the Rails installation instructions</a> on the official Rails website were pretty straightforward, so I couldn't help laughing when I saw this chat transcript a friend copied and pasted for me:
[5:23:05 PM] X says: try so many times finally can le
[5:23:23 PM] X says: it is not about the version or wat
[5:23:46 PM] Y says: then what is the error?
[5:24:22 PM] X says: the gem install rails--include-dependencies
[5:24:37 PM] X says: between rails and --include got spacing</blockquote>
I know it's mean to laugh but I'm not a carebear! I think it took him a day to install it despite having installed and uninstalled it for 2 whole months (don't ask me why, but his environment kept getting borked).

Spam, the Dungeons and Dragons flavor

2007-06-18T15:53:00+00:00

Now that's how you get a Dungeons and Dragons fan to read your spam:
Laurana's in Qualinesti now, attending the funeral of her father and also trying to arrange an agreement with that stiff-necked brother of hers, Porthios, and the Knights of Solamnia.</blockquote>
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LOLCATS + email

2007-06-14T16:32:36+00:00

I IZ BORED: MY LOLEMAIL</a> POST, LET ME SHOW YOU IT.

'Mac vs PC commercials'.gsub(/Mac/, 'Rails').gsub!(/PC/, 'Java')

2007-05-15T00:22:19+00:00

The Rails Envy</a> guys have come up with a spoof of the Mac versus PC commercials</a>. Yes, it's Rails vs Java. Go watch it</a> or catch it straight on YouTube</a>.

A Singapore MRT WTF

2007-03-16T10:28:02+00:00

The Singapore MRT</a> has to be one of the best public rail transport systems in the world (I fancy the Tokyo train/subway system as well - the fare adjustment machine is one of those "since sliced bread" ideas), but they still have room to screw up in a Daily WTF</a>-worthy way.
This sign at Raffles Place MRT used to show train arrival times:
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It's been there for about 3 days, was still there when I checked this morning.

What you can get for $6.25 in Singapore

2007-01-20T22:33:08+00:00

Found a forwarded email with this image of a receipt from a local restaurant in Raffles Hotel sitting around in my inbox while clearing my inbox (trying to achieve the state of "Inbox Zero"</a>):
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Yeah I'd like some nachos with my slut.

Mr. Hankey the Christmas Poo cake for sale

2006-12-26T15:25:01+00:00

Saw this on a Christmas brochure while buying some pastry from the local Delifrance</a> cafe:
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I immediately thought of Mr. Hankey the Christmas Poo</a> (of South Park fame).
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While the resemblance is not uncanny, I'm pretty sure that's one log cake I don't want to eat.

Mind your MySQL update syntax

2006-12-22T17:51:52+00:00

Just noticed an insidious "bug" in MySQL when you use "AND"s instead of commas to separate the fields you are updating in your SET clause. Being a little rusty in SQL, I entered something like the query below while trying to make a quick fix to some records:
UPDATE characters SET alignment = 'Neutral Evil' AND last_name = 'Majere' WHERE first_name = 'Raistlin'</code></pre>Much to my consternation, the record appeared to have disappeared when I tried to query for it. After much bewildered cursing, I came across MySQL bug #15928: update syntax error not detected</a> (this is not an actual bug though). As it turns out, MySQL does a logical AND and the result is that the 'alignment' field is set to '0' since 'Neutral Evil' AND last_name = 'Majere'</code> results in false</code>. And MySQL casts it to '0'. Grrr. Luckily I was able to revert the changes by finding the record again with the new '0' alignment value (was using an auto-committing MySQL GUI client, no ROLLBACK available).
Hilarious Thai commercial, Bleach's new OP 2006-11-16T19:55:43+00:00 I don't normally post short entries on non-technical topics nor link to LiveJournals (just kidding!), but I'll have to make an exception for this one. Check out these Smooth-E Babyface ads</a>, probably one of the most creative commercials you'd have seen in awhile. Oh and while I'm "off-topic", Bleach fans who want to find out more about the opening song (Rolling Star) in the latest episodes should check out this thread on YUI</a> (the singer). I'm now totally hooked on Tomorrow's Way</a> (YouTube video) and I Remember You</a> (another YouTube video), and of course, the Bleach OP. MacHeist Mission One 101 2006-11-14T21:11:01+00:00 Update: seems like several people are coming into this thread after searching for "MacHeist combination</a>" - this post is for last year's MacHeist. For spoilers and solutions, I suggest you go to the MacHeist Backroom forum</a>.</ins> If you are a Mac user you'd probably have heard of the much-hyped MacHeist</a>. (I bet non-Mac users were probably annoyed with the coverage of MacHeist at some point on sites like Digg</a>.) Even I was late to join up with MacHeist because of its "I'm not gonna tell you what it's about but it's gonna rock your world" press and the oh-so-exclusive invite system (which is surprisingly rather effective despite being probably the most used viral "marketing technique") - I got into the whole MacHeist thing courtesy of the registration link posted over at TUAW (The Unofficial Apple Weblog)</a>. (Oh and yes, I do know that by blogging about it I've fallen prey to the MacHeist hype, but I can't help myself. Or maybe I just need to blog something that's easy to write about.) </div> And so I signed up, and after being completely muddled about what this MacHeist thing is all about, came upon a mission briefing with a very well-done voiceover (love that voice, sounds just right). Turns out MacHeist is a detective (or insert snooping, heist-related adjective here) game where you (try to) accomplish missions and get "loot" in return. </div> Not what I'd expected, and I almost didn't play along until I checked out the MacHeist forums</a> (requires a MacHeist account) and saw that the sheer volume of activity. A few thousand posts in a couple of hundred topics may not look like a lot, but it's pretty amazing for what I assume is a small user base (invite-only system) and you always have to remember MacHeist is really only a week old or so. </div> Now that got my attention again. Lurking around the forums a bit, I found general praise of the "loot" from completing Mission One. And turns out the "loot" is a bunch of free Mac software, which I really should have guessed. "Free", "legitimate", "Mac software" - ze Mac lover in me cannot resist! I went back, re-read Mission One, and sent out an email to what I hoped was an automated email bot (it would be disturbing if someone was actually replying to all the MacHeist emails) in an attempt to dig out what I was told were much-coveted iPhone specs. It was fun for a while trying to convince the email bot to send me what I needed, but it got old when I had to, you know, get the damn answer without running in circles (with circular email). Lurking around the forums more when I got stuck, I came across this stickied Official Mission #1 Thread</a> and it was all easy mode from there. So yes, the answers are all there</a> if you're lazy or impatient (I am both). </div> After completing the mission, you get the combination code to your safe, where you can find the fruits of your labor, loot! Well, about the reward, I have to say I was disappointed - perhaps I was expecting something like free licenses of TextMate or Parallels, or even Disco (though I have actually purchased licenses for all 3 - this Mac thing is turning me into someone who actually buys software - the horror!). Anyway, the rewards were full copies of Chat Transcript Manager</a>, Assignment Planner</a>, and Soulver</a>. Two out of three applications for students... I got Soulver to play with its gimmicky maths functionality, didn't bother with the rest (not to put them down, but personally don't have any use for Chat Transcript Manager being a full-time Adium user nor for Assignment Planner). Despite the anti-climax, I really think the MacHeist guys have done an awesome job (they got me for sure - I'm already anticipating the next heist and more loot!). It's an excellent way to promote Mac software (some of the lesser known products as well), and to get people talking. I can imagine they aren't doing too shabby with ad placements and sponsorship. And really, that's a damn polished setup they have there with the missions. Oh and before I end this post, if you need an invite, let me know (just leave a comment), still have 4 to give out. Well, if the registration link posted over at TUAW (The Unofficial Apple Weblog)</a> no longer works that is. OMG, 66 gig error log... 2006-11-09T10:57:42+00:00 So yeah today we realized one of our development servers had 0% free space left... after checking it out with du -h --max-depth=1</code></pre> in a few places in the filesystem, it turned out that we had a 66 gigabye Apache httpd error log. </div> That's what you get for setting the log level to debug and not rolling over your error logs... Application error (Rails) on Google search results 2006-08-15T20:09:22+00:00 I did a search on Google for "Rimuhosting"</a> today, some time after I signed up with them</a>, and hey, there's my blog in 3rd spot - is that some mad SEO</acronym> skillz or what. And then "oooh, there's an 'Application error (Rails)' result coming out, that's not good". </div> I thought it was amusing - Google must have crawled my site just as I had deployment troubles (yeah it was a smart move leaving MySQL to it's default settings and using the InnoDB storage engine on a memory-starved VPS). All seems fine now though I'm still somewhat amazed at the hungry Mongrels</a> (at 25-40MB per Mongrel process, these things run more like St. Bernards). (A shout out to Ryan Daigle</a> who has been giving me some Rails deployment advice.) By the way, the "mad SEO</acronym> skillz" comment was a joke, I wasn't at all surprised to be honest, Google just loves blogs (and they still do, after all this time of I've been not blogging). Ruby on Rails satire blog 2006-08-14T20:06:59+00:00 Javac programmers are Very Slow and he is Agile</h4> My Rails Blob</a> pokes fun at the cult of Ruby on Rails via satire. Recommended blog posts: Rubby Links on the W.W. w.</a> and Upgradeing Rails: Securiety through Obscenity</a> [sic]. I've subscribed to the RSS feed. NO! - Bad User!!!</h4> The Daily WTF</a> has this monthly collection of hilarious pop-up error blunders, and as usual this month's a gem: Pop-up Potpourri: Announced By God</a>. Must read. Developers would find this particularly funny (I did): </div> And this one's for my boss, Gary (remember the 'Abort/Retry/Ignore' you saw at the MRT station?) </div> The first rule of Maintenance is - you do not talk about Maintenance 2006-07-05T17:57:02+00:00 What would Tyler Durden do if he had to bring down his Web 2.0 service for maintenance? Someone in the office thought this message</a> would be appropriate. Diggnation drinks Tiger Beer 2006-02-20T23:25:34+00:00 The hosts of Diggnation</a> (Kevin and Alex), one of the few podcasts I listen too, usually have some beers as they are hosting the show, and in the most recent episode 34</a>, they actually had Singapore's trademark Tiger Beer</a> (a hint as to why this is remotely interesting to me: I'm Singaporean). It's rather interesting because most of us (Singaporeans) know how a Tiger tastes like (having had watered-down Tiger beer from when I was in the army didn't help), and Kevin and Alex were pretty much making polite comments about it. Of course, I could be entirely off-base, but I have watched the last episode (or was it the one before?) where they were raving over Hoegaarden</a> (which is a great beer, this coming from one who doesn't drink more than once every few months). By the way, does anyone know anything about the Geek Drome (or "Drone" or "dom") podcast they were talking about on the show? Been poking around Revision3 for it but no luck. WoW Rogue video - killing the Ironforge bankers 2005-01-13T23:26:27+00:00 World of Warcraft servers are down for maintenance today, so I get time to blog a little and read forum posts. Check out this Rogue video - Killing the Ironforge bankers thread</a> (and the video of course). It's cool being a rogue. World of Warcraft servers are always up, apparently 2005-01-04T23:22:24+00:00 When you have a server status page</a> that doesn't work, and which tauntingly indicates that all servers are up even when they clearly aren't, you have to wonder whether it's a marketing tool for Blizzard, or just plain laziness in fixing a clearly broken script. Check out the World of Warcraft Realm status page</a> - I've never seen a realm (i.e. a server) indicated as being down when it actually is down. Right now, all servers are down because of weekly maintenance that goes on for 4 hours. And guess what? The server status pages indicates that ALL servers are up, alive and bursting with players killing goretusk boars and pygmy venom web spiders. I'm not whining about the downtime, but I am whining about the perenially broken server status page</a>! This page</a> seems to be far more accurate in providing realm status.</ins> Homer Simpson uses tabbed browsing 2004-12-14T20:08:35+00:00 I just watched the latest episode of The Simpsons and guess what? Homer uses a web browser with tabbed browsing! </a></div> It could be the Mozilla Suite, Firefox, Opera, or <insert browser that supports tabbed browsing here>, but it sure ain't Internet Explorer. Since someone commented</a> about my media player, I'd like to point out that I use Media Player Classic, which happens to be an Open Source product. It's Sourceforge project page is at http://sourceforge.net/projects/guliverkli/, but you'd do better to check out Neil Turner’s writeup</a> instead. I hate Windows Media Player for its bloatedness, clunkiness and its tendency to be totally unhelpful or even go bust when required codecs aren't there.</ins> Cone of gayness 2004-12-13T01:01:38+00:00 Reason why linking to this post may not work: mod_rewrite rules rewrite all URLs that contain the word "gay" (and for that matter, "sex", "porn", "beastiality", "viagra" and more) to the client's IP - this is to block out referrer spam which I get a lot of and brings down the site in a fashion not unlike a DDoS</acronym>.</ins> If you got a weird page (like a page requesting you login to a router) before, it's your own router (or your ISP's gateway). The link works now because I've removed the word "gay" from the mod_rewrite rule list. Remember, if you wish to comment on technical faults of this site, please base them on correct information (and if you are arguing from a technical standpoint, you'd do well to vaguely recognize several familar IP addresses). On the other hand, I admit my callousness in the "gay joke" and am duly chastized - for that I have no excuse.</ins> Also, I should have listened to the warnings and not posted this entry in the first place - homosexuality is still a touchy subject. Nevertheless, the image is still there (for, um, posterity) - I'm only not displaying it in this entry.</ins> Cheers, and chill out.</ins> Larry the cow 2004-11-29T20:53:07+00:00 Larry the cow is one domesticated animal you probably haven't heard of (though you may have heard of our beloved South Park cows). He is the mascot of Gentoo Linux</a> and there's a headshot of him over at Gentoo's About page</a> (see "Gentoo Linux... in a poster"). </div> Now, I came across this amusing bug today, bug 27727 - bug Lary (sic) can NOT be a Cow</a>, that insists that Larry cannot be a cow but should rather have been a bull, being male. Dictionary.com says</a> a cow is "a domesticated bovine of either sex or any age" so that was why the bug was left as WONTFIX. Still it is weird to see Larry with udders in this thread</a> in the Gentoo forums. Larry is probably one of the first transgender/sexually ambiguous animal mascots in Linux history. Konfabulator for Windows, finally 2004-11-15T02:04:02+00:00 Konfabulator</a> has finally been ported to Windows! Now I can at least get to experience the neat little app that made such news</a> in blogs all over some months ago. (Note to reader: I'm refraining from word-butchery, so where "blogosphere" may be more appropriate in this case, I'm not going to be tempted into using it.) Looks nice doesn't it? </div> I'm not even sure I need the weather widget, but the What To Do, iTunes remote, and RSS feed aggregator looks to be useful. Mac users get all the cool-looking, drool-worthy stuff (though I've seen a mean KDE setup), and also some of the coolest</a> technology</a>. Via coresite.org</a>. Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines ships the same day as Half-Life 2 2004-11-14T20:09:18+00:00 I must have missed this with all the excitement and coverage of Half-Life 2. It seems like Vampire - The Masquerade: Bloodlines</a> will be out on November 16</a>, the same day as Half-Life 2. That's another 40+ hours of playing time on top of the 20-odd hours in Half-Life 2. Goodbye life! No wait... I don't have a life. Half-Life 2: How are you getting it? 2004-11-14T19:53:02+00:00 3 more days to Half-Life 2. The wait is killing me. I'm also mulling over how I should get Half-Life 2. Should I get the cheaper Standard Edition (SGD69.90) that comes in a whopping 6 CDs (5 + 1 for CS:Source), or the Collectors' Edition (SGD129.90) that comes in a convenient single DVD (plus a shirt and, I think, a strategy guide). Or perhaps getting it from Steam</a>? The Gold package looks pretty sweet (and naturally, so does the price tag). But you do get a whole lot more gimmicks (because that's what they are) sans a physical copy of the game itself. I guess I'm just not so comfortable with that (and the USD89.95 price tag). So, take a look at the Half-Life 2 Package FAQ</a>. Let me know what you are getting. It's something to keep you occupied while you (we) wait. (Anybody have any idea whether the Collectors' Edition comes with the strategy guide? The Package FAQ I posted above has conflicting information - the first post says it comes with a "Prima book sampler", the later press release says it comes with a "Half-Life 2 Prima strategy guide book".) Men turn into ugly things when they know they cannot get you 2004-11-07T12:53:41+00:00 Men turn into ugly things when they know they cannot get you</a>. That's the blog of one of Singapore's top bloggers. Always quirky, full of attitude. One of the few non-tech blogs I read. Half-Life 2 RC, could be out in a few weeks 2004-09-17T08:59:31+00:00 According to this thread over at Half-Life 2 Fallout forums</a>, Gabe Newell has posted</a> saying that a release candidate of Half-Life 2 has been sent to Vivendi Universal, and is pending approval for release. This time around, it isn't a hoax: For readers doubt the authenticity of this post in light of the gold hoax, the IP does match up this time and many people have received e-mail confirmation from Doug Lombardi and Gabe Newell.</blockquote> Via Forever Geek</a>. A Girl's Guide to Geek Guys 2004-09-06T21:43:17+00:00 A Girl's Guide to Geek Guys</a> - "They are generally available. Other women will tend not to steal them. They can fix things. Your parents will love them. They're smart." Hey I'm a geek ;-) Tombstone Generator 2004-08-06T23:43:12+00:00 Via TIMELINE</a>: Tombstone Generator</a> </div> I also found the Church Sign Generator</a> which was the inspiration(!) for the Tombstone Generator. </div> From the creators of South Park! 2004-08-01T02:25:06+00:00 Matt and Trey have a new movie coming up! It's called Team America</a> and will be in theatres in October. Kick ass! Check out the Team America trailer</a> (requires the Quicktime plugin). Half Life 2 system requirements revealed! 2004-07-13T01:21:46+00:00 Via Eurogamer</a> via Neowin.net</a>: But for those who want to see the game running in all its glory, be prepared to spec up to around a 2.4 GHz machine, with 512MB RAM, Windows 2000/XP and a DirectX 9 capable graphics card.</blockquote> 2.4 GHz machine - check 512MB RAM - check Windows 2000/XP - Duh! DirectX 9 capable graphics card - check Looks like I don't have to upgrade (again) for Half Life 2. Man, could you believe I actually posted a blog entry on the specifications of a computer game? But then again, we're talking about Half Life 2 here guys. Dell stops shipping Windows on all its computers 2004-07-12T22:11:49+00:00 On Newsforge</a>: After being berated by Microsoft for attempting to sell Linux on some of the company's desktop systems, Dell has decided to stop selling Windows altogether.</blockquote> Gateway spokesman William Bradley said of Dell's move, "I'm glad to hear Dell will be selling less expensive computers without the Microsoft tax -- we'll finally be able to upgrade the computers around the office."</blockquote> MovableType@Gmail.Com for sale 2004-06-19T22:09:33+00:00 Message sent to the orkut</a> MovableType community: hi MovableType@Gmail.Com For Sell (sic). If you want this ID in Gmail , Plz email to me . xxx@gmail.com</blockquote> Ugh. This Gmail name-squatting is getting ugly. A for-loop? For whom? 2004-06-18T00:12:33+00:00 The Daily WTF</a> has a very funny reader-submitted entry on for-loops</a> (or rather, the lack of them). Good stuff on The Daily WTF</a>, which has near-daily posts on programming-related things that make you say "WTF?!?". Recommended reading. Alex Papadimoulis</a>, the person behind The Daily WTF, is currently giving out Gmail invites for submissions to The Daily WTF. Gmail invites for sale everywhere 2004-06-13T02:40:52+00:00 OK maybe not everywhere, but seeing threads offering Gmail invitations at a price over at the Trading Post</a> at SitePoint Forums</a> is new (besides the old news on Gmail invites put up for auction at eBay and also gmail swap</a>). Someone is even offering a Gmail invite for logo design</a>. Look at these threads all offering Gmail for cash or kind - 1</a>, 2</a>, 3</a>, 4</a>. And no, I don't have a Gmail account so don't ask me for one. If you want a 2GB email account, try AventureMail</a>. Singaporeans like their spam 2004-05-31T12:33:50+00:00 A recently conducted poll </a>at The Straits Times Interactive</a> (online version of local leading newspaper) shows 71% (at time of writing) of the poll takers preferring an opt-out scheme "because [they] don't mind knowing all that's out there." And spam? "It's useful information to me", at least for 68% of the sample size. Granted, the sample size is only around 1000+ (I got that from the print version of the poll - apparently it's not available in the online version), so it's hardly accurate, but the results still leave some niggling doubts as to whether Singaporeans are really that kiasu (colloqualism for "scared to lose") that they believe something worthwhile could be gotten from spam. Or perhaps the poll was rigged. I don't know Singaporeans anymore. Speaking in binary 2004-04-07T23:43:02+00:00 Via weirdbeardmt in this thread</a>: Binary translator</a> converts regular text to binary and vice-versa. Beware - the binary dialect of geek-speak is now easily translatable. Conversation occuring here</a>. Gppgle.com 2004-03-02T20:20:23+00:00 Google owns</a> Gppgle.com</a>. Apparently, typos are common enough to make them mirror Google (the search engine) on Gppgle.com</a>. Case in point: hits from Gppgle.com</a> in this weblog. MS Excel confounds me 2004-02-23T14:19:08+00:00 This is the error message I get when I try to open 2 documents with the same name, but in different directories, in Microsoft Excel: A document with the name 'CR.wine.GA.1.csv' is already open. You cannot open two documents with the same name, even if the documents are in different folders. To open the second document, either close the document that's currently open, or rename one of the documents.</blockquote> </a> Emphasis mine. Why can't I? We'll never know how Excel is implemented (unless there's a MS Office source code leak), but this is pretty dumb if you ask me, considering how easy it is to get by this technical difficulty. Perhaps there is some perfectly rational explanation why there is absolutely no way that Excel would be able to work with 2 documents of the same name, or if there is, it is more work than it's worth. I'd like to hear that explanation. Oh wait, I believe I should Google it. Hmm... Toby Allen reports</a> the same thing, and Joel Spolsky</a> has this plausible explanation: "I think it's because when you have an external reference (of the form foo.xls!A1) they only had 8 bytes in the data structure to store the file name. It's kind of shocking that 10 years later nobody has fixed this, ...</blockquote> Well, still not fixed in Office 2003. Microsoft FrontPage ad dripping with irony 2004-02-09T01:12:01+00:00 Look at this Microsoft skyscraper ad for FrontPage 2003: </div> Notice anything? No? Hint: zoom in on line 28. Source: David Tenser</a> Orkut invitations for sale at ebay 2004-02-04T15:02:52+00:00 Orkut membership is by invite only. Apparently that makes it something worth buying into, as this listing of Orkut invites for sale at eBay</a> shows. In case the auctions get taken down, here's a screenshot for posterity (click for a larger image): </a></div> Hey I'll sell you an invite for just a dollar! Heh just kidding... Nothing to redeem here 2004-01-28T01:05:02+00:00 I got this weird email just a few hours ago: Message sent via contact form by: kimberly capps URL: how do i get the redemption button for my email? </blockquote> I was confused about this "redemption button", so I asked this Kimberly: Hi Kimberly, I'm not sure what you're referring to. Could you explain a little more on what you're looking for? Regards, Chu Yeow </blockquote> And so she replied: what we are trying to find is the redemption button for our email so we can retrieve our free plane tickets!</blockquote> I think I just got my first email prank. Either that or something has gone awry with search engine results. This weblog didn't turn up on Google for "redemption plane tickets"</a> though. Anyway, now is as good a time as ever to point out that the "redemption" in "redemption in a blog" is actually my online pseudonym/nickname/handle. I thought it would be a nice play of words. This is not a redemption counter. There are no free gifts. Funny how this site looks bad 2004-01-19T12:08:00+00:00 Take a look at Graphic Designers for Dean</a>. Then read their tagline/motto/whatever: Beautifying the Dean Campaign One Pixel at a Time!</blockquote> Right. One pixel at a time it is. Source: Swagu</a> Using a web browser with a phone dial 2003-12-09T02:22:21+00:00 Seems David Lu</a> does some interesting work, like this Phone Dial Web Browser</a> for instance. Ouch! Rotary dial? IP address only? Meh! This electronic etch-a-sketch simply named Etch</a> is another (apparently) frivolous project. On the other hand, 3D XML Viewer</a> (requires Flash Player) is an amazing 3D, graph-based visual representation of XML documents. Reminds me of TheBrain</a>. Now this is something useful. Just Say No to Microsoft 2003-12-09T01:55:19+00:00 Just Say No to Microsoft</a> Not pretty, a little biased. But great</a> alternatives</a> are listed. Create your own South Park Character 2003-11-28T23:54:47+00:00 Create your own South Park Character</a> - here's me: </div> Have fun! Butters' real name 2003-11-13T23:50:22+00:00 Yup naïve Butters' real name is Leopold Starch! First time heard on South Park, I think, on the most recent episode, "Casa Bonita</a>". Watch it</a>! Ahem! 5 reasons not to buy an iPod 2003-11-08T23:21:37+00:00 Well, CNET has posted "Five reasons not to buy an iPod</a>". Of course, realistically for most people, there are only 2 reasons in there that really matter (reasons 1 and 3); for the active, reason 2 as well. In case you were thinking, no I wasn't thinking of getting an iPod. My main beef with the iPod is its price. And 6 hours of battery life just doesn't cut it. I'd much rather get one of these</a> or perhaps one of these</a>. Maybe in 7 months time. Got Lone Wolf? 2003-10-13T07:47:37+00:00 Anyone remember or even actually heard of the Lone Wolf</a> series of gamebooks? That was my first ever contact with the world of medieval fantasy which made me the big fan of the fantasy genre that I am now. I remember that it was back when I was in primary school (or elementary school if you prefer) that my then best friend introduced me to this thing called gamebooks and hey, you know, Lone Wolf is the best. It wasn't long before I bought my first Lone Wolf gamebooks. I even remember clearly I bought Book 4: Chasm of Doom</a> and Book 5: Shadow on the Sand</a> - that was about 13 years back. I don't think I really loooked back - I've most of the Lone Wolf gamebooks up to the Lone Wolf Grandmaster series, when I outgrew gamebooks and converted to reading fantasy novels. I never left Lone Wolf though as I continued to read the novelized version of Lone Wolf called the Legends of Lone Wolf series</a>. Unfortunately, the series was prematurely terminated at book 12, which left me high and dry. I even wondered if something had happened to the author. To this day I don't know what happened, but I surmise it's due to publisher difficulties. It was an excellent series - I like to think that it was the reason behind my good English result at the GCE</acronym> 'O'-levels. Well, so that was quite a bit of personal history that isn't very interesting, so I'll cut to the chase. For Lone Wolf fans, you'd be interested to know of Project Aon</a> if you don't already. I came across the site recently with my StumbleUpon</a> toolbar. Project Aon offers free online versions of the Lone Wolf gamebooks (currently up to book 14) and there are plans to include the Freeway Warrior series (also a good gamebook series!) also by Joe Dever. There's even a StatsKeeper</a> script that keeps track of your stats, inventory, experience points and stuff like that. Don't worry about the legality - the books are donated free by Joe Dever himself. As for the books themselves, they're full reproductions of the books only you have the convenience of clicking a link to go to, say, section 333, instead of having to flip the pages. A big thank you to Joe Dever for his generosity and to the Project Aon staff for their dedication! Unbelievable optical illusion 2003-10-10T17:23:10+00:00 This one's pretty neat because it's so damn unbelievable: If you don't believe it, use a color picker tool (like Color Picker</a>) or crop out the 2 squares with a graphics program. Source: Edward H. Adelson's Checkershadow Illusion</a> with explanation</a> Google irony 2003-10-10T15:38:25+00:00 Check this out: Google's cache</a> of Google. And this bit quoted from that page: Google is not affiliated with the authors of this page nor responsible for its content.</blockquote> Source: Google is not responsible for itself</a> A List Apart redesign coming soon 2003-09-23T16:07:39+00:00 Zeldman</a> has given us a sneak peek into the new A List Apart</a>. I'm not too sure I like the pinkish tones. Probably has to do with the online dating sites that now support ALA(A List Apart). Supported by XDate Speed Dating, 30Dates Speed Dating, and for free online dating, xdate.com.</blockquote> There's no doubt it'll look awesome as it was before. Humour for academia - vaguely intellectual humour 2003-09-22T19:04:13+00:00 Thanks to Matt Thornton</a> for pointing out this technical paper on Haggis growth and the use of Remote Sensing and GIS</a> (PDF). No it's not your run-of-the-mill technical paper. If you're in need of a good laugh as I was, read that! After reading a whole bunch of (non-humourous) technical papers that one really strikes me as being particularly funny. On an unrelated note, wish me luck for tommorrow. I really really need it. StumbleUpon toolbar 2003-09-20T09:21:44+00:00 I'd recently installed the StumbleUpon extension for Mozilla</a> when I came across it being listed as mozdev's Project of the Week</a> for the week of September 8, 2003. StumbleUpon is not just a Mozilla thing - its homepage</a> has toolbars for IE and Netscape 7 too. What it does is to allow you to 'stumble upon' sites that are recommended by peers with interests similar to your own. You can recommend (as well as disapprove of) sites yourself too. Pretty neat idea if it doesn't get abused by webmasters. And before you ask, yes, I was bored - I was "running out" of sites to visit. I did manage to uncover some interesting sites in my stumbles. Like Acronym Server</a> (decodes acronyms - great stuff!), Make A Shorter Link</a>, a feisty new Linux distro</a>, and even this essay on "How to Write Unmaintainable Code</a>"! Hacker ethics - hacking warning received 2003-09-14T04:40:03+00:00 Update: I can't confirm if it was a hoax or not, because my client hasn't reported any problems. They were talking with their webhost about it, in any case. I did try to access their site during the indicated takedown period, and it was inaccessible, but it could very well be due to the webhost taking preventive measures by taking down his server. Will update when I find out. It is also interesting to note that Simon Willison</a> has received the same email (see his comments in that blog entry). One of my clients told me today that they received this message via the contact form at their website: Dear Administrator We are sorry to inform you that your site has been targeted for hacking practice. The monthly hacking practice is organized since 1991. The targets are randomly chosen. We are sorry if your server is down, damged or formated. The first round of attack starts on 15th Sept 23:56, there will be at most 5 rounds, each last for 5-10 hours. Please backup your data. The hackers assigned to your server are level 2 hackers. (ranking from level 1 to 7 by increasing ability) note: this message is sent from an randomly picked unknown singapore host. please go ahead tracing. reply will not be receivable. Regards, CHU - Chinese Hackers' Union 2003 http://www.cnhacker.net/homepage.htm </blockquote> This is the first time I've encountered something like this and I'm pleasantly surprised by the forewarning given. I've backed everything up but I also wonder if there's anything their web hosting provider can or should do. Does anyone have any experience with hacking attempts and can provide any advice? Anyhow, this is just a theory, but I can pretty much guess that some of these hackers are members of some educational institutions (specifically universities) in Singapore, considering the nature of the client's website. Interesting. It's not like I'm going to do anything to them though, I think partly because they were ever so nice to give a warning and partly because there's really nothing we can do if the hackers are skilled enough. Anyway, if you check out their (CHU's) website, the message there translates roughly to this: The onion reorganization is now completed, Everyone please pass the message that this China Hacker Union will soon be reopened.</blockquote> Naruto cosplay picture 2003-09-13T14:13:33+00:00 Fans of the Naruto anime and/or manga would love to see this cosplay photo</a>. Got this off this thread</a> at AnimeSuki.com forums</a>. There are many many more photos in that thread! Quoting Dopeskills: Since when did Sakura learn Fatass no Jutso (sic)?!?</blockquote> Cosplay means "Costume Play" for those of you who don't know, like how I didn't and had to Google for it - learning something new everyday. 20 Questions - neat pseudo-classifier 2003-09-07T13:25:37+00:00 20 Questions</a> is a neat game that shows off what a little A.I. can some (hard-coded) learning can do. The premise of the game is to: Think of an object and the A.I. will try to figure out what you are thinking by asking simple questions. </blockquote> It doesn't cease to amaze me, even though I've made it flounder on "mooncake". Free Classics eBooks 2003-08-27T16:30:30+00:00 From Bharani's Blog</a>: Planet PDF is offering free PDF eBooks</a> of classics including Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Moby Dick, The War of the Worlds, Pride and Prejudice, and quite a number more - none of which I've read, except for Alice in Wonderland. Not much of a classics person - give me Dragonlance, David Eddings, Raymond E. Feist anytime. Nature's flawed programming 2003-08-24T09:11:24+00:00 I came upon this interesting tidbit in my Artificial Intelligence readings. A sphex</a> (a kind of wasp) will, in the process of building a nest, dig a burrow, find an insect and sting it, drag it to the burrow, enter the burrow again to inspect the nest, drag the insect inside, and lay its eggs. That, as we shall soon see, is the sphex's built-in program for constructing a nest. If someone (an experimenter, or some nosy kid) picks up the paralyzed insect and moves it a few inches away, the sphex's program gets reset. The sphex now drags the insect to the burrow, and is compelled to re-enter the burrow to inspect the nest _again_, even though it has just checked. It does this even if the insect is moved away repeatedly, without the sphex ever realizing what is going on. The sphex is unable to learn that it's program is failing, and will not change it. "... the beetle continues on and pantomimes plugging the nest with the nonexistent ball of dung!" </div> Even more amusing is the dung beetle, which goes off to fetch a ball of dung to plug its nest entrance. If the ball of dung is removed from its grasp _en route_, the beetle continues on and pantomimes plugging the nest with the nonexistent ball of dung! Nature (or evolution, depending on your opinion) has built in a pretty rigid program into the beetle's behavior. It is interesting to discover lifeforms as large as a sphex or dung beetle that don't have the capability of learning, of going beyond its genetically programmed behavior. Makes the _Home Sapiens_ and the thinking species (dolphins, whales, primates) all the more intriguing. DHTML Lemmings 2003-08-21T10:23:52+00:00 This is nostalgic - DHTML Lemmings</a>. I still haven't figured out how he did it (he says it's "all written in JavaScript" - pretty amazing!), but it plays just like the classic Lemmings. Two thumbs up, for the spectacular use of JavaScript, and also just because it's Lemmings. Google's new built-in calculator 2003-08-13T04:48:30+00:00 This is interesting - Google now has a built-in calculator function</a> that works whenever you enter a mathematical expression in your standard Google search box. Now you can ask Google what is 3 times 4</a>(same as 3 * 4</a>) , 11 squared</a>, the value of pi</a>, the no. of kilometres in 1 mile</a> and even trigonometry questions like sine(45 degrees)</a>. I got my Google tan 2003-07-20T12:59:18+00:00 pseudodictionary.com</a> is a collection of online slang, webspeak and colloquialisms that would enlarge your library of geek words you can use to confuse the unknowing. I do actually have a well-tanned body.</div> Thanks to that, I discovered that I do actually have a well-tanned body</a>. I also appreciated this story about Harry Potter's wang</a> (though the meaning was obvious), which had me rotflmao. RPG comic 2003-07-20T12:47:40+00:00 I chanced upon this comic strip series at Nuklear Power</a> titled '8-Bit Theater'. It's really funny but you have to be an RPGer to appreciate some of the humor. Anytime you're bored, you can work through the comic episode by episode (it's a continuing series) like I do. Dragonlance Persistent World for Neverwinter Nights 2003-07-15T17:49:37+00:00 Krynn Haven</a> appears to be a very good Neverwinter Nights Persistent World (PW). You can become a Knight of Solamnia all the way up to a Knight of the Rose and even get voted by your peers to become the the High Clerist. Wizards have to take the Test at the Tower of Wayreth! Perfect for a hardcore Dragonlance fan! I'll have to see this in action and finally re-install NWN - it's been a standing there in it's pretty box since the last time I played it for a while and quit. Anime goodness 2003-07-04T16:32:33+00:00 Thanks to a fellow intern (and friend) at work, I've gotten hooked onto anime. I've to be honest that I didn't think much of anime before - thought it was cheesy with those exaggerated, caricatured faces and, erm, Pokemon. That episode of South Park with it's parody of anime didn't help. Well, I was wrong - I was guilty of generalization. There are quite a few excellent anime series and movies out there, which have truly engaging stories and characters. Naruto is one of those. I'm sure everyone would have heard of Evangelion, Ghost in the Shell and Gundam - these are immensely popular and excellent. I'm currently following Naruto (one of the best and most popular series at the moment), Scrapped Princess (ditto) and E's Otherwise. I also borrowed the complete series of Dragon Drive ("My sweet honey") from my friend. Well, I have the time, now that South Park is showing reruns and Futurama is on hiatus. Domain names - what were they thinking? 2003-06-19T16:51:31+00:00 Powergen Italia</a> owns the domain http://www.powergenitalia.com/</a>. Who Represents</a> owns http://www.whorepresents.com/</a>. Goes to show you have to put some thought into your domain name :D. Cool-looking blog buttons 2003-06-06T15:02:51+00:00 I came across an amazing collection (575 buttons at time of writing) of really nice blog buttons. Grab them from this site</a>. Neverwinter Nights: Shadows of Undrentide has gone gold 2003-05-31T14:58:50+00:00 Yep Neverwinter Nights: Shadows of Undrentide</a>, the expansion pack for Neverwinter Nights, has gone off for CD production. Not that I foresee myself playing it much if I do buy it, since there is no time, but the availability of Prestige classes is terribly attractive - would love to play a Harper</a>! Ah I miss those days where I could do whatever I wanted without a care in the world. *sigh*

chuyeow.wtf

Rails and penis enhancements

Time.now.obsession = PSP Slim

Best JavaScript library project roadmap I've seen

Moar wiurd SSIDs

What's your SSID?

MMORPG called "Outside"

How to install Rails, the wrong way

Spam, the Dungeons and Dragons flavor

LOLCATS + email

'Mac vs PC commercials'.gsub(/Mac/, 'Rails').gsub!(/PC/, 'Java')

A Singapore MRT WTF

What you can get for $6.25 in Singapore

Mr. Hankey the Christmas Poo cake for sale

Mind your MySQL update syntax

Hilarious Thai commercial, Bleach's new OP

MacHeist Mission One 101

OMG, 66 gig error log...

Application error (Rails) on Google search results

Ruby on Rails satire blog

Javac programmers are Very Slow and he is Agile</h4> My Rails Blob</a> pokes fun at the cult of Ruby on Rails via satire. Recommended blog posts: Rubby Links on the W.W. w.</a> and Upgradeing Rails: Securiety through Obscenity</a> [sic</em>]. I've subscribed to the RSS feed.</p>

The first rule of Maintenance is - you do not talk about Maintenance

Diggnation drinks Tiger Beer

WoW Rogue video - killing the Ironforge bankers

World of Warcraft servers are always up, apparently

Homer Simpson uses tabbed browsing

Cone of gayness

Larry the cow

Konfabulator for Windows, finally

Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines ships the same day as Half-Life 2

Half-Life 2: How are you getting it?

Men turn into ugly things when they know they cannot get you

Half-Life 2 RC, could be out in a few weeks

A Girl's Guide to Geek Guys

Tombstone Generator

From the creators of South Park!

Half Life 2 system requirements revealed!

Dell stops shipping Windows on all its computers

MovableType@Gmail.Com for sale

A for-loop? For whom?

Gmail invites for sale everywhere

Singaporeans like their spam

Speaking in binary

Gppgle.com

MS Excel confounds me

Microsoft FrontPage ad dripping with irony

Orkut invitations for sale at ebay

Nothing to redeem here

Funny how this site looks bad

Using a web browser with a phone dial

Just Say No to Microsoft

Create your own South Park Character

Butters' real name

Ahem! 5 reasons not to buy an iPod

Got Lone Wolf?

Unbelievable optical illusion

Google irony

A List Apart redesign coming soon

Humour for academia - vaguely intellectual humour

StumbleUpon toolbar

Hacker ethics - hacking warning received

Naruto cosplay picture

20 Questions - neat pseudo-classifier

Free Classics eBooks

Nature's flawed programming

DHTML Lemmings

Google's new built-in calculator

I got my Google tan

RPG comic

Dragonlance Persistent World for Neverwinter Nights

Anime goodness

Domain names - what were they thinking?

Cool-looking blog buttons

Neverwinter Nights: Shadows of Undrentide has gone gold

Javac programmers are Very Slow and he is Agile</h4>
My Rails Blob</a> pokes fun at the cult of Ruby on Rails via satire. Recommended blog posts: Rubby Links on the W.W. w.</a> and Upgradeing Rails: Securiety through Obscenity</a> [sic</em>]. I've subscribed to the RSS feed.</p>