Peluncuran "Open Source for America"

Baru-baru ini ada peluncuran Open Source for America, sebuah koalisi puluhan organisasi dan perusahaan untuk mempromosikan penggunaan open source software di kalangan pemerintah federal Amerika Serikat.

Menurut saya kejadian ini cukup menarik karena beberapa alasan:

• Berbagai nama besar seperti AMD, Google, Oracle, Red Hat, dan Mozilla Foundation tercatat sebagai founding members OSA.
• Meskipun telah ada berbagai proyek di kalangan pemerintah AS yang melibatkan penggunaan open source software (beberapa di antaranya dapat dilihat di website OSA), usaha promosi komunitas open source sepertinya masih kalah jauh dibandingkan kekuatan lobi dan usaha-usaha marketing dari berbagai perusahaan closed source software.
  
• Pemerintah AS nota bene memiliki budget memadai untuk membeli closed source software dan banyak perusahaan closed source software (seperti Microsoft) berbasis di AS. Bila pemerintah AS makin banyak memanfaatkan open source software, ini dapat menjadi sinyal bagi negara2 lain (terutama yang memiliki anggaran minimal untuk sistem TI) bahwa open source software merupakan sebuah alternatif yang kualitasnya setidaknya setara dengan closed source software, bukan hanya sebuah"kompromi" atau "pilihan nomor dua".
  

Hug a Developer Today

Found this video on YouTube. Funny... and sad at the same time :P

How many of those apply to your situation?

Comparison of boot times

Recently I came across an interesting video comparing Vista and Windows XP's boot times on a HP 2133 Mini-Note

Another video, shown below, compares boot times of Vista, XP, and Ubuntu. This time, the machines used are Asus EEE PC 900s

Those videos would give some ideas on why XP Home is still a lot more popular than Vista for netbooks. Just because you may be able to have Vista installed on your netbook, doesn't mean you should :p

Singapore Flyer

(backdated entry)

After visiting Singapore Philatelic Museum, our next destination was the Singapore Flyer. It's basically a huge observation wheel, about 42 stories high, and strategically placed to give its passengers a nice view of the city centre. Given good enough weather, passengers would be able to see Batam and Bintan. Unfortunately, the weather was cloudy when we were there.

Observation wheel so huge, you can see it from far away --
saves tourists' time in locating it :P


Did I mention it was huge?

The Singapore Flyer is a quite new attraction, being officially opened earlier this year. Having been in construction for quite some time, it seemed that a lot of people had been eagerly waiting for it, even paying thousands of dollars for rides during the first few nights. Anyway, just in case you're wondering, the current ticket price is $29.50 per person, and the ride lasts about 30 minutes :)

The ticket. Not sure why they chose to use the term "flight"...


Boarding the capsule


Inside the capsule


Maps are available to help passengers spot interesting sites.
You can also borrow an "audio guide" gadget free of charge before boarding.

Below are some of the pictures I took during the ride. Admittedly, the pictures I took aren't very good -- it was cloudy, and there were also reflections... For a better experience, go on a clear day, bring a decent camera (preferably with wide-angle lens), and find ways to avoid reflections beforehand :)

Singapore Philatelic Museum – Revisited

(backdated entry)

I visited Singapore Philatelic Museum again (after few years, haha), this time with my girlfriend. And the camera I bring was better than the one I had back in 2005 :P This time I'm not going to write lengthy blog entry about the museum, just want to post some pictures :) My previous blog entries about SPM are here: part 1, part 2, part 3.

Anyway, there are some things I like about this museum, some of them common across museums in Singapore:

1. Being a philatelic museum, it's quite unique (to me at least)





Grand Prix stamps



One among famous stamp collectors




2. The exhibits are nicely organized, and it also has a number of dynamic / interactive ones. By the way, there are also some exhibits related to Singapore's heritage. I took some pictures of those in a previous entry.
   






3. There temporary exhibitions keeps things interesting for repeat visitors (OK, it's not like I visit this place frequently, but still.. :P).




Some stamps from temporary exhibition on cultural heritage of China
(titled Dragons, Treasures and Masterpieces)


A section for temporary exhibition on Vietnam's heritage,
titled "Journey through the Land of Lotus"



4. Visitors can take photographs. Yes, I had asked the (very friendly) staff prior to taking pictures.
   

5. The location is very accessible (City Hall), and there are a number of interesting places in the general area. Two of the closest are the Central Fire Station and building of Singapore's Ministry of Information, Communication, and the Arts

Central Fire Station
(yeah yeah, similar angle to that in my 2005 entry :P)


MICA building

Now, if only the museum was bigger... :)

Full Spectrum Warrior Bug

Just installed Full Spectrum Warrior (yes, it's an old game :P), and encountered a Direct 3D error right at the start. A quick Google search revealed that at the very first time, the game should be started at 1024 x 768 resolution, else this error occurs. Changed my monitor resolution, started the game, it works fine.

Moral of the story:

1. Be careful with the assumptions you use when writing software. It may still be sold or used quite some time after the configuration common during development time is no longer common. 1024 x 768 may be common in 2004, but widescreen resolutions have been quite popular for some time now.
2. Don't rush to get newly released software. If I had bought this game when it was first released, I probably wouldn't be able to find the cause that quickly.
3. On the other hand, be careful when buying software that were developed before the hardware you currently use becomes popular.

Anyway, so far I find the game to be quite fun.... :D

Odd CSI New York Scene

Also check this Cracked.com list

Lantern Festival 2008

Some random photos taken when I went to this year's Lantern Festival at Chinese Garden. (if you wish, you can also check my entries about the 2007 and 2005 festival). It was pretty crowded when I was there, perhaps I should've gone during weekday evenings...

Queue at the main entrance

Anyway, this year's theme is Hello Kitty Go Races, starring the famous mouthless cat and her friends. The "races" part likely has something to do with the upcoming Singapore F1, but the Hello Kitty part, well, I don't know :p

Not all of the lanterns have such theme though, there are also quite a number of lanterns that feature Hello Kitty & friends in other settings, lanterns that have more traditional culture theme, and lanterns with sports theme -- no doubt influenced by recent Beijing Olympics. Actually, I find some of them much nicer than the racing ones.

Aww.. aren't they cute?



Lantern Athletes




Lanterns with more conventional theme

At the end of the day, I think this year's Lantern Festival is still worth the $15 ticket price :) I'd consider going on weekday evenings for next year though...