"-19ºC ... Feels like -29ºC"
LOL

The good design about those sort of notebooks is the keyboard placement, near the user rather then squished in front of the monitor (encourages hunchback) like mine. Only pitfall of that is no mouse pad (don't need wrist-rest).

Anywho, can anyone guess what IFC stands for when I'm looking at this?

Also note the time of refresh, the current and windchill (due to wind speed) temps, and today's *high*. what am i doing here

The key is in the word possibility. If in fact it did occur that a speeding car killed someone, the costs will be greater.

I have never felt so much lust for a notebook before.

the fine we pay does not necessarily reflect the cost or damage on society we can potentially inflict.
in your case, the actual cost to the rta and associates is more relevant to the fine you paid.
whereas for the speeding ticket, a combination of penalty imposed to discourage the offence and actual cost to their police force and motoring association is used to determine the fine we paid.

not saying its right or wrong, just an explaination on what happened.

Combination RTA & IPB Fine for Parking in clearway at uni...$293
Going 37 over the speed limit in Melbourne...$265
Disparity in Public Policy? Priceless

I just found out that the total cost of the towing fine surpasses even driving 37 over the speed limit. I'm not jealous of you guys, but pissed off at the system. How can they justify charging an offender more for being in the way of watching precious horses at Randwick race course over the possibility of hitting someone and killing them driving 37km over the speed limit?

I can see public policy is definately working proportionately here.

(No offence or intention to question your driving skills guys, just raising my point)

Keep the cameras rolling.

hah! i've heard that song here so many times

my milkshake brings all the boys to the yard
and they're like, its better than yours
damn right, its better than yours
i could teach you, but i'll have to charge.
my milkshake brings all the boys to the yard
and they're like, its better than yours
damn right, its better than yours
i could teach you, but i'll have to charge.

Kwong: haha yeah the snow's fantastic, except the skies were a bit dull that day (yesterday) so the pics didn't come out too good.
Skies are clear today, as I write this it's -13 degrees C outside, windchill factor of -21. No wonder my balls are freezing off.



Yeah I'll figure out matlab sometime when I have time. Control Systems is hard! If you've started it yet that is. Be warned.
Or maybe it really is that I'm missing a pre-requisite.

As for my Australia-return trajectory (c.f. Earth return), I would be stopping in HKG for a month or two at least, maybe back in sydney mid Feb earliest.
I'm not sure when I'm leaving the U.S., I haven't planned for that yet at all. I could stay in the U.S. up until like mid-late January according to my visa.
You'd be coming here just for holidays right? How long do you intend to stay in the U.S.?
(On a side note, answer these questions because U.S. immigration will grill you tender over it haha)

James : Nice pic ^^

Alexis : haha so that's the truth now is it? You're not born in Italy! I had go to the other side of this planet so you could tell me that. You demanding man.

Oh yeah and just for your entertainment, the advantages of large aperture:

Gary:
Alexis owes pretty much everyone a PS2.. and XBOX.. and whatnot.

Today's sunset

Really now alexis?
Don't you owe me a PS2?

Jono: With this Ricardo dude, I believe that will be the second Peruvian you know...

I was actually born in Peru you know, my father is Sicilian...

We are at max q!!!
Beautiful beautiful snoooow!
LOL erm matlab is supposedly easy =)

Btw Jono when do you come back to australia next year?
I plan to make a visit to US next summer holiday (wanted to go now but its a bit late).

Don't you rearrange me you rearranger John!

Anywho, I've just posted up like 13 pics on my blog so be warned (about 100kb each pic)

what haha?
goes that my to blog link
aren't on page pictures this the.

haha what?
That link goes to my blog
The pictures aren't on this page.

Yes Johno, I can see them. I see people from Zambia, Pakistan, UAE, Peru and our very own Australia. But where are the Americans?

Water, water, everywhere.. and apparantly we already knew that.

What Charlie?
"Where are the Americans?"
Am I reading right
Can u see the photos?

Sell your viginity.

Where are the Americans?

James: The Golden Globes have been announced, and Hollywood has finally learned to stop awarding best picture to sentimental tear jerking over the top films with zero substance - ie Cold Mountain, and give credit where it is due - LOTR: Return of the King, with Peter Jackson winning best director.

What might piss you off is that Howard Shore won best musical score as well.

"As the NASA JPL engineer said when he came and spoke to us, the cameras run 3200 x 3200 resolution, i.e. 10.24MPs."

Canon 1Ds. 11Megapixels.
"Sorry"~ ^^

Kwong - It's freezing here, I have videos of heavy snowing actually (today just started snowing again, after like 3 weeks).
But the indoor heating systems here are real good, climate control etc. So people staying indoors wear t-shirts etc, if you go outside you need to rug up, for sure.
As I write this, It's currently -8 degrees C, with a wind chill factor down to -17, according to the weather channel.com

Yeah opportunity touchdown was awesome too. Those photographs are breathtaking.
As the NASA JPL engineer said when he came and spoke to us, the cameras run 3200 x 3200 resolution, i.e. 10.24MPs.
Bigger than the 828 James ^^. And then they beam it all the way back to earth. Brilliant engineering in all aspects

Anyway the rover landed at 12:05am EST. At that time, I had 5 words to say. American College Girls. Wild Parties.

http://www.powergenitalia.com

it's the end of the world as we know it
it's the end of the world as we know it
it's the end of the world as we know it
and i feel fiiiiiiiiiiiiiine.

can't change my comp course sessions
have to algo's in s1
prolly gonna try to do AI this year
but it is looking unlikely, unless i overload by 6 units each session

hash, do AI in session 1, thats what i'm doing

do algorithms in session 2, i am considering doing it then as well

then do neural networks or machine learning next year..

wont that be a joyous occasion..

i recommend creative writing... c'mon.. it'll be fun! or how about something like 'aboriginal music'?

or do a language, like beginners german or something. otherwise look through the list yourself..

thailand has great food, but make sure whatever you eat is cooked really HOT.. to kill all the bacteria and such in the water.. and take some immodium..

yay, i'm getting telstra cable!!

add that to my telstra phone, my foxtel, my mum's telstra mobile, = 15% discount of everything! yay

Why not postpone algos to s2, unless you have prereq for it in s2. If Buckland is teaching cryptography there may still be a chance that he's teaching algos too.

Noooooooooooooooo I have 10mb left before caps game over. Friggin gaybo optus is fully cheaping us with 28.8k. Even telstra has a 64kbit but Optus still insist on leaving us a worthless piece of shit connection that literally cannot do anything!

Opportunity touchdown!
Hey Jono, your friends are wearing tshirts? So it aint that cold there? =)
Thailand = cheap clothing only I think. Not sure about electronics etc.

woah everyone so busy posting

still undecided on Uni timetable for me

want to cange to BINF/MBiomedEng but that means i may have to do 30 units
for 3 sessions to get to do the COmp subject i want

btw, is anyone doing algo's in session 1?
that's the onli definite comp that im doin so far

may do AI session1
then machine learning session2 if possible

plus, does anyone have any decent GenEd recommendations that are
interesting but not too difficult???

going to Lanka in Feb and may miss out on Uni days 1 + 2

+ anyone been to Thailand b4?
know whether there is decent shopping there?

Marc - I am impressed.

It's approximately Guilloume, I believe. And yes it's french for William, which is why we sometimes just call him Bill.

Ahaha James
I really needa learn how to use this thing but man it makes me appreciate my SLR a lot more.
When you say "The world looks so good in this" I understand why now.
I want to replace my EVF with a natural one!
hahah

Also, will try to ship your CD's soon. Actually, my burner shipped on 01/22 so should be here soon. then i'll figure a way of posting

Off to lunch.

You damn people with advanced cameras. You are pushing my 717 out of business! 828 here, A1 there, Eric comming back with 828 soon.

That's it. 1Ds and L glass. You asked for it.
I need a new visa.

LOL Gi-oom. Its Guilliame i think. Its french for William

Greetings again peoples..

In case anyone failed to notice, its Chinese New Year now.

so "gong hi fat choi" (tell me if its wrong and i shall retrospectively change it) to you all and have a happy year of the bonobo!


theres an 'advanced graphics'?? whats the course number?

what the.. i can do comp graphics in s1? thats it.. i'm changing..

something tells me i should do algorithms as soon as i can, regardless of the Buckland factor.

man, i really should have looked into this stuff further. so.. more editing of my timetable.. wheeeeeee

Yeap A1 came in today, shipped from NY to here in 2 days, much quicker than anticipated.
Only got it at night time so only night shots atm.

Anyway, let your bandwidth burn here:



Black and white shot in our rec lounge, this is basically my bunch of friends. They're terrorists from Zambia to Pakistan.
Second from left is Joel, he's Aero Eng@UNSW a year above me.
Bit of a blur on 3rd from left, he's Hamid Hussain (no kidding, but different spelling) from Pakistan.



Again on left is Hamid, on right is Haneef, he's from UAE (United Arab Emirates). They're both in my room atm, but the desk in the background is my room mate's.
Yes they all speak perfectly good english. In fact, surprisingly good, but of course with the funky accents.
They all have a mad sense of humour so that's great.



This is Ricardo, from Lima, Peru. He's pretty funky.
Yeah that's ice cream from the dining halls, where we eat usually (i.e. dorms)
The food is amazing, it's all you can eat. And yeah everything tastes awesome.
More pics on food sometime later on.



Macro shots are pretty cool with this camera, you can read this pretty clearly.
This is the campus newspaper (they have a daily one written by students - it's really quite good)



Random shot Joel took during dinner. Nice transparency in the arm.
On left is Mrugesh, nickname Mrugz, now nick named Simba from lion king because he's from Zambia, Southern Africa.
On right is a French guy, can't quite spell his name yet but sounds like "Gi-oom"



Just a reflective shot. This is where Joel, Haneef and Simba live. It's across the carpark from me, about 100m.
Mailboxes on right.

Ooo creepy...

warning

Just saw your passport photo. I'm confused, I thought it was this one...



This is the kinda ppl the US want in their country. Uncle Sam needs you now...

Jono:
Why don't you rip to your HDD in the mean time? Oh.. Campus porn maxed
out all partitions. ookie. ^^

Awaiting first shots from A1. It better be good.

Pack it as you see fit. Enough to prevent cracks when it reaches here.
Ship it using the cheapest air shipping. Cost is a few bucks <10. Tab it.

Spirit is MIA

James : Yeah no Hoyts on campus. But I do have you credit card no. and expiration date on alongside this UPS package here...^^
Kidding.

I ordered a cd burner that should be shipping soon. So when I get that (maybe less than a week or so?) I might burn a copy.
In the meantime I have class.

Also, camera was shipped yesterday so I can track it through UPS' website but the site doesn't seem to want to load.

Wait how do you want me to ship it? In the original box it came in? Because it came in "premier packaging" which is a big box about 4" x 12" x 9" with a big ass inflated plastic bag which is really quite soft.

Don't know how much it might cost to ship that big box internationally but i'm guessing it's not cheap?

QOTD
"CFN is about to save my future..."
[upon realising it is the best place to print his assignment before 9am]
-Alexis Nicoletti

lol. i'm sure that piece of wooden aerodynamic device would achieve significant gains on the performance vehicle.

Interesting picture. Mastercard has certainly got some genius marketing guys backing their campaigns.

May I also duplicate after the cds travel half-way across the world back to Oz?
Alternativelly could spend 2 months downloading it........
I will burn you Last Samurai on DVD in return.

Aerodynamic!

Jono:
I suggest you watch The Last Samurai before listening. What? No Hoyts on campus?! What el-cheapo uni! j/k

Anyway, if you still Zimmer, feel free to dupliate/rip. Send it to me when you're done.

16 Boulton St. Putney
2112 NSW
Aust.

/me enjoying Les Miserables in all the hard work going on right now in his life.

Cosmological? If both you and I are Libras then that means I'll go to the US too

You can do cryptology Kwong. Mmm yum

James: Amazon package received - Tears of the sun and the last samurai.

Did you want me to open the cds?

End of Feb has no public holidays I believe
meaning unless you come to Purdue, I either have to
a) Jig class, or
b) Jig you

Tough decision

Okay, I've decided.

I am going to do Computer Graphics in S1.
In S2, I'll either do Human Computer Interaction or Advanced Graphics.

Jono:
Suppose by some cosmological fluke, I were to go to the US at the end of Feb,
what can you make happen? ie. meet, etc.

Can i do it as well?

HAHA W00T!

I was gonna do it anyway ^^

Edit: ah frig, networks and crypt clash in 2nd session

I'm tempted. Very very tempted.

The Timetable and prerequisites for COMP3441 in session 2, 2004 has changed.


Here are the updated course details: COMP3441
Class: 4330
Course Title:Cryptography and Security
Day and Time: TUESDAY 5-8pm
Room: Mathews B
Lecturer: R. Buckland


(The current timetable for session 2 undergraduate CSE courses can be found at:
http://www/courses/timetables/comptt2004s2.html )


The prerequisites was: COMP3121 or COMP3121 and COMP3331 (EXCL:COMP4012,COMP9441)
The prerequisites now are: COMP2011 or COMP2711 (EXCL:COMP9441)


More details can be found at:

The course web page: http://www.cse.unsw.edu.au/~cs3441/

I will graduate in three years... a conservative estimate....
I will get exemption for the following:
Math 1A 6 units
Math 1B 6 units
12 units of general education subjects I have completed already...
Physics 6 units
Computing 6 units
Electrical 6 units

that is 42 units, so I need 6 extra to complete a year...

Alexis, conservatively speaking, when will you graduate with a degree?

Weren't you doing graphics last semester?

If I want to join Darren in HCI in S2, I'll have to do something else in S1.

Comp graphics in S1
Human comp interaction in S2.

Okay, who's joining me in comp graphics?

uhhh.. hello everyone..

i just remembered i'm a member of a blog.. thought i'd contribute to it.. somewhat.

my absence has been mainly because of my current job in the city..

cleaning.. from 6:30am to 11:30 weekdays..

anyway, this is my last week there, after which i will be moving on to more 'intellectual' pursuits, or maybe just some job at a better time of day.

but enough about that, speaking of classes for this year, i have already blindly chosen stuff to do, as i needed the concession card since i lost my other one.

well so far i will be doing the following..

S104
COMP2041 again.....
COMP3111 Soft Eng
COMP3411 Artificial Intelligence.

S204
COMP3421 Computer Graphics
COMP3511 Human Computer Interaction (thats right james.. so do it)
HPSC2610 Computers, Brains and Minds

still deciding when if at all to do COMP3121. session 1 or 2.... hmm

and i need another gened.. maybe chinese, or even... Jap2A again... (shiver)

well, theres today's contribution, more may follow, but i shall make no promises..

ach, bedtime is drawing closer.. agh..

gnite all

Also, for the CD writer I was looking at, ended up winning this auction:
Microsolutions Backpack Bantam 24x10x24

Looks kinda slim and a pretty good bargain for an external burner I think.

Alexis: Haha haven't seen mormons. not in this part of town. Glad you are reading my journal though haha
Yeah my roommate is playing Final Fantasy X-II or whatever it's called, the latest one. Plays that a fair bit.

And yeah I got exemption for Comp 1A for Comp 1M easily. Also got Accounting credited for 6 units of Gen eds, bit of a rort because I got 61 in accounting which doesn't help my WAM *at all* so for a while was thinking of dropping that and doing two other geneds but if I get my 75 WAM by the time I graduate I won't care.

Yeah that should be entitled to an exemption

Jono, I have been reading your journal and all I can say is:

That American politeness you talk about, I know it firsthand, and they are usually Mormons, so watch out...

I envy you, a friend that has a Gamecube, PS2 and X-box... it would like being in heaven... Halo, KOTOR, Metroid Prime, Legend of Zelda, GTAIII...

Also, though I am going to Uni tomorrow to consult with the Mech administration regarding first year courses which I might be given credit for, did you get exemption from doing Comp 1M, given that you did Comp 1A?

LOL. Just went for a practice run on manual. Its hard but its so much more fun that auto! I stalled several times. I still have to learn how to reverse properly and I haven't gone beyone 4th gear yet ^^

I smelt burning rubber from the tyres and I still have this jerky motion feeling. Learning auto then manual is the best

haha that's awesome Alexis! I'll be "that senior friend" that you'll be talking about to other people when they ask you, "where did you get those past paper solutions from?"
That's great news. Come to Purdue on exchange in 3rd year.

Speaking of Chrysler ads, the ads here are awesomity. Yeah they're really good, with the exception of cheesy cell phone ads. But as per usual beer ads and car ads are the best here, by far.

Oh yeah, would you guys tell me what you think of this? I.e. if it's worth it and suits my purposes best:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2781208289
or
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2779486088&category=27177

I need to back up my notebook data, which is probably maybe 12 or 13GB including MP3's etc. And I need to do it cheap.
I'm thinking of this cheap CD burner but not quite sure if it has any pitfalls. My notebook only has a CD/DVD-rom reader, no writer.

External HDD's are good, a lot have those one-touch backup things which would be great were it not for the $300 price tag.


P.S. I understand inferiority complex Marc. It's okay. ^^

Guess what Jono, I'll be doing Aerospace as well...
I got in...

i'm good at floccinaucinihilipilification.

we need celine dion and those chrysler ads!

One tonne rodeo!!!
we need a people mover...

Choose the car with the coolest theme song

Don't get two doors. They don't look that much better and besides...only fags drive 2 doorers. Oh, um, sorry Jono ^^

2 doors are really annoying. IMO even if it did look better (which it doesn't) its not worth the tradeoff of convenience

Thats a mighty fine poem there!

pizza hut
pizza hut
kentucky fried chicken
pizza hut

pizza hut
pizza hut
macdonalds
macdonalds
kentucky fried chicken
pizza hut

LOL Gary, I'm sure there's more than just plain'old repetative singing and monk humming. ;)

Hah Okay, tell me when they are expected to arrive (i.e. when you get a tracking # or email confirmation etc) so I know when to go pick it up from the post office downstairs.

Hey James, both those soundtracks resemble Thin Red Line =)

Jono:
Just informing you that Zimmer's latest works, namely,
Tears of the Sun and The Last Samurai
have been shipped to your address. Enjoy. Duplicate. And send me
the originals. ^^

And of course, put the shipping on my 'tab'.

haha I am positive you wouldn't, Benny. ^^
Good point, if you have an accident on the side of the car like mine, 4 doors much cheaper to repair than 2. Likelihood of this sort of accident, well, judge for yourself.

Nice comp charlie

Good suggestions too hash, just like the idea of getting revenge of someone you hate: take their car apart, and rebuild it in their bedroom.

Had some free time tonight so started using firebird (my crazy browser is having some problems so may be defecting to FireBird - sorry john ).
A few annoying configuration issues with the tabs, I still can't get links to open in new windows when I punch an address into the address bar. And no I don't want to press "alt enter" everytime. Crazy Browser can open a new tab straight from an "Enter" from the address bar. Anyone know how to fix this? Can't find the option, downloaded some extentions which have given me all these extra functions that are funky - but of course, haven't solved the originaly problem.

Sleep time

hahaha too bad Charlie XD
heh
You bastich Jono sif I'd be irresponsible with the Forklift.
But yeah Legend is good, but rather than be worried about how much the repair costs will be, you should worry more about the fact that it is a 2 door car. Usually 2 door cars cost more to insure and insurance is something you'll be paying annually unlike repair costs hopefully.
Back to Work. hmm, 2 hours, just enough time for a power nap before work.
Oh yeah I'll be putting up finally a list Roadtrip awards soon.

Status report:

Moved house, still in the Lidcombe vicinity, 2 minutes drive from my previous house.

Brother paid over 2 grand for a new comp: 2.66ghz, 120gb, 512mb ram, Samsung SyncMaster 191T 19" LCD, Logitech MX DUO Cordless keyboard and mouse, Logitech Z-640 surround sound system, Sony DVD rom plus Sony DVD burner. Drooling? Yes. But alas the computer's misplaced in my brother's bedroom in the old house.

No phone line yet, so no internet.
Still broke, gotta get a job or textbooks' a nono next sem.

Happy holidays everyone.

the problem with kit cars is you'll blow the savings with the insurance in a couple of years. and the costs keep on coming.

marc - what is wrong with doing AI?

u can follow on with neural networks and machine learning
in 4th year

Well James, if u got $8k

u can import an un-modded version of some of the cars
from 2fast 2furious that have around 20k on the odo
from Japan

the car will cost u about $1k, the import tax around $4k

here is the problem -
the whole car can not be imported, so u'll get it in parts

solutions -

1) Have a real good mechanic friend to put it together for u
2) Put it together urself
3) pay a mechanic $2-3k to put it together for you

And forget about getting insurance for a driver under the age of 25
that'll cost u the same amount again

oh man... go with the Jag!
probably my only chance to sit in one before my 65th birthday...

haha jono, they weren't my recommendations or opinions, i was merely giving options.

maintenance and parts wouldn't be as cheap as you may think for the legend either. more than your average japanese automobile but not as much as a merc.

but yes, legend seems like the most logical choice.

ULD's? Umbrellas Latching onto Druglords?

. Benny behind the wheel: $800 at the nearest Panel Beater
. Benny behind Australia Post: $18 per hour
. Benny behind the wheel of an Australia Post forklift: Priceless

(well, perhaps the extent of damaged induced will be. haha j/k Benny)

Yeah pretty good arguments there James. Of course, that 10% time driving with 2+ people in the car could well be the 2-3 week long road trip around Australia.
:)

Lexus of course is very much so ideal. Wasn't it also JJ that had a Legend, or some vehicle along those lines?

Thanks for the suggestions on the vehicle. Chose wisely, for probably in this
you will ride on our 2004/5 roadtrip!

If fuel, parts, insurance, electronics reliability wasn't a problem, I'd pick up a eighties Jaguar without a second thought. But for these reasons, we've decided not to go Euro. Is the Golf expensive in these aspects?

So we filtered down our options of $8000 Japanese cars and decided the late eighties Honda line was more preferrable over a early ninties Toyota line. This left us with the Legend and Prelude. Prelude is in higher demand than the Legend, which depreciates faster, making the Legend a better deal for bang per buck.

THe main concern currently is running costs (2.7L). Toyota is hard to beat here, but I guess one way or another I'll have to pay for such a 'choice.'

Regarding the 2 door vs. 4 door. I insisted on four door before but have been convinced otherwise. It's a choice between 90% of the time solo/dual driving with 100% cool factor or 10% time driving with 2+ people with 100% convenience factor. Hey.. they are both pretty good choices actually, if a suitable four door pops up, why not!

If I get convince my mom to hand over the Lexus to my disposal, then of course, all problems are solved. ;)

comparable?
you think too highly of yourself.
you were merely contrasted.
:P

Hey I have a neck comparable to Yi's? That's amazing.

Yeah I think Honda Legend is very suitable for James. I don't see him in anything else. Maybe an accord.
Toyota Corolla etc not so much, not for James. haha again sorry john but wouldn't recommend a comm or falcon for James, esp with the fuel it drinks on our budgets.

European is definitely grandeoseeeeeeee. Only issue with those is maintenance remember, and I"m sure James doesn't want to run around trying to find parts to fix for his European car.

Toyota's are very reliable though, if you're looking in that respect

(Again John don't mean to diss your opinions)

Actually not even a Honda Legend. Only think I might really be able to imagine James is on the Starship Enterprise bound for Mars.

haha and yeah I get what Kwong means now =]

hahhaha

James a Legend would be cool but remember nothing but a vulture is suitable for 6am driving XD
heh but yeah like John said $8k is bloody heaps and is totally depended on what you want to drive and be seen in ^^
And if you have a neck like Yi or one like Jono ^^

What am I doing at Post office that morning?
I'm defusing parcel bombs by throwing them into ULDs
And trying to convince my boss to let me use the forklift
^^

a salooooon!! yup yi thats what i was sayin
erm r u callin my camry a crappy small car? =)

the difference between a coupe and sedan is two doors, or massive (in)convenience.

the Spirit landed ages ago.
however, it landed on it's "lander craft".
it has now touched Martian soil with it's own wheels. (or rollers...)
i think that's what Kwong is refering to?

COMP3511 seems a lot like a cope out course from here. or it maybe a great course that allows you to finally understand the success of Micrsoft products instead of Linux products... i am not sure.
but then tell me what are you going to drop in favour of cs3511?

w33t!!! Honda Legend Coupe. you'd so rock in that thing. while everyone's got some crappy small car, you've got that Legend.. !!
so. when can we expect a ride? :D
and what's the difference between a coupe and a sedan anyways?

if you read the bottom of the page, it says if you have interest in such a notebook, then put your name down. it's supposed to be available mid Jan...
but it looks like a very nicely speced thing and well worth the money. (provided no snake oil is involved here...)

LOL Jono i saw that car at uni... just found it to be unusual
sif i would buy a festiva... =)
yeah spirit, sitting on its lander, landed on Mars a week ago... but the rover had rolled onto Mars

i support a VW Golf.... anyone imagine James in a souped up honda integra or civic? =)

for $8000, you can get a late eighties upper class honda as you said, or you can get most toyota corolla, celica or camry built in the early nineties, all with around 120k to 150k on the odo. or you can go holden commodore or falcon with around 200,000km.

personally, i'd go for an european, like a bmw 323i or merc 190 (like marc's), built in the mid eighties.

yeah $8kis a lot for a 2nd hand car. My parents are thinking of trading in the pintara (bought in 1991 by original owner) for originally $2k but are now considering $3k after the nice buff we got XD

You can get a lot newer models for $8k. Stuff from the 80s will be falling apart.

If anyone is looking for laptops, this is a pretty damn good deal:

Widescreen TPG notebook selling for $1300

haha I can so see you in a Honda Legend Coupe.

$8000 will get you a crapload of 2nd hand cars. Thought of that VW Golf as well? That would be more difficult to find though.
But I think a Honda Legend or a Lexus (used obviously) would suit you perfectly, and there should be no problem finding one under $8k

Oh and speaking of buying cars, if anyone has a killer recommendation on a $8000 second hand
car, break the news. Currently on my short list, or rather single option that I'm considering is a 1988/89 Honda Legend Coupe.

Anyone considered COMP3511 Human-Computer Interaction?
I like it from what I'm reading. Any Intel?

Hey I don't get that picture, Kwong
Did you get a new car?

And Spirit - didn't it land a week or two ago?

You guys start on the 3rd March?

usyd starts one week behind everyone else anyway.

AusPost has those kinda shifts? What the hell do you do there Benny?

Hey you guys have your timetables already? The USYD website says we dont get ours until first week of APRIL... one month after uni starts....


Damn I need a decent webspace (telstra is unbelievably stingy... also apparently their new 'unlimited' plan allows for 10GB usage BUT they will disconnect the usage meter so you have no idea when you go over, or whether they just cap your speed at any time)... sick of this disallowed image embedding...

http://kwon5633.tripod.com/Scientific_Dirt_Test.JPG

SPIRIT is on Mars!

Oi, Scott wants to join you for AusPost night shift. His parents dont use the car at night and he his sleeping patterns conform to your work shift anyway.

It must be great to end your working day and watch the sunrise

I'm doing 4001 OO as my elective 1st semester. My cousin peer pressured me into doing it with him so I certainly hope those of you who are doing it are enjoying it...

Also doing 3111 - SENG which is compulsory.

2nd Semester I'm doing 3331 Networks and undecided remaining elective. I put 3121 Algos in there for the moment. Then thats it. No more computer science. I heard AI was easy, but I'm looking for something practicable for my last one. If Buckland isn't teaching 3121 anymore then I'm doing something else obviously

Cryptography sounds cool, but I know its gonna be a biyatch. It'll be like discrete maths with mod shit

I dunno, the rest of the electives don't really sound very relevant to me. Stuff like AI, graphics...erm OS. Even OO isn't but I guess I should do at least one more real coding subject next year.

I guess it'll be:

3111 - SENG
4001 - OO
3331 - Networks
3441 - Cryptography

Haha if I find law electives boring I might even resume one or two comp subjects in fourth year

But if I do comp subjects beyond 3rd year I'll have to do a 2 unit research project :( But then again its a small price to pay to keep my cse account

And when is BG lan benny!

What are you choosing Yi?
those look like the main choices.
Status?
Foobared.
5 days a week 8 hours a day at 10pm - 6am sucks balls.
Anyway hopefully I'll be back soon meanwhile it's time for my power nap before I go to work in an hour's time. -_____-

COMP3231 Operating Systems
COMP3311 Database Systems
COMP3331 Computer Networks&Applications

you can do all three. as long as you only pick two.

mmm the new myUNSW timetabling looks nice.

how dare you put a cross out through my name. My timetable is posted on my blog!
You can leech it from there if you so wish

Hey for the UNSWers enrolment closes 30th January so get a move on.

If you want your timetable posted up then send it to me sometime. Offer extends to people of other unis :)

My photoshop is real. It cost me dearly - 400mb of bandwidth

oh and an interesting fact:
because of the sa 5c recycle thingy, after the conference we had enough empty bottles to buy another carton of beer.

Yeah... sif white... im dark as!
kate beckinsale =)
That spider should have 8 legs
32GB........
Start collectin cans and bottles, and we can haul them down there
Yes that is one ugly williams, just for slight improvements maybe?!
Im sure marc has the real photoshop =)

QotD:

It's gentleman's tact - Benny

Yi: I used your pic from roadtrip. The one with the treestump and fields of grass/wheat/whatever. Photoshop rox!! its really powerful, no wonder it costs so much money.

and the williams fw26 is the worse looking f1 car i've ever seen.

oh and also, i have maps of adelaide now. so road trip here we come.
although i do admit adelaide is quite a hole.

i can download almost as much as jono now, more than 1gb per day; but at like 1/10th the speed.

i'm going to need a new hard drive.
300mb left on this 60gb one.

mwhahahahaha. iinet now has 32gb to download.

i'm going to spam until those pics are gone from the page.

2.1 actually. It spans 2 discs but there was a failed resumption on one of the discs. I downloaded coz my sis aint watched it yet

I took some experimental macros a coupla days ago and forgot about them...

OooO Scary spider ^^ Looks much more impressive at 3mp. Note the spider only has 6 legs





Edit: bump XD

why would you waste 700mb on the matrix revolutions? its not even worth the hard disk space.

The matrix revolutions (plus 700mb dudded), underworld, lizzy mcguire move (my sister, i swear not me!), (part of) starwars knights of the old republic, several anime episodes,

john darling, come to GB...

.. 6GB and you blown it all already?

Shit, I've blown all my data cap already and its not even half way thru the month yet. Damn movies take up a lot

john's back.
no i didn't get sledged. not that it was my aim to do so.

wow, so much has happened.
jono is appreciating the value of exchange, cultural diversity and underwear, kwong joined swat but still has virginal white un-tanned skin, marc is finally doing his assignments, yi is posting here a lot for some reason, and whisky tango foxtrot on this bloody 40 degree weather?

Wam at time of application?
That was like....64.250....or something.....
So yeah not very high at all hahaha

Going to uni five days a week for summer session. 9 units x twice the pacing, very hectic.

but considering who is doing your assignments....

Jono - what was your wam at the time of your application?

Status report:
Going to uni five days a week for summer session. 9 units x twice the pacing, very hectic.

And oh Jono, I finally know that orgasm you describe now, the one regarding finally "getting"
out a physics question. Man it's good.

Status report on everyone? Report in team

My status:
Staying at home on my fat arse playing games and occasional computing. Looking (unsuccessfully) for a job.

Oh and James I used your sunset@putney shot as my desktop now. Also gives me an excuse to make my startbar transparent. ^^

So yes, if you could go on exchange anytime in your life, the best time would be now. Obviously, I strongly recommend it. Not just because you want to go to a university with the best facilities for your degree of study (maybe your current one is already one of the best), but just the experience of being in a new country and seriously experiencing it all first hand (immersion), and meeting all these friends from all over the world with absolutely different perspectives and cultures.

Obviously it's all new right now and 3 months down the track I could be absolutely bored of everything, but from what I've heard from previous students, that doesn't happen much.

w00t party on

Haha, yeah things are going pretty well here. I guess it's mainly because people here are fantastic, whether you know them or not. When you're walking around on the streets on campus, if there are people walking alone, you just say hi to them and they'll say hi back with a big smile. It's great.

It's pretty okay weather here. It's funny because today was 2 degrees C outside and we're like "it's so warm today" just because our hands didn't freeze off without gloves. Hilarious.

Class starts Monday 12th Jan, so the day you read this I'll be in class.
Right now it's 6:55pm Sunday 11th.

I'm doing 6 subjects atm, and the class load is real light. I have 16 hours a week! Amazing. My earliest start is 9:30am and my timetable is really symmetrical, even though I'm doing subjects from both 2nd and 3rd year and from multiple faculties (Aero/Astro, Computer Science, and Mechanical Engineering) so that's great too.
My timetable is posted on my blog.

Holidays, not sure. All I know is "Spring break" (i.e. mid-session break this session) is a pretty big thing around here, it's a week long too.
I know my summer holidays go from May 8th to August 23rd so that's literally 3.5 months which hopefully will be fantastic. Still don't know what I'm going to do then, I can't get an internship here fullstop, immigration laws are tighter than g-strings here from non-U.S. citizens. I can't even work at starbucks off campus, say, because you can't work off campus until after a year of study here.
Can't live on-campus either, they boot you out for the summer I think, understandable.
If the timing is right I may apply for an international internship over the summer at Airbus in UK/Spain/Frace/Germany, obviously because int'l internships are perfect for me. But that's only if I'm lucky, so I'll have to see how it goes.

Oh, my address is:
Rm310 Hillenbrand Hall
1301 3rd St, Purdue University,
West Lafayette, Indiana 47906-4229 USA.

My phone number, if you want to call, is 1-765-49-58078
"1" is the USA country code, "765" is the Indiana area code.
We write the numbers like that because if you're calling on campus to another dorm room (which is free and which we do all the time here, it's like our version of ICQ) we just dial the last five digits.
I'm often not in my room (thankfully) so if I'm out there's an answering service and I"ll call you right back.

Quote of the day:
"Life is nothing but a contract. One that states, the universe is
willing to lend this much energy to expell the choas needed to cast
you into form. As your duty, you will do good, reproduce and put
more order in your world than that which existed before you. Once
your work is done, you will be reassimilated into the chaos as if
nothing had occured. Know that you are merely a loan, one that
borrows the energy of nature for its existence. And when the time
comes for you to pass, you ought to feel nothing but grace."

Jono,

I am green with envy. What a fantastic start. It almost sounds like you were made to live there. When does class start for you? How many subjects? How much holidays?

And oh yes, post your address on the blog. We'll need it.

Anyone interested in paintball on the 19th or 20th of February at the Ultimate Skirmish Yarramundi location? Response required within the next week. =)

oooh, nice jono!
habahaba
oow oowwww ooowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

got some free MBs?
look back into time... /me shivers.

Bushfire district. You forgot the heat. Mmm delicious heat.

Breathing smoke makes me sick

Why yes I would butters ^^
So many student orgs I'd love to join, there are like 650+ on campus.

Photography clubs, outing clubs, rowing clubs, even dance clubs are some i'd definitely consider joining.

Mars as well Kwong? hahaha awesome!
All just PR I'd presume, he's not very interested in it, it would seem....

Up north? Where are you travelling atm?

LOL lucky you jono, the system was introduced on the day of your arrival =)
Yeah Bush is gonna announce it in the next few days... manned missions to the moon AND mars

Haha marc you're a good student =) 'better late than never' eh?

Erm major wtf up north here.... visibility low, breathing more difficult.

Ooo, jono, would you care to dance ^~

Hmm, after I read your post, I think its best if I leave James to say it :D

Kwong: Yeah had finger prints and photo taken

Apparently Bush is thinking of going back to the moon and setting up permanent presence there, have to see for a press release though.
No time to check up news, so dead busy.

Anyway was just saying if you're bored I've finally posted an update to my journal

And now I Gotta sleep badly, it's 12:30am and I've got a funky Wal-Mart shopping trip tomorrow morning! w00t

rolling on floor laughing

Hey I got plenty of cats around my neighbourhood. Come on over

I got so bored that I finally finished boxes.c


$ give cs1721 boxes_referee boxes.c
------------------------------
Files found: boxes.c
------------------------------

Submission datestamp: Fri Jan 9 16:03:36 2004
Assignment deadline: Tue Sep 24 23:59:59 2002
This submission is 472 days late
Warning: a mark of 4.2 has already been entered for student 3060146 for assignment boxes_referee
Submission accepted

Yeah those pesky cats are gonna pay =)

LOL wtf claymore?

Are you using wireless?

Hey Jono, did you get your fingerprints recorded?
The ISS is leaking air!

I could only see the clouds at sunset damnit

Johno, purdue, underwear.
While it's snowing over there, we just had one of the hottest days of summer. Sunset was the best I've seen since road trip.

Ok net is working. That 4MB mars shot took about 2.5 seconds to load. Yeap this network will do me just fine.


LOT CLAYMORE? WTF hahahahaha

Anywho snow's absolutely gorgeous here. Must set up bank account now.

http://kwon5633.tripod.com/Claymore.JPG

Thats the fastest 4mb I ever spent

Merry Christmas Hash

Long time no post here

have been suffering from paternal incursions into known cyberspace

everything seems normal

may be getting Telstra cable, very big may

And a (late) Happy New years to everyone

Technicolor!! 4MB

LOL Charlie!

Ooops, thought SynchMasters are all LCDs.

John, make sure you get drunk, get sledged, and get laid =).

Haha yeah its not LCD. I'm just seeing if anyone would wanna buy it, before I go to ebay. 200bucks for a new one eh? ok that gives me an idea for price i guess =)

John is in adelaide now?

Thats the price of an LCD charlie. Sorry to ruin your business kwong, but the monitor you got can be bought for $200 brand new. But thats an awesome CRT. I wanted one of those before. Its the ones they use at iStarzone on Liverpool St

Don't do it john!

If you leave me now you'll take away the biggest part of me
*OOOooooOOOOO*
Baby please don't go...

i'll be gone for 7 days, starting... now.
don't miss me too much.

17"? A brand new Samsung one would cost about $750
how much are you willing to sell it?

read all of it?
are you joking?
.... that thing's longer than a book.
though i must say, the first few posts seem very similar to those arguments and flame wars that never ends. :)

ebay kwong, ebay.

James, READ ALL OF THIS... the right are just amazing....

Anyone interested in a Samsung SyncMaster 753DFX 17'' monitor?

Courtesy goes to Scott D. Sellers for that shot.

Safe trip Johno, may the angels of luck be with you.

Fine portrait shot James, han intoxicated over.....star.....

w00t go transparent everything!

One last thing, I thought James and anyone else may be interested in this:

I strongly recommend you check this out

Go to Multimedia -> Theater -> "Six minutes into the unknown" and click "High"

Very Hollywood style. I'm sure Alexis would find that entertaining too.

Yosemite national park is great, like Yellowstone National Park. Either is on my list of must visit places.

Thought I might let you guys know that I'll be flying out tomorrow, Indianapolis via Chicago then a bus service to Purdue.
It'll take about 21 hours in total to get from HKG Airport to Purdue University.
No A1 digicam yet but you can be assured that i'll be Ioning with my SLR til I get it.

The timezone's -5:00GMT for where I'm going (i.e. Eastern Standard Time). Sydney's obviously +10:00GMT, but +11:00 right now with daylight savings, so there's a 16 hour time lag at this time of year.
Probably won't see you guys online much, 10pm in Sydney is 6am Purdue, though 10pm Purdue is 2pm Sydney next day.
But our bloggers are great.

Well here's a favourite little song of mine that I thought was somewhat fitting:
(try to download it, it's great -> then sing karaoke style in the safety of your own home)

Jet Airliner - Steve Miller Band

Leavin' home, out on the road
I've been down before
Ridin' along in this big ol' jet plane
I've been thinkin' about my home
But my love light seems so far away
And I feel like it's all been done
Somebody's tryin' to make me stay
You know I've got to be movin' on

Oh, oh big ol' jet airliner
Don't carry me too far away
Oh, oh big ol' jet airliner
Cause it's here that I've got to stay

Goodbye to all my friends at home
Goodbye to people I've trusted
I've got to go out and make my way
I might get rich you know I might get busted
But my heart keeps calling me backwards
As I get on the 707
Ridin' high I got tears in my eyes
You know you got to go through hell
Before you get to heaven

Oh, oh big ol' jet airliner
Don't carry me too far away
Oh, oh big ol' jet airliner
Cause it's here that I've got to stay
-----

Over and out, see you guys on the far side.

Organising my photography folders today proved interesting. Enough said:

Yeah what were you doing there? ^~

Those picks of sierra nevada from the d7 site looked nice. I hate going overseas, but I would love to go the Yosemite national park after seeing so many nice piccies (mainly from my geography textbook in highschool hehe)

Thank YOU! =)
LOL @ photo of John under the table!

Other photos
I did not take any of the umacq shots. Credit goes to James and Lucy.

thanks everyone who came, i had fun... and er, the cake was really nice too.

for those not privileged enough to attend john and han's birthday, here are some pictures.

I am sure at least a few of us will be interested in these and these too

There's a massive amount of amazingly good shots (check out the IR sections - James be put to shame! haha j/k, but of course this girl is pro, I think) by this photographer.
Of course there must be heaps on the net but this is a good point to look at some good pics.

I came across those links while on dpreview.com on their forums.

I suppose these links would interest most of us, including james, charlie, butters and kwong. and of course john, who enjoys other people's great photos. ^^
Wait I've basically named all the people on the blog then.
Ah well. Tis all good.

PS the shots were taken with a Minolta DiMAGE 7, the *pre*-predecessor to the DiMAGE A1 that I'll be getting, fyi.

Are you loving, secure and supportive in a relationship?

While I was searching on eBay for external CD-RW drives for my notebook, I couldn't stop cracking up when I came to this site:

http://www.4-dimwits.com/

It claims to be able to burn DVDs on a CD Burner, among other fantastic ideas such as backing up VHS on CD's....with software alone. w00t!
That's right, because I can put the VHS Tape into the VCR....and magical software converts the auro signals into signals on my CD Burner! w00t!

Hey and this site was linked from this site , which I googled for reviews about a certain CD Burner.

new plans for tomorrow...

what? han and john's birthdays... we're going to go to macquarie centre for lunch, and then either ice skate or play ball games there. in the evening, we will catch a bus to the city then go to Pancakes on the Rocks.

where & when? tomorrow, meet at 1pm at the bus stops of Macquarie Centre. if you can't make that then dinner's booked at 7:30pm at Pancakes.

check next post.

haha Charlie: It's a shame you see the glass half empty!!! Hahaha just kidding, but my lack of attention to detail obviously limited me from noticing the black blob in the first place. But now that you've pointed it out - it's liking finding out there's ONE DEAD PIXEL ON YOUR NOTEBOOK! Not that I have one (or have been looking).
So annnnyway

Kwong: We're not scared of spiders.......er much..... but hey those are nice fireworks...like Minkey and everything. w00t! Cute lil puppeeee. Hey that WestHead Oceanview B shot is using a filter right?
Keep using that c750! Use the z00000000000m

Its so funny how they just use clips that were bloopers and they just leave it in the real film

Very nice firework shot. Though that blob of black in the bottom left of the frame kinda destroys the image. But you can really ask too much of a firework shot. Keep SHOOTING!

New Years tradition: Watching Shaolin Soccer and singing 'siu lum gong fu seng'!

Those are selected photos. I have only two photo of a spider, but they weren't too good, and I wouldn't want to scare you =)

ore hai teed tou goong;
mo dik teed tou goong.
kui hai gum gong tui;
ore hai gum gum gong tui.

dang, you didn't take any photos of the spiders kwong.

random quote from yesterday:
"there are photos in my camera."
-kwong-shing wong

mou duk ding-ar

siu lum gong fu ho yeah!

SIU LUM GONG FU GENG!!!!
Our side of NYE 2003 I guess - Winzip file 4952kb

Happy new year all!!

Fantastic pic james. Looks like the view from (near) gladesville bridge :)

Sorry couldn't make it to Little Manly. I spent my time at pyrmont and observed fireworks from there. It was a great view and empty wharf. You could see fireworks from the three points - near north sydney, circular quay and somewhere near balmain and of course the harbour bridge, but the bottom of the bridge was blocked so if there were streamers, I wouldn't have seen them :(

My sister took some pix, but they were blurred. I'll check them out now.

So freakin tired too, but the heat woke me up

phwoarh! nice pic James!!! :D

and i thought i was gonna be on the net a loner early 2004...
um, happy 2004 all :)


hope 2004 brings fun and fulfillment to you all, and may all of life's ups and downs .....be under the covers.

Welcome to 2004!