Author: Wilfrid

Categories
Experience Sharing

Creating Your Own Digital Jukebox From You CD Collection

My beloved digital jukebox

I have promised some of my friends to write a little guide on my journey of digitizing my CD collection and here you are.  Some tips on which format to use and how to go about performing the task.  Now, why should you care?

  1. The condition of your CD deteriorates over time.  You know that, don’t you?
  2. Ripping your entire collection could be a huge time investment.  It took me 6 months on and off to rip 12,500 songs (900 hours of play time!).
  3. And hence, you may wish to choose the right audio format and be done with it.
  4. Of course, lossless encoding doesn’t mean that you will have the highest possible quality.  It is a digital copy as good as the way music is read by your machine.  The good news is, you can do better than what the common tools offer.

Today, my digital jukebox plays CD quality music directly into my hi-fi system.  I am loving it.  And if you too wish to do that some time in the future.  You are at the right place.  Click here to continue reading.

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PS. Some ask if they could bring along their portable hard disks and copy the entire collection over.  I would not have bought all my CDs had I had no respect to Intellectual Property (IP).  And since I do respect IP, my response of decline I hope is understandable.  Having said that, how one views IP is no business of mine.  It is a personal choice like not eating pork, beef, or meat.  I thank you for your understanding.

Categories
Animation Movie Reviews

9, Is No Corpse Bride For Sure

9

I had high expectation for the animation film “9” that bears the logo of Tim Burton.  Later on, I read that Tim Burton only produces the film while the director and writer is Shane Acker.  “9” is a decent animation.  Just that I love “Corpse Bride” so much better.  The quality of the image animation is top notch, no doubt.  I gasped at the details and the motions of those dolls bouncing and walking.   As far as the story goes, 9 dolls are brought to life, caught in the war between mankind and the machine, and incredible as it may sound, even as the entire human race was brought to extinction by those machines, the dolls seem to have a decent chance against the aggressors.  Unlike “Corpse Bride”, which idea is built upon well known yet abstract concept of the ghosts and the living beings, underworld and the living world, “9” merges science and fantasy that leaves me more questions than answers.  I mean, what is the purpose of these dolls’ existence?  What is the purpose of the entire story?

Tim Burton was impressed by Shane Acker’s student project titled “9” created in 2005.  You could easily find it in YouTube.  I must say, it looks very impressive as a student project.  What a dream comes true for Shane Acker to adapt this short clip into a full movie shown on big screen.  A promising artist for sure and I look forward to watching his next production.

PS. For those who have watched “9”, I swear I have spotted a key hanging on the neck of “6” and thought that key has a connection to the lock box that “9” has found.  Apparently, there isn’t such a connection.  And I wonder what is that key for besides being a piece of decoration.

Categories
Drama Foreign Movie Reviews

Inglourious Basterds – Can A Film End The War?

Inglourious Bastards

The script of “Inglourious Basterds” took Quentin Tarantino more than a decade to complete.  It shows.  Of his films I have watched, I am much intrigued by the quality of the story development of “Inglourious Besterds”.  It watched like reading a masterpiece story.  Divided into 5 chapters, the Nazi hunts the Jews, the American ‘commandos’ infiltrate the Nazi occupied Parisian territory, and the Jews’ uprising against the Nazi – a spaghetti like storyline told in a humorous, dramatic, and at times gruesome manner.  So, will the Jew or the American or even the German end the World War II?  The ending could be more than what you would expect.

Quentin Tarantino’s signature is all over “Inglourious Basterds”.  The music, the treatment to the scene down to the frame by frame level, and the orchestration of a team of talented European actors and actresses whom some of them are in their own rights a director and a producer.  Some metaphors are cleverly repeated cross the chapters.  Such as the interrogation and negotiation.  Some metaphors are linked to well known stories of the past.  I can understand how some may cringed at the scene of the gruesome execution.  However, I think “Inglourious Basterds” is a lot milder compares to some of Quentin Tarantino’s previous works.  In fact, it is so refined that some scenes are just beautiful to watch, however tragic they may be.

I read that Quentin Tarantino took some time to find the ending to this ‘best writing he has ever done’.  I am unsure if it is the perfect ending to the script, or I in fact like the ending.  Perhaps, I just didn’t want the film to end.  Quentin Tarantino is so talented.  He is a legend no less.

Categories
Photography Travel Blog

This Is The End Of The Spain Holiday Series

At San Salvador

I wish I could save the best for the last.  But my favorite photo album is still the journal of the previous day.  Followed by the “Jelly Fish” post that some of my friends refer to.

The writing of this set of journal have been one helluva journey.  A total of more then 22,000 words not counting the associated blog entries and close to 600 photographs.  And this blog entry is dedicated to the regular readers of this series (and my website).  Without your support, I reckon I would gave up halfway.  So, thank you.

To read more about our last day of our trip in Mallorca …

To read the rest of the travel blog entries, please follow this tag.

Categories
Diary

GCA 2009 – “Hacking” Our Way Into Games Convention Asia, Lol

OK, they got my name wrong ... lol ... sort of.

I didn’t wake up on a Thursday morning thinking that I would attend an exhibition.  “GCA” sounded familiar.  As though I have been to such an event before.  I did some checking on my website and guess what?  One year ago, on this day, I was wearing the media pass for this event, invited by Nokia!  It’s been a year already?  And neither did I wake up on a Thursday morning thinking that I would wear a professional visitor pass, acting as my good friend’s assistance for a day.

This morning, a text message arrived at my phone.  My friend wanted to meet up at SunTech for a meal before heading to an exhibition.  Fine by me.  “What are we going to do at an exhibition?” I texted.  “I will tell you later,” she texted back.

As I made my way to the convention center, there she was, looking absolutely stunning , and professional too.  Fashionable long dress and jacket, with a Prada handbag to match.  Her job title is “Head of Regional Sales”.  Not long ago, we were peers, same company, same team.  I really ought to catch up on my career progression.  And I am happy for her.  Sales type of work suits her better than my 9 to 5.

It seemed like her first time here in this kind of exhibition.  Feeling excited and all.  It was definitely my first time in this kind of exhibition, without a media pass.  I too felt excited because … oh well, computer gaming is in my blood.  GCA is primary for the business partners to meet.  Nokia doesn’t seem to participate this year.  I wonder why.

With confidence, my friend headed to the registration counter to get the professional visitor pass.  I doubt if anyone would say no to my very pleasant looking friend, together with her equally pleasant name card.  I played along when it came to my turn and said with a smile, “She is my boss and I am her assistant, today!”  The young chap seemed amused and he didn’t say no to me neither.  Hooray!  I played a good assistance, helped my ‘boss’ to sign in, and …

… Oops.  I bumped onto a few journalist friends from the media.  One of them asked, “What are you doing here?”  And I said, “I am with my boss, on a mission!”  “But you are usually the main guy!  Where is your camera?” he asked.  “Not today!  Ha ha ha, I will see you around,” I waved goodbye.  My media friends seem to remember me by my camera.  How strange!

Upon receiving our passes, my friend suddenly turned professional, looked at me and said, “Since you are my assistant today, tell me what’s our game plan?”  Hmmm.  I put on my consultant hat, pulled out the program guide and said, “If I guess your intend right, we should check out the business exhibitors first and gather some contacts.  After which, we could head over to the consumer side as it is usually more fun.  As for the conferences, we can think of that later.”

Of all the business exhibitors, I enjoyed chatting with the folks from Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab.  It is a collaboration between MIT and Singapore.  I asked if it is the MIT and the students said yes.  Amazing.  One Western lady is currently studying computing and mathematics in MIT.  We had a friendly chat.  And I had also chatted with some of the Asian students in order for me to understand what it takes to build an Indie computer game prototype.  It is often a 10 weeks or so project with up to 10 team members taking on the roles of producer, game designer, graphic designer, and etc.  The passion these students has was infectious.  I could feel it immediately.  If you have time, check out GAMBIT’s official site.  Before I left the booth, I asked one last question, “Have you considered joining Blizzard?”  For those who are new to the gaming industry, I think Blizzard at present is the place to be at.  “Funny you asked that,” he continued, “as I have considered working with Blizzard before.  But I prefer to work in an Indie environment instead.”  Good answer.  And I wish them all the best in their studies.

Moving on to the consumer side, it did have the bells and whistles, big monitors and girls in sexy outfits to make people go wow.  OK, my friend was as excited as me, for slightly different reason.  Taking the center stage was none other than the Xbox 360 game “Forza Motorsports 3”.  If only those were Formula One cars, that would have been perfect – for me.  There was a costume shop that showcased a life size Thrall (a famous dude from the online game World of Warcraft who gets murdered globally perhaps a hundred times a day) and Ironman.  The Counter Strike costume worn by a group of real life male models was just so hilarious.

After we have covered both the business and consumer sides, the only agenda item left for us – or rather her – to visit is the conference.  Since we are not from the media, we have to pay S$700+ per person.  Uh huh.  OK, somewhere somehow, we have got to …

… my friend pressed on insisting that her company is sort of like a media company.  Hmmm, really?!  I guess we could see it that way.  The young chap got a bit lost, politely asking us to wait while he was going to get his boss.  Uh oh.  I swear I was about to pull my “new media” trick telling them I am running a rather, ahem, popular website in Singapore if we got ourselves into an embarrassing situation.

No need for that because his boss was not around.  We left the convention center, went our separate ways.  One hour later, I received a phone call.

“Guess what?!  They have called and issued us a media pass!  Do you wanna …”

She got the media pass?  Again, who can say no to her?

PS. Below are some of the processed photos I have taken during my adventure.  I didn’t bring my Nikon D700 with me and have used my Nokia N97 instead.

Categories
I See I Write

Condo Bulletin: The Animal Edition

Cats on our condo bulletin

I begin to think that our estate manager writes our condo bulletin with a monthly theme in mind.  Last month was the sex edition.  We have maids caught offering sex services to the workers and guards.  And we have couples caught making out inside the swimming pools.  This month is the animal edition.  I have begun to like our estate manager already.  He should be a blogger.

Normally, Cynthia wouldn’t even bother to read our condo’s bulletin.  But this month, both of us were devouring the bulletin with such high anticipation.  I thought last month’s sex edition was a one-off.  Turns out, this month’s edition is as educational as ever.

Text excerpt of the above: “Many stray cats were seen in the estate … Attempt to catch these cats are futile even with borrowed traps from the AVA.  The Management is now engaging an expert to catch these cats … If any resident could assist in catching the cats, we would be very happy and appreciated …”

First, I had no idea that the Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority lends out cat traps.  Second, I had no idea there is such a thing as a cat trap.  I have seen a rat trap.  I wonder what a cat trap looks like.  Third, there is a profession called a cat catcher?  That is amazing.  Personally I am neutral towards stray cats.  But I think if our drummer Wieke was to read this, she would go mad.

All about dogs, in our condo

I don’t think keeping a dog as a pet in a condo is fair to the dog, and to the neighbors.  At times, the incessant barking of a dog drives me mad.  Give that dog a bone please!  Someone, just anyone.  Dogs should live in a sound proof room.  Period.

Ever since I have met my parents’ dog in Hong Kong, my perspective has somewhat changed.  But like how we view screaming babies and etc., my noisy dog is adorable; your noisy dog is not.  Besides, I think dogs should be given the space to run around.  Eat all they like.  And mate when they like.

When I read the bulletin under the dog section, my feeling was mixed.  Text excerpt as such: “… a young child was playing at a lift lobby when a pet toy dog … chased after the child.  The child was so frightened that he could not cry out.  He was later taken to a doctor … All dogs are required to be on leash … failure to do so can result in a fine of up to S$200 or revocation of the dog licence, or both.”

I had no idea that there is such a thing called a dog licence.  I wonder if people need to pay for one here in Singapore.  A pet toy dog doesn’t sound that fearsome.  But then again, it is usually the tiny dog that makes the most noise.  Would someone actually bring their child to see a doctor because the kid is … frightened beyond words?  Maybe he was seriously frightened.  I have no clue.  I wonder what would the doctor prescribe for the kid.  I hope no one get sued because of a pet toy dog.

Fish in our condo

There are many things to be proud of when it comes to our condo.  Our fish pond is certainly one.  If you are to visit my home one day, I would love to take you for a walk inside our garden.  We were used to hear the sound of the frogs from the fish pond, at night.  Such music of the wilderness.  We miss that a lot.  Someone must have purged the frog habitat.

I don’t visit the fish pond often.  But each time I visit, I notice some changes to the fish population – both in variety and in number.  One time, the pond in the shape of little rivers was over populated.  I have not seen that many fish inside a pond in my life before!  Another time, the koi fish were dying because some of our residents released their unwanted koi-unfriendly-fish into the pond.  There were posters everywhere reminding us what kind of fish is harmful to the koi fish.  If I was to design one of those posters, I would simply say: “Got an unwanted fish?  Flush it into the loo please.”  One time, our residents were going crazy in feeding the fish with fish food.  That made the fish grew really fat and big.  So huge that they looked scary.  And now, the fish population has gone down because …

… our residents are feeding them with bread?  Now, I have to admit that I had no knowledge that bread, can kill.

OK.  Thanks for reading.  Stay tuned.  Who knows what Mr. Estate Manager will write for our next bulletin.

Categories
Linguistic

¡Uff…! Our Spanish Exam Certificates From Las Lilas

Yes, we have passed! He he he.

It felt like yesterday when we returned home with two certificates.  A moderately hard earned albeit minor achievement in our routine life.  Now that I am reading that entry I wrote back in January, have you noticed how much the certificate’s template has changed?  From that entry, I notice that Cynthia and my scores don’t change much.  Except, she has somewhat improved.  And I have somewhat … oh well.  For Elementary level, Cynthia has upped her score to a high nineties.  While I slipped to a low eighties.  Our gap has widened from 9% at the Beginner’s level to a worrying 13%!  This is Singapore.  We all need to score an A+.  And there is no anything but.

Jokes aside.  I am delighted to have passed and moved onto the next level.

Learning Spanish reminds me of my painful journey of learning English.  You see.  English is not my first language.  We learned English in Hong Kong inside a classroom of students and teachers speaking Cantonese, during English classes.  Sure.  We have worked really hard on English grammar, since young.  In my late teens, I began writing diary in English, reading English books, listening to English songs, and speaking English [almost] everyday.  That was when I have moved to UK for my study.  Then I went crazy over English literature.  Began to write songs in English.  And now, running a website in English seems like a fun thing to do.

So, by my reckoning, if I am to be serious on learning Spanish, mirroring what I have learned from learning English, the followings will have to happen, quite possibly in that order.  A laundry list of more moderately hard earned albeit minor achievements as such:

  1. Able to catch bits and pieces of simple Spanish from books, newspapers, magazines, and etc.
  2. Able to catch simple spoken phrases from radio, music, and etc.
  3. Able to hold a basic conversation.
  4. Write private diary in Spanish.
  5. Play guitar and sing along with a Spanish pop song (music plays a big part of our lives and I wonder why Las Lilas School doesn’t incorporate music into their curriculums).
  6. Read Bible in Spanish (I happen to be one of those who studies English by reading Bible, as I was familiar with the Chinese Bible and it helped).
  7. Master Spanish expressions, idioms, and expand the vocabulary.
  8. Able to appreciate Spanish humor.
  9. Able to hold a decent conversation, appreciate Spanish literature, catch the music lyrics, listen to the radio, and watch a Spanish movie without subtitles.
  10. Able to blog in Spanish at ease.

Of course I am eying on #10.  But if I could achieve up to #6 in the near future (like in 3 years’ time?), I think I would be much delighted.

Categories
Photography Travel Blog

So Many Boats, In The Beautiful Island of Mallorca (Majorca)

Cynthia and I in Mallorca

If you are one of the handful of readers who follow this Sunday series, you probably wonder, where am I in the photos?  I am often not that keen to go in front of the camera.  Happy to stay behind the viewfinder instead.  And all of a sudden, in day 11, I put my tripod into action.  A bit late I know.  But better then never, eh?

Interestingly, out of this handful of readers who often drop a comment or two at my site (thank you!), one is traveling from Singapore to Hong Kong for holiday, with his wife.  And another one is traveling from Hong Kong to Singapore for holiday, also with his wife.  Well, bros, take some good photos and have a good family outing.  I look forward to seeing your photo albums!

Mallorca, or Majorca in English, is a beautiful island.  The beach, the boats, the blue sky, the lake, and the mountains.  It is a perfect destination for the cyclists too.  No wonder Mallorca is such a popular vocation destination for the Europeans.  To read more about our road trip in Mallorca.

To read the rest of the travel blog entries, please follow this tag.

Categories
Diary

It’s 09/09/09 09:09:09, Pee Em Though, But Still …

My Fan (photo taken using N97)

Rarely do I have to blog.  I mean, I often blog.  But I blog as per planned, or as and when I like to blog.  Thanks to my friend Supriya – the same lady who reminded me of that strange moment 12:34:56 7/8/9 while I was choosing my lunch dishes near the National Library one sunny afternoon – I was reminded that today is the 9th of September zero nine.

So what am I going to write?  My new blogger friend Heyzanie (please pop by and say hi) wants to get into the rhythm of writing every day.  Good for her!  I have gone through that period of writing every day and to me, the merit is that I got into this rhythm of wanting to make my life interesting each day.  So that I have something to write.  It is the goal that drives the outcome.

As time goes by, I want to focus my energy to create, or attempt to create posts of higher quality at times, more voluminous at times.  And that takes, time.  Like that holiday trip journals that I have been working on since June.  Two more entries to go and I am done, done!  Or like those articles I write, on that phone I love to use.  The latest article has a word count of close to 5,000!  Gasp!  Fortunately that is a phone that I love to use eh?  In any case, word counts don’t mean much, I know.  But like my buddy TK – inspiring no less – training to run a full marathon.  I reckon distance matters, daily persistence matters – when it all adds up, it matters.

Imagine.  If I am to write 5,000 words a day, in just two weeks, I would have written a novel of a decent size, in today’s standard.  Not bad huh?  Now, all I need to do is to find something passionate to write about.  Same passion as to my beloved phone.

I have thought about starting this entry with a song idea that has been in my head today.  But I reckon the subject may alienate some of my valuable readers, you.  Who cares about lyrics and songwriting?  Just give us the beats!  And hence, I am hiding this few paragraphs, into the middle of this entry.  To my estimation, most people would start to lose focus after the 256th word.  So here is safe.

My 159th song would begin with something like: It’s September.  Far as she remembers.  And she’s been waiting.  For him to appear.  Familiar faces.  Familiar places.  Turning into a stone.  She may appear.  Her heart still beats.  On what little she remembers.  She said it’s not fair.  He smiled and queried why.  It was September.  If only he could be here.  It was snow, in September.  And it snows.  Those glittering tears.

In all seriousness, at times I dream of what to write if I was a writer.  A real writer.  Not just a blogger.  I am not sure if I am a good story writer, able to craft an entertaining plot from thin air.  Certainly not having strong opinions on the governments or the way societies are today.  Hence those classic stories of writing a story with a hidden agenda is out.  That leaves only my personal journal and my observation on the things around me.  I mean, would you pay to read these entries?  In all seriousness?

Yes, there is something I wish to blog about.  And if my prediction is right, people often skip all of the above after the 256th character and head straight to the last paragraph of an entry.  Here!  I am not sure if you remember there are things I wish to do, before 2009 ends.  Let’s just say, I am well on target.  I have passed my Spanish examination and have ripped my entire CD collection into digital format.  I would want to look into my music next.

PS 1. Believe it or not, I have scheduled this post to be out at 9.09 pm.  When the clock struck 09.09.09 09:09:09, my site hanged or crashed.  Just when the post was supposed to be out.  In Cantonese, nine means forever.  And for the last 1 hour, it sure felt like forever.

Oh, thank you Darkspore for magically bringing my site back up (once again).  What am I to do without you?

PS 2. Why the photo of the fan?  If there is one thing that watches over me while I blog, that would be …

Categories
For the Geeks I See I Write

So, Honestly, What Is It Like With The Nokia N97?

Home Screen of Nokia N97

In a world today whereby every other touchscreen phone is a Blackberry or an Apple, I certainly feel somewhat special by having the new Nokia N97.  Strangers would come up to me and ask what is it like with the N97 (as I use my phone often in public).  Like in NTUC, while I was doing grocery shopping with my family.  Or like the lady behind the mixed rice counter in a food court.  Or my colleagues whom I normally wouldn’t interact with would come up and strike a conversation with me.  Some ask for the tips of using the phone.  Some simply like many others curious of what this new flagship product is like.  For them, I am more than happy to do a live demo, there and then.  Making friends.

Throughout this six weeks, I have experienced quite a fair bit with the phone.  I have also had quite a few good opportunity to play with my friends’ Blackberry and Apple phones.  By no means the following article is meant to be a product comparison, or even a product review.  Just an honest write-up on my hands-on experience with the N97 thus far.  And if you are already a N97 user (or going to be), you may find a few good tips too.

So, are you ready?

PS. If you are shopping for a phone, make sure you work out the total cost of ownership over the contract period.  My 30GB data plan is S$13 a month just to give you some ideas when you examine the bundled price of any given phone.

Related Article: Experiencing Nokia N97