Singapore Biennale in City Hall

I finally found some time to continue with my visit to the Singapore Biennale. The above pictures are taken from a visit to the exhibits found in City Hall. The interesting thing about this visit is that I got to see what the inside of a courtroom looks like. Not to mention the interesting ways that the art pieces and installation works in the context of the location. Certainly an interesting experience if any.

Free online media converter

So, you're looking to convert a file from one format to another. Here's a tool that'll be of use to you. It's a free online tool where you can turn your files from one format to another. It seems to support a whole lotta format, ranging from popular formats like MP3 and JPG to lesser know ones like OGG. It even support document formats like PPT. Some of the formats I've never even heard of, such as MIFF and PNM. Sounds too good to be true? Well, you can head to the link to try it out since you don't have to register or fork out a cent to use it.

13 Oblivion essential mods

If you're playing Oblivion on the PC, then you'd know that the game has plenty of mods available made by the Oblivion mod community. In fact, some of the mods are so awesome that they should not have been mods in the first place. They should have been part of the game, dammit! Anyway, the PixelRage website has put together 13 Oblivion mods that you should install, including mods that will make your environment looks better and one that makes your adventuring map looks nice and stylish.

Web-based Blog Word Processor

If you're lookg for a web-based tool to post items to your blog, check out this tool called WriteToMyBlog. This is a web-based word processor that you can use to compose postings and then you can post it to your blog. With it, you can control indents, font sizes, link pictures and more. It works with most major blogging software and it's free.

Useful Free Windows Programs Under 2MB

Freeware is good. Freewares that are under 2MB are even better. On the Revision3 forum, there's a list of super-duper useful apps that weights in under 2MB. Good things come in small sizes too!

Day Against DRM

Okay, so I've miss it by a day. But I guess it is still alright to point out that Oct 3rd is the International Day Against DRM. Boing Boing has a whole lotta links that you can visit to read all about the problems of DRM. Also of interest is the Defect by Design site. Head there to find out ten things that you can do to spread the truth about DRM. Now go, spread the word.

Add Google Gadgets to your webpage

If you're looking for some ways to spiff up your webpage, you can head down to Google and take a look at GOogle Gadgets. Now, you can add some of these gadgets to your page. Things that you can add include simple items like a Data & Time gadget to a more fun Bejeweled gadget. Just grab the code and add it to your page. Simple.

DIY: HTTP,FTP and E-Mail Server in an hour

Want to try setting up your own servers? Here's a useful guide to walk you through the setting up and running of a full featured webserver from just about any Internet connection. From issues such as getting a domain name to the software you'd need, it's a good place to start your journey of "web-serving".

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BitTorrent Sites Compared

Can't decide which BitTorrent Sites to use? Here's something that you can use to help you. This website looks at 10 BT sites and compares them in terms of various criteria, including number of torrents indexed and site feature.

Virtual Cassette Generator

The cassette is already a dead, if not almost dead, format. In fact, I've bought quite a number of cassettes as a teenager, and I can't play them now. So unless those tapes were reissued on a disc or as a digital music file, those music are really lost to me. As a tribute to the cassette, here's a website that you can use to generate your own cassette, complete with the labels and band name.

Lego Macintosh

Here's another LEGO creation. This time, it's a Mac made out of about 500 blocks. It is a fully functional Mac web server. Nice.

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Transform WinXP to look like Vista

Can't wait to have Vista? The Vista Transformation Pack is here to help you. Now at version 5.5, this pack and make your existing XP system look like Microsoft's upcoming system.
Link

Images from Singapore Biennale '06

Recently, I went to take a look at the exhibits on display as part of the Singapore Biennale. Some of the art works were awe-inspiring, while others were rather "blah". Anyway, I've only seen those at the National Museum and at some of the religious places. Those from the latter category were rahter disappointing. I've included picts that I've taken so far. Hope that the other works at places like City Hall and Tanglin Camp are more interesting. Click on the pictures above for the full photos.

The Great Flickr Tools Collection

Flickr is fun. That's why I signed up for a Pro Flickr account. Anyway, here's a list of great Flickr tools. Plenty of useful, fun, and interesting tools for use with Flickr.
Link

IKEA toilet graffiti

IKEA toilet graffiti
Originally uploaded by Gremlink.

Somebody certainly loves IKEA, even in the loo. Here's a wall drawing that I found in one of the toilet cubes.

Timbuk2 ipod case

Timbuk2 ipod case
Originally uploaded by Gremlink.

OK, this is another item that I got for my birthday. It's a Timbuk2 iPod case that I can attach to the strap of my Timbuk2 bags. Pretty useful. I use t mostly for my Treo rather than an iPod, mostly.

iTunes Gift card

iTunes Gift card
Originally uploaded by Gremlink.

I finally got myself an iTunes account. With the help of an iTunes Music Card courtesy of my colleagues who bought it for my birthday. With it, I can finally download those free weekly music track. I'm not too keen on buying DRMed music though. But hey, now that the iPod supports gaming, I've bought an iPod game (called Vortex) with it.

Pile of rodents

Pile of rodents
Originally uploaded by Gremlink.

A lot of soft toy rats found in IKEA. No, it's not really cuddly, seriously.

Upload to Flickr with Java-based juploadr

Looking for an easy way to upload pictures to Flickr? Here's a Java app that you can try. Since it's Java, it's cross-platform and you can use it on Mac and Windows-based machines. It's also open-source, so it's free.
Link

Sizeasy: A size comparison website

When shopping online, it can be difficult to get a good feel of the size of items when all you have are the dimensions. In comes Sizeasy, which is a site where you can input the dimensions, and it'll let you compare that size with items like playing cards and even a wine bottle. At least now you'll be able to get a better sense of that item you're buying. Pretty neat.

The Best-ever Freeware Utilities List

Free, free, free. You just don't have to spend loads on software if you know where to look. Here's another list of freeware and puts the best freeware in categories. Great resource if you're looking for some freeware to beef up your PC.

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15 ways to get more out of Pandora

Pandora is a great way to discover new music. That's why Lifehacker has come up with 15 ways for you to get more out of using Pandora. Some of the tips include ways to tweak Pandora and also to make use of Pandora's RSS feature. Neato.

Paris in pictures

Paris is a beautiful city. It's a place that I'll certainly go again if I have the opportunity. Here're some snapshots of the city:The Sacre Coeur church found on a hilltop in the Montmarte area.Antique furniture found in the St Ouen market.Assumption Day in Paris. That was the day that we intended to go shopping, but found out that it was actually a public holiday. A change of plans brought us to the Cite area and we saw a procession celebrating Assumption Day, which Catholics celebrate to commemorate the the day that Mary was received into Heaven.The procession ended in Notre Dame. It was certainly interesting to witness a mass happening in Notre Dame with all the ceremony and majestic organ music.The Saint Germaine church.A visit to Paris is not complete with a visit to the Lourve. Here, we saw the Mona Lisa (had to squeeze with the crowd to get a good look at this painting) and the Venus de Milo statue.

The source of Champagne

France is wine country. And of course, the sparkling wine that is known all over the world as Champagne comes from the grapes grown in this region. During my holiday, I visited two famous champagne makers, Piper Heidsieck and Moet & Chandon, both in the Champagne region.
This is the inside of the Moet & Chandon cellar. You can see all the bottles of Champagne stacked neatly on racks and waiting for the day that they will be introduced to the world as the "Drink of Kings".A visit to Moet & Chandon comes with tasting of the champagne. Delightful!In the Champagne region is also the famous catheral in Reims. This is where the French kings are crowned. The magnificant gothic-style church looks amazing and it's hard to imagine that the building was actually badly damaged during the bombings of World War II.

Home-made Paris guide book

Guide France 26,27
Originally uploaded by Jan and Roly.

I just saw this on Flickr. Someone known as "Jan and Roly" has made a guide book with maps and details of walks that he'll be embarking on. It's beautifully drawn and looks amazing. You can see the full photoset here.

Cory Doctorow on how copyright broke

There's certainly something wrong with the way copyright laws work in today's age of electronic reproduction. Sci-fi writer Cory Doctorow has written an interesting commentary titled "How Copyright Broke" examining the problems with today's copyright laws.

The idea that copyright confers the exclusive right to control copying, performance, adaptation, and general use of a creative work is a polite fiction that has been mostly harmless throughout its brief history, but which has been laid bare by the Internet, and the disjoint is showing.

Time for copywrong?

Timbuk2 Blogger bag

For my birthday, my wife bought me this wonderful Timbuk2 Blogger bag. It's a laptop bag for the blogging generation. For a long time, I've wanted a bag for my notebook but I've not found a bag that I like. So for the most part, I've used a sleeve and dump the notebook into my Crumpler.

But ever since I've found Timbuk2, I've grown to like it and would really want to get one of these hardy and versatile bag. When I saw the Blogger, I knew that I needed to give it a try. Since it's a vertical bag, I need to get used to the different orientation of the bag. Still, it's a change from most bags, which are carried horizontally.

The laptop compartment inside this bag is spacious. In fact, with my 12" Powerbook in the compartment, there's still plenty of space left. Maybe with a 15", the fitting will be better. When my company issues me with a 13" Fujitsu, I'll be able to try if the fit is better. Fitting aside, the compartment is padded and covered with corduroy material. No worries that your laptop will get any scratches. There's also a small MP3 compartment on the inside of the bag, again, it is lined with corduroy material to protect your music player.

Another good thing about this bag is the number of slots for you to place your stuff. There are slots for pen, phone, card, and even an attachment for your keys. Only thing missing is a place for a water bottle, but I suppose that can be placed in the bag itself (provided there's no spillage).

I'm looking forward to use this great looking bag. In fact, my obsession with Timbuk2 has led me to place an order for a standard medium size messenger bag from them. I'll post up pictures when I get my bag.

Check out a photoset of this bag on my Flickr account.

Plush seats

Seats in the Parliment chamber are plush and comfy.

Dials

Was at the Old Parliment house. Had a chance to sit on the seats where the MPs sat. On the armrest, you can see dials where the MPs can hear speeches in the language of their choice.

Apple Boot Camp resource

Dual booting Windows and the Mac OS... now that Apple has made that possible with Intel Macs and the software called Boot Camp, folks can now run Windows on their Mac. It's not easy, but this site called Dual Boot Guru.com is here to help you. There are plenty of useful info and tutorials, including how to slipstream Windows, for those who need help to get Windows up and running. Essential.

Grab YouTube vids for your iPod

YouTube is certainly the place if you want to view interesting videos. However, getting the videos to your iPod can be a hassle. Now there're some tools you can use to quickly grab those videos and put them on your iPod for viewing on the go. For Mac, there's PodTube and if you're in the Windows camp, try iTube. They're both freeware.

iPod losing its cool?

The iPod is losing it. According to a piece in UK's Guardian, there are signs that the popular iPod is losing its cool status and could go the way of the Sony Walkman.

Industry-watchers warn that the iPod could soon be regarded by teenage cynics as their 'parents' player' because a mass-market product rarely equates with edgy fashionability. Although it has sold nearly 60 million actual iPods and a billion downloaded songs worldwide, cracks have begun to appear in the edifice. The Zandl Group, a New York-based trends forecaster which regularly interviews a panel of 3,000 consumers aged 25-35, recently picked up its first significant criticisms. 'The iPod is far and away the most popular tech gadget with our panellists - however, for the first time we are hearing negative feedback about the iPod from some panellists,' said the organisation's spokeswoman, Carla Avruch.

Well, just hope that Apple keeps innovating. That's the only way.

Blogmusik: Listen to Music Online in a Virtual iPod

Don't have an iPod? Check out this beautiful Flash based application which allows you to search for your favorite's song and listen to the music online, just like a real iPod. You can navigate through the sound tracks in the simple, iPod (but Creative patented) navigation. The only question is when the RIAA and other copyright folks will force this off the web.

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Connecting a 40GB HDD to a Nintendo DS

Seems like all the Nintendo handheld systems are great props for hackers. The GBA had plenty of hacks, and now, there are a number of NDS hacks floating around. One of the more interesting ones is this, where NDS hacker Natrium42 succeeded in connecting a 40GB IDE hard-drive to a Nintendo DS. He shows you how to do it step by step on his blog. Only downside is that with this hack, you probably can't put your NDS in your pockets.

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Home of French royalty

Versailles is outside Paris and is the residence of the least few French kings. It's a beautiful palace with a beautiful garden. Too bad they day I was there, it rained and the wife and me were drenched trying to walk around the gardens.At one corner of the huge, huge garden is a place called the Queen's Hamlet. This was built by the last queen of France, Marie Antoninette. It's a reconstruction of a quaint French village, complete with a mill and even a farm.Well, since the real Rose of Versailles aka Marie Antoninette, is not around, at least there are a few roses around for me to capture on film.

Monuments in Paris, France

Who is the most famous female in French history? Has to be Joan of Arc. You can practically see statues of her everywhere in France, from churches, to monuments, to postcards, to mugs. The above is a picture of a statue of the gutsy girl from Orleans who fought against the English... and won.Paris is a city of monuments. There are tons and tons of monuments (I bet the amount of rocks used to build these also weigh tons) scattered everywhere in the city. This is the famous Arc de Triomphe, built by Napolean I. I've seen this Arc in pictures, but nothing prepared me when I saw it in person. I was really imposing and impressive. Since my hotel is near the Arc, seeing it on the first day when I arrived in Paris sort of reminded me that... wow, I'm indeed in Paris!The Eiffel Tower is the symbol of Paris. A tower of steel, you either love it or hate it. Well, plenty of folks certainly love it as the queue to go up the tower is looooong. Because of the queue, I gave climbing the tower a pass. Maybe next time.

GSpot for codec info

Although named after some illusive location, GSpot the software is actually a Codec Information Appliance. What it means is that it will look at your media file, and then try to tell you how your file is encoded and what codec you will need to play it. Really nifty for media files junkies.

Delete apps with KillBox

This is a handy tool if one day, you find that you can't get rid of a virus, spyware, or any other files that you just can't delete because the file is running. With KillBox, the software will attempt to kill the process before deleting the file. Of course, use it at your own risk.

Putting Dashboard widgets on the desktop

Dashboard widgets are really useful. But the idea of having to hit the F12 key everytime to use those nifty widgets can be a drag. Lifehacker has provided a tip that will let you put your widgets on your Mac desktop. It involves typing a Terminal command, then dragging it to the desktop.

Catacombs in Paris

Catacombs in Paris
Originally uploaded by Gremlink.

Paris is a romantic and beautiful city. But there is actually an underground Paris that people seldom see. It is literally an underground area called the Catacombs. In it are the bones of millions of Parisians who were buried in this city. Since the cemetaries were running out of spaces, bones were dug up and placed in the catacombs. The skulls and bones are neatly stacked and going through the catacombs is a chilling and memorable experience. Just looking at the sockets of the skulls starring back at you gives you the chills, but also gives you a sense of history.

Holiday in France: Mont St-Michel

I recently got back from a long holiday. It was a great experience visiting many places in France and England. In France, the main stop was Paris, with a few day trips out and around. Perhaps one of the most impressive place I visited was the Mont St-Michel. You can see the picture above.
From a distance, you can actually see it standing above the plains. Basically, it is a cathedral built on a piece of rock and before they built a causeway, you can only get there when the tide was low. It was also a place of pilgrimage when the monks still stayed there. Now, it is a tourist haunt, but still a beautiful, haunting, and impressive place.

Rocking Singapore music blog

Rock In The Fine City is a blog for Singapore music fans. Specifically, the blog deals with Singapore music from the 80s to the 90s. This was the era of great local music and during that time, BigO was the rag that chronicled that era. The blog contains album reviews of albums such as that for the New School Rock CD, Humpback Oak's Pain-stained Morning (still a great album) and Daze's Sexy Little Boy EP (I've lost my cassette version and wished that I bought a CD version at that time. I'm still looking for the CD version.) Great memories for those who were there at that time.

Top 10 Ubuntu apps and tweaks

If you plan to switch to Ubuntu, Lifehacker.com has come up with a list of 10 great apps and tweaks for this popular Linux distro. It's a great place to start your journey on Ubuntu. The comments section that followed the post also has great suggestions for other tips and tricks you can do with Ubuntu.

My first Moleskine

My first Moleskine
Originally uploaded by Gremlink.

I've first read and seen these paper notebooks in some of the pictures found on the "what's in your bag" Flickr group. They look nice, classy, and after doing a bit of research on them, I found that those folk using these notebooks really love them. When I was in Amsterdam last year, I saw these on sale and so I bought a pocket size plain version. Since I am going to Paris and London on holiday, I decided to open up the Moleskine and use it as a notebook for this trip.

So, this will be my first Moleskine and although I have not started using it, I'm beginning to love the smooth feel of the cover and the heft of this pocket book.

The Best Media in Life is Free

The Best Media in Life is Free. Yes, that's the name of this blog. It's a blog that recommends some of the best Creative Commons content and also those in the public domain. You can get recommendations of content ranging from ebooks to MP3 music files. Check it out for great free stuff that you can enjoy... and yes, some of the best media in life is indeed free.
Link

Top Ten OS X Screensavers

Screensavers are fun. They provide some amusement and visual zen to our desktop computing experience. If you're a Mac OS user, here're ten great screensavers that you may want to try out as compiled on the PhillRyu.com site. Sorry Windows users, these are not for you.

Do stuff with PDF files

The sad thing about PDF documents is that they are fixed. However, there's actually a tool that lets you manipulate PDF files. Called PDFTK, it's a command line tool that lets you merge and split PDF files. If you're intimidated by the command line interface, there's a GUI front-end for this tool called GUIPDFTK. Nifty.

Zoho: Yet another online office suite

Zoho is yet another of those Web 2.0 thingy where you can work on your office documents online. In fact, the Zoho office suite and productivity tools are quite complete with items for you to work on presentations, documents, spreadsheets and there's even a planner for your to keep your schedule. It's all free too!

PC in a Football

PC modding is wild, if you've seen all those crazy PC cases that modders have come up with. This is another of those mods that is really great. What the modder has done is to put a PC into a football. This must be inspired during the World Cup and footy fans will certainly love this mod.

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Role Playing Game Inspirational Posters

Know those inspirational posters you see hanging in meeting rooms or cubicles? There're actually pretty lame. But if you hang up some of these role-playing theme posters, you'd probably stand our from the crowd. Some of them are real funny too.

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10 Coolest LEGO Gadgets

Who doesn't love LEGO? The things that you can do with LEGO bricks are only limited by your imagination. Listed here on the TechEBlog is a list of the 10 most fab things ever built with LEGO bricks. My fave is the LEGO crossbow. It is fully functional and can fire on semi-automatic. Nice.

Guardian's 50 albums that changed music

This is another of those "Best Albums" list. But interestingly, this list by Guardian does have something interesting. It tries to tell us what won't have existed if the album was never made. My fave has got to be the entry on The Spice Girls' Spice album at number 21.

Without this ... five-year-olds would not have become a prime target for pop marketeers. Most of all, there'd be no Posh'n'Becks.

Open Source Movie: Boy Who Never Slept

First we have open source software. Now, we have open source movie. This movie, titled "Boy Who Never Slept" is perhaps the world's first free open source movie and it is available for download. What is interesting about this movie is that everything from the raw footage, the finished product, the audio track, and the script is also available. The director and star of this film called Soloman Rothman has made all these goodies available under a Creative Commons license. Interesting to check out.

Boy Who Never Slept is a free full length movie that anyone can watch, share, and even use in their own derivative works (open source).BWNS is about an insomniac writer and his relationship with a teenage girl he meets online. What begins as merely a friendship, evolves into an unlikely love wrapped in harsh reality.

Play Battleship using Google Earth

The guy from research.techkwondo.com has started an interesting laboratory experiment to see how Google Earth could become a platform for real-time mobile gaming. To that effect, they have used Google Earth to play the old fave called Battleship. Pretty interesting to see how this develops. Imagine, hiding your aircraft carrier in some place in the Pacific Ocean. It'll be tough trying to guess the grids that this ship is on to sink it.

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The Video Game Business Is Broken

Everyone is saying that the Video Games business is booming and is taking on Hollywood. However, an opinion piece on the GameDaily Biz website by Mark Friedler has instead pointed out some things about the video game business that is wrong. Interesting but sound alternative opinions to all the rah-rah hype about the video game industry.

Mod for Nike+iPod to work with any shoe

The new Nike+iPod Sports Kit will certainly be useful to folks who love running. However, you might not want to fork out more money to simply buy a shoe that can hold the kit's transmitter device. Well, this mod lets you use the kit with any brand of running shoe. It's quick and easy...and it works! Step-by-step guide and photos included.

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Free file sharing site for Singapore

Want to share a file with a friend? If you want a fast, speedy site to do it, check out MyFile.sg. The servers are connected to the SingaporeONE network so the speed is quite fast. Useful service to note.

My HDTV setup on HDBeat

Well, this is pretty cool. My home's HDTV setup that I posted on the HDBeat Flickr pool is featured on HDBeat. Check it out. Nice. I've even included some notes on the picture for fun and info.

Browse adult content with Heatseek

So, you're a consumer of adult content. If the typical browser does not cut it in your pursuit of porn paradise, then maybe you want to try Heatseek. This is a specialised browser for Windows that is built specifically to browse those naughty pictures. It even has protection from nasty popups and viruses. Available free or pay to get a "Gold" version.

Frequently Awkward Questions for the Entertainment Industry

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has come up with a list of FAQs - Frequently Awkward Questions - that one can throw out to challenge the entertainment industry's position. If your really think about it, some of these questions will make you think hard about the state of copyright, fair use, and our overall usage of the media products like music and video.

TVUplayer: TV viewing P2P-style

With the broadband pipes getting fatter, I can really start to see the death of regular TV. With the TVUplayer, P2P technology is utilized to deliver programmes to you. Although I've not tried it yet, there are already reports saying that the quality is excellent and a number of Net users have been watching the World Cup broadcast, or rather re-broadcast, using this tech. Simply amazing and one wonders how broadcasters plan to use or fight the oncoming tide.

STOMP is Citizen journalism?

The Singapore papers aka Straits Times recently did a feature on Citizen Journalism. It looks at blogs and other outlets whereby common folks, and not professional journos, report and post stories. Of course, the ST can't help to insert a healthy dosage of self-promotional coverage and featured their own STOMP website, which encourages people to send in stories, photos, and videos. Apparently, in the story, Cherian George was interviewed and it seems like the ST left out a major point brought up by George. Here's the major point.

Not surprisingly, though, ST left out one additional point I made: that I do not consider STOMP to be citizen journalism. The Review package celebrates STOMP as if it is the cutting edge of citizen journalism in Singapore.

ST is self-promotional and practicing real journalism? You decide.

World Cup in HD

Bigger screen. Greater sense of how much space there is on the pitch. Higher tactical awareness. That is how it feels to watch a WC in hi-def. Now, I want to ALL my Man U games in HD.

My home theatre with HDTV

This is my home theatre set up, with a 37" 1080i screen, and receiving HDTV signal that is over the air via the trial MediaCorp HDTV signals. Very nice indeed. Looking forward to watch the semis and finals of the World Cup in HD!

OS X on your x86 Windows computer!

First, it's Windows on a Mac. Now, with the release of OS X 10.4.7, it's possible to install the Mac OS on your Windows computer. At least this is what the site claims. Don't think it is really easy to do or even properly legal, but hackers will certainly try it regardless. The guide on the site walks you through the creation of a dual boot menu in which you can choose from OS X and Windows. There's also a step to create a nice rescue disk in case something goes wrong. Neat.

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