Re Hash: Tell Agnes at work Thanh says hi

She's doing a masters at westmead so I'm not sure if you'll see her since you might not be there anymore.

Meh no skin off my nose if no one cares about wei's house warming

ahhh...I didn't understand anything from Hash's post...lol. If it's similar to XP, there's no way I'll buy it, unless they give it to me for free or something...but then again, I'd prolly sell it on ebay.

Hash, Kwong and Darren, can we please set some concrete plans for Friday night's TA battle? Saturday Tennis at 9am is ok right?

hello.

photos from nz are finally up. you can view them by clicking here.

use this dummy account if you don't want to register
username: linda_john_photos [at] hotmail dot com
password: bobbob

let me know which ones you like.

This may break the forum, but I am gonna agree with Marc: I would not buy Windows Vista. I would not piss on a copy if it was on fire.

It's just too expensive for little gain. However, with all this being said - while it offers nothing to the Home user except some resource intensive EyeCandy(TM), it is a major improvement on just about every single other OSes in terms of a workstation/terminal OS.

Essentially the whole MS product line adopted the .NET approach. They are adopting certain ideals (en-masse standardisation of data) that OpenSource and standards committees such as the W3C have been promoting. The best example of this is the Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF). It consolidates all MS generated data under a single extensible standard. It is essentially an XML application, which gives it a tonne of flexibility in terms of data processing. Even the GUI (i.e. nething Aero can do) can be defined in a representation of this format (like a more advanced version of XUL).

The focus of Vista is not to enforce a standard on everything, but to take a current standard that everyone is adopting (XML) and use it to solidify marketshare in corporate situations. Face it, if u have one OS at work, most ppl feel better with the same OS at home.

Note :: See - unlike James, I can be objective even tho MS is footing half my PhD bill.

I don't know who was first or what not, but if MS says they were first and because they are hellbent against piracy (why wouldn't they be? they are the most prominent target and therefore stand to lose the most from it) then it must be true.

Admittedly I didn't get to try the AERO, but I can't say that I'm prepared to pay $400 for software eye-candy as opposed to paying that amount for a burberry cashmere scarf.

In any event, if Apple could release a similar product in the space of two years after having observed a prototype, while it took MS a space of 5-6 years to release theirs then all I gotto say is sucked in lol. A key facet of innovation is timeliness, not retardation.

Again (purposely directed at Hash) this is not an appraisal of Apple moreso a bash at MS. Hypocritical as it may or may not be, lets not forget how MS-DOS, the mothership of MS, was first created. Perhaps backstabbing could be considered innovative.

Lolz @ Marc, did you try that 3D scrolling thing that was shown on TV? That looked cool. After reading reviews on Vista, many users were complaining about it's just an Apple OSX from MS or something. Of course Microsoft (with their no-priracy stance) said everything that looked Apple was released in their beta, long before Apple has released that stuff...bunch of freaking hypocrites! I mean WMP11 looks like iTunes...the only thing I like, or rather neutral about , is that it doesn't reorganise my mp3s (though it did attempt to...that was my fault cos i chose the "update" library option for one album) However, it was me who chose to do it, not doing it for me...

James, leave my Gundam out of it!!!!!! This battle is between UED and UEF, leave the innocent models out of it! I say we settle this on Saturday at 2pm AEST, or if you have TA, we'll settle this Friday night Sydney time! My ACU is on standby...my Aeon will cleanse you of your sins! Muahahahah

James: your gratuitous misspelling of words makes me think its deliberate.

Eric: whats wrong with playing PvP before completing the game, ya pussy!

Hash: and why bother mentioning Wei's Housewarming Benny - u will either 1) not go or 2) organise a sabotage ... No words, just: ROFL

Not an appraisal of Apple or an invitation to flame:

I tried Windows Vista on one of the wireless appointment laptops it got me thinking. In 1995 they introduced the "Start" button. Remember Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones? Looking back on it, its quite funny. They hyped up something as mundane as the Start button. Even then, for 11 years they had not changed the interface at all. XP interface was just a glorified Windows 95 skin.

The Vista navigation was still similar to XP but the whole system just smacked of mac. Seriously. It just reinforces the fact that MS is completely lacking in imagination or innovation. They wait for everyone else (whether Apple or Open Source) to produce something wonderful, and they export that in their own product and use their marketshare to popularise and glorify their product. You wouldn't expect them to come up with everything cool, but if they take something, you would at least expect them to improve on rather than just rip it off.

To me, Internet Explorer has probably been the key example. They sit on IE6 which is full of bugs and exploits and ignore their users pleas for help until other browsers (Mozilla, Opera etc) offering free alternatives with smart/clever ideas take over the share. Its only when these start to become a threat that they want to do something about it.

Then theres this whole other side of the MS bashing about them burning bridges of compatability that Open Source try to establish.

Nowadays the MS monopoly has only served to produce mass stagnation.

Edit: Eric there is a reason why I saved my post as a draft - it was not yet ready for reading. My post is not so much about them ripping off Apple so much as they are ripping off anyone with good ideas. I'm saving drafts coz the keyboard on the work computer is stuffing up. I think its aware that I'm bashing MS

You are busy, you can't play because... you are playing SINGLE PLAYER SC??? *Exploring* Tech3?? I feel so offended!@# I'm going to throw your gundem out the balcony or something!

Sorry James, just read your SC request. Sorry, can't play. I have yet to explore tech 3 goodies...still playing missions. And nVidia allows you to play SC at work?! Well, it was "designed" for nVidia (logo at the beginning of the game). But during work?! Tell me, what are the specs of the comps at work? SLI'd GTXs no doubt? with Core 2 Extreme?

I just played on a ladder server. I feel like a tennis player coming out of retirement armed with wooden rackets.

Read: I got owned.

I don't mutilate, merely castigate.

'sides Protoss is all about purifying the rest of the universe. Expunging all other species from the universe as part of a holy crusade neither requires, nor permits mutilation.

Terrans, on the hand, have a distinct history of mutilating and maiming their opponents. Damn uncivilised beasts XD

Cybersoc Lan on 03/03/07 at K17 Seminar room. Come along Eric and we can try some SupCom on the projector screen.

Mutilate. For it is mere harasement. Hashmanz style.

I reckon they would modify Boxor's aircraft so it can be controlled by a mouse and keyboard, and put a huge Blizzard logo on the side of the plane so that enemy aircraft won't shoot him down.

Presenting 10 synonyms for 'destroy':
annihilate, dispatch, eradicate, eliminate, exterminate, obliterate, extirpate, desolate, mutilate and terminate. Which is the odd one out?

Fuckin' North Koreans. We should stop sending them food and oil just for denying slayer his proper career.

Eric, let's play some SC. I'm at work now.

Lolz, Hash, your "neutral" post surprised me. But your next one was...well, I stand corrected!

James, slayer and boxer (and several others) were recruited into the military, BUT according to Josh, the military has organised a special ops for Starcraft gameplay and were allowed to play a certain amount of games. Needless to say, they were restricted to certain amounts of time for Star to avoid suspicion of "special" treatment. Hence, WTF?! Recruited by the military for Star???? For some strange reason, the first thing that came to mind, is an Alexei standing on deck, with a cigar, looking out at the terran force getting owned by zerg....

Beautiful Wiki page on the gameplay of Starcraft

OMG, Slayers_Boxers has been drafted to the friggin airforce. Who knew that of all the terrible side effects of Carl Marx, losing boxer would be one of them.

"and why bother mentioning Wei's Housewarming Benny - u will either 1) not go or 2) organise a sabotage ..."

You've made my day!

There he goes again!!

lolz, seef u would corrent me on my spelling Mr. 'Exculpate' - go recite 10 synonyms for destroy

and why bother mentioning Wei's Housewarming Benny - u will either 1) not go or 2) organise a sabotage ...

Wow! Nice post Darren! (And congrats on the contract, though never for Planck Time did I believe you weren't going to get it.)

And what is this?? A good post by Hash??? Devoid of Apple bashing and his usual shananigans??

I'll be damned, this blog is finally getting along.

BUT WTF!!!! Now there's a TA getogether?! WTF!!!! Enough with DOTA, TA and SC!!!@#

STAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here are four games I played with Yi on Saturday in all that TvP goodness (rust inclusive).

You misspelt emphasis.

Anyone going to Wei's house warming on Saturday?

I love the warning about missing Darren

Some things to note between TA/SupCom and Star

1A. TA/SC has more empahasis on strategy rather than tactics. Since everything is a simulation as opposed to a hit/miss percentage + cover/unit size modifiers, tactics such as cycling units away from the front line to draw fire to fresher units do not work in the same manner for TA/SC.
1B. Star has a nice balance of tactics and strategy. While u need strats to win in the end, better tactics will see u come out ahead in each engagement. As mentioned before, this gives star more 'personality'.

2A. TA/SC has no feasible unit caps. If u can produce the power and the matter, u can keep on building. This aspect again lends itself to a higher involvement in overall game strategy as opposed to each individual engagement.
2B. Unit caps help keep the game confined to managable levels in star. A Zerg player that can keep on building past 200 control seems a bit excessive ....

3A. Base defences actually mean something in TA/SC. A single tier 1 base defence can destroy a horde of units at a time. This actually makes sense.
3B. Base defences are detectors with add-ons and only play a significant role against rushes and in pushes.

4A. TA/SC is a long long game. If need be, u can play an entire weekend on one of the larger maps.
4B. Star is made to be a 'quick' RTS game. If its not over in 20-40 mins then something is wrong (crasy good, crasy bad) with both players.

Both game types have the advantages and disadvantages. Before we started earnest comparisons, just wait for C&C 3 to come out as well. Then we can see if Westwood have finally figured out how to write multiplayer code that can handles lotsa pretty units.

Lolz, Darren, no comment there. I have to say, Starcraft is a classic. After watching a few replays from Saviour and Boxer (dudes from Korean), I have to say, yes you can still be innovative. But executing strategies like SC is unheard of Star, well unless you are from korea and can perform 400 APMs, then maybe you can think about it. The game, is very TA. Speaking of TA, Hash said he can round of some people for a game. I am down. But we'll need copies of CC and Battle Tactics. If you can bring your copy, we'll burn it on Saturday after tennis? Yes Kwong, I am burning Darren's copy SIMPLY BECAUSE I can't get them anymore...

Thanks for the post Marc, that way it makes me able to post this without making my previous post even longer.

Event: Wei's Housewarming party
Date: Saturday, 3rd of March
Time: Midday til 6pm
Where: 17 Glendower St, Eastwood

In addition to your warm presence, Wei has requested that every person should bring a plate of food (not junk) of your choice (Annie is making BBQ Pork from home) to her house.

If you do, please bring any board games/card games etc. as well.

PLEASE RSVP by THURSDAY 1st of MARCH to Wei or to Annie through email, sms or MSN.

Wei's Mobile: 0.4.3.1.5.1.5.3.7.6
Annie's Mobile: 0.4.0.4.9.0.4.2.6.3

See ya there!

Why would I play against a computer when I can play against other people?

After having done my thesis on RTS AI, I can tell you, Eric, that the Starcraft AI does go beyond a simple early rush, and also changes strategy to reflect the player's decisions.

However, this response to the player's actions is for the most part scripted, meaning that what the AI does are actually the actions that somebody else considers to be the best way to counter whatever the player does, and not a course of action that the computer figured out itself.

Also, the Starcraft AI stalls when it runs out of resources; all units stop attacking, it stops building, and all you do is just pick it off.

I think Supreme Commander has a rules-based AI, meaning that it will execute certain actions based on whether certain conditions are met. In that way it is more advanced than Star AI.

I think the endearing feature of TA, and hence SC, is that all the units you can build are powerful, and you can utterly annihilate things with them. I was playing TA with Kwong against some AI's the other day, and we launched about 30 nukes onto an enemy AI, watched alot of things blow up, and that still wasnt enough to kill it. I then took dozens of gunships and swept the island, killing the remainding gun turrets and things, while kwong also used his dozens of planes and warships to destroy everything else.

The attractiveness of Star is its personality. Star is more playable than TA (and hence SC, until i've tried it) in that its easier to pick up, and much harder to master. The units are so much more likeable than the TA/SC ones. I havent found any papercraft for TA units.. just Starcraft ones..

And like James said, Star was game built with great taste and execution. TA is still a good game, but in a more technical way. It was the first RTS to implement physics, 3D terrain (coutoured bitmaps) and true 3D units. Star perfected the gameplay.

I'm gonna try and get a hold of SC myself, and see how it runs on a slightly faster comp than yours, Eric.. so i'm going to start freeing up space now..

And in other news..

I FINALLY RECEIVED MY CONTRACT!

Thats right, its been over 3 weeks (It seems I exaggerated the time) since it was mailed, but I finally have it. I'm a Systems Developer!

After I get my first paycheck, I will follow in Yi's footsteps and shout all my friends to dinner. I wont get paid for another 2 weeks yet though.. so I shall keep you posted.

But Supreme Commander SUCKS!!!

The three races are all humans. The tech tree doesn't bring new unit dynamics but rather are just 'bigger' versions of the previous. The three races are essentially identical. Starcraft has completely asymetrical races with complete different dynamics. And each Starcraft unit actually has a purpose. Each unit has its own dynamic. Units in SupComm are meaningless. Never mind Starcraft is just built with much better taste and execution.

Lol James. It IS TA! Only more intensive, more..challenging, and MORE EXPENSIVE. SupCom can achieve things that Star can NEVER OFFER, nor dream about. Unless they make Starcraft 2 or something...maybe it can start dreaming...

Starcraft AI can only offer so much and probably never change. Ok, the most challenging against a zerg comp is a 6 ling rush on ur scvs, usually guarded by 1 marine or 1 zealot (maybe 2) and then u'll need to dance your drones/scvs to finish off the last 3? SupCom will charge at your from the same spot probably 3 times, then figured out you have a weakness in defence up north and charge in from there...OR, they change their strategies to air while your 100 large tanks move in to get slaughtered while I was playing normal AI. Imagine Hard. My response to that? (OMFG YOU BASTARD...SIF CHANGE TO AIR!..and proceeded to build more Mobile Anti Air and new tanks)

Oh man, so I played SupComm today. It is *exactly* the same as TA. It's the smellll.... I can taste it in the stench of the countless bots. Argh. Every bit as frustrating as TA. Makes a Battlecruiser feel like a snap to build.

When it slows down due to high unit count, it's clearly CPU bound. Not sure a new GPU will help you in that regard. The 320MB GTS remains the killer bang for the buck card.

Hmm, my laptop is 1.66...i thought it was 1.8, so i guess what i mentioned earlier on the blog was correct...anyways, it lagged like a mofo with around 250 units on screen. I couldn't even force attack the enemy's commander...but then again...with 30 missile launchers...who needs accuracy.

James, any news from nVidia bringing out any new products at the end of this year? Think I'll need an upgrade for SupCom...insane graphics though...and insane gameplay. The AI can "adapt" to your strategies...eg, I enmass heavy tanks (100) since i couldn't break through with 150 light tanks...so they swapped over to bombers while I did that...

Result?...60 heavy tanks left and i was only half way to their base....

Are you certain that it wasn't just a really good credits reel from a Musical?

I just watched "Music and Lyrics". Oh man, what a fantastic movie!!

I'm happy to see you playing some star james. lets get more troops and play more team games plz.

HARRO der wasserfall im back XD

I was playing at home on a business laptop. But definitely will play QA Supreme Commander at work.

James, why star when u can SupCom? seriously, it's good. FREAKING AWESOME GAME!! Bet you can't way point your bombers (dropships) to your allies base, then attack the enemy from the left, while your tanks and artillery move in from the front at the same time...

All that was happening, while my navel fleet moved around to the back..and bombard their ass. All done in the line formation...and finished off with my "krogoth" like experimental attack bot.

My four games so far on my Friday/Sydney's Saturday:

TvT, won. Factory, dropship.
TvP, won. Double factory.
TvZ, lost, Muta.
TvZ, lost, lurkers galore.

Oh bless the bored net dudes!

I use to play Star. When I stopped, I lost my work/life balance.

I thought u said all ur bosses were old women who didn't want to relinquish a cushy job to younger people

My boss used to work for Accenture, he left to get some work/life balance.

THAT SUX!!

Apparently I'll be working tomorrow...

lol my cousin worked for IT macq bank. He was on call a lot, but from what I hear it was pretty cruisey.

His brother now works at accenture and he complains about doing all the work and his lazy-arse team.

From their perspective, macq bank job was like inhouse IT support while accenture was consultancy.

*sigh*. Aiite, here's the deal, I was talking to Alexis last night, and his cousin AND himself are both keen on tennis and soccer. While hash is busy doing his own stuff, we have two alternatives. One, we play tennis and soccer in the west, Lidcombe OR we play in the east (UNSW and Centennial Park). We can fit lunch in the middle, and bumming before we start playing soccer in the arvo. Tennis should be...around 10 or so? Now, I have suggested a place, time and schedule, who's interested and which location?

I am assuming most of you will go on DoTA, so I will come in and ask for opinions or on MSN. I am deleting WarIII so I can try install Sup Com, stupid 8gb requirements...what happened to the less than 500 mb installations?!

Saturday I will be on Bored Aussies for star from 2PM.

Goddamn...

And here I was thinking that Accenture must be like Macquarie but better...

Training, better pay, highly organised, more high profile IT work...

6 o'clock in the morning...

Nothing will happen on Saturday unless you organise it Eric, without Yi and Jono nothing's organised anymore...

There's no point to having a fixed time and place if we can't even keep the schedule for 2 weeks in a row. Hence why we have to ask who's coming each time.

Awesome so Yi you're not in for NZ ski trip?
Just me soloing it then...
Give me or Spain a call sometime for lunch or after work so you can bitch about your boss... (We're both in the city)

Yi,
WTF are those Accenture bastards doing to you?? Don't let them work you like a bristle. I'll report them to Human Rights Watch.

It's a sucky feeling when the cleaners come... and then go... and you know your day has just started...

Whoops, just read the Wiki...

So are we playing soccer or tennis? I ain't setting anything until i get people's yeses. I will NOT (and refuse to) turn up to something if everyone's gonna dog it...

Lolz, James I know. I am gonna pick it up this arvo, and try run it. If it fails on my desktop, I can still play it on my laptop...Centrino 1.66 Duo, with 256 nVidia 7800 power baby! That should be ok...i hope...

*chhh* Ahh that's the stuff!!

EDIT: Any tennis/soccer/poker happening this week? Instead of asking for tennis and soccer to happen, why don't we just set a fixed time for the two things, and we just go every week? IF something happens, then we post for a cancellation...

Eric,
I hear SupComm is really CPU heavy. Like more CPU heavy than graphics heavy. You might wannna get yourself a FX-62 with that 8800. :D

Spind doctor is such a dysphemism. Please, call me Goebbels.

Is there a way of getting a concession card for those not enrolled?!

The part-time trick is simply to over-enrol get the card then drop out before the census date. Not a very mesmerising "trick" :p

James, you should (and not us) actually be glad theres the MS-Office paperclip because your job as a spin doctor depends on good spelling and grammar! XD

James: I was saving those parts for this post. I scored 5 mini-fajitas yesterday due to mining students' dislike for that sort of food. A mining course here at uni is catered, and more often than not, they do not finish the food. So, we help them finish it.

Also, because its O-Week, mining engineering is having a bbq for first year students, and any other interested mining engineering staff. So.. free lunch for me..

Free lunch automatically saves me money.. so theres that part as well.

Then theres the clever trick with enrolling to get concession despite being part time..

Flying Spaghetti Monster

This god damn blog has become MS-Office-clippie-Spell-Gramma-Checker. Frivilitity at its worst. And Darrnen, there's something wroing with your post; it's missing the part about getting free food or saving money through some clever trick.

word

Geez Loiuse, the law is so bleak =(

I guess we can only rely on Alexis's "good intentions and morality"

Records can be falsified therefore not irrefutable. I think the infringement bureau has already proved that

I'm sure you mean 'exercise REGULARLY tools'.. I had my daily walk exercise last night, we must have done 6kms walking around the Botanical Gardens and the city taking photos of the QM2 and QE2 and eating dinner and trying to get out of the city via the trains.

But sport playing is different.. My hand-eye coordination has diminished in the past year, because I haven't played baseball in that time but moreso due to the time spent in front of computers. With uni and full time work commencing next week, it will only get worse. So what I mean to say is, 'ok I'll play tennis this weekend'.

James: you have spelling and grammar errors in your post. The day he pays is surely a long way off. You should hold him to that, so that we have written and therefore irrefutable records.

5 weeks and no contract. Wheeeee. I actually had a dream I received the contract. It came in 2 A4 envelopes. But in my dream, I fell asleep before I could open them, then I woke up.

Lolz, yes James, Alexis ow"n"s nothing to no one = Alexis owes at least something to everyone right? And James, I think i am the closest one to collect a debt from Alexis. (READ ALEXIS: You promised me a 150% interest over your current debt of 20 dollars to me, which amounts to 50 dollars in total, the next time we meet.)

Tennis, Soccer on Saturday sounds good. How 'bout both? And Sunday too. We've been slacking off over the past couple of weeks so let's start again this week. EXERCISE REGULAR"L"Y TOOLS!

EDIT: Thanks Darren...OH, Sup Com is going to be released in less than 15 hours. Get your copy boys...watch it take over Star...muahahahahah. I still want a clan war for MW2...can we host a battle somehow?

It's ok James, we understand that is the 'American Way'!

LOL, the day I make post without a spelling error is the day Alxies will pay his debts.

Marc, you should have seen (well heard) the pair of Blackhawks at night. They were cruising around with no external or internal lights on. You would just hear their rotors through the trees or bouncing off the buildings.

Remember, I bought my tickets for the peak of peak season. In terms of skiing and ski hire, the prices are about the same, if not slightly cheaper. But they make sure they fit you out with pretty good equipment, unlike here. Oh, and the ski passes are pretty much like HK's Octopus cards so you don't even need to take them out of your pocket.

And yes, I am interested in tennis/beach/soccer this Saturday whoever asked.

I'm guessing you mean "owes". And I'm also guessing you also use the double negative literally and not just in bad grammar.

wtf 2k to ski in Switzerland?! If that were the case I'd be there right now! The ticket alone would cost 2k and if you are comparing to Kwong's trip then I'm assuming you have an old aunt to lean back on lol.

Well the infringement bureau just came up on top. I have caved in and am going to pay the $300 from last year because "I forgot to include the suburb" (which is feasible) on my court election notice and the "u" is missing in my street name which they probably whited out (it was a fax so I couldn't tell proper but there was definately something in that box). Seriously, how would I miss the only vowel in my street name?

Anyway my option is to resubmit a court election notice and have it run through for another 9 months in which case my "50c A LOT OF MONEY! YOU SAVE 50c HERE...I'm a poor student I cannot afford it! Please sir have some pity" excuse will no longer be valid which means a court hearing would be completely pointless. I may not even be in Sydney by the time the hearing comes so those dirty bastards have found a way to rob me of due process. Alternatively I can keep submitting false/incomplete/incorrect court elections and never have to pay!

Alexis owns nothing to no one.

Thanks for the heartening encouragement guys.. and Eric, I've already done all the 'easy' electives, all that are left are the hard and difficult courses..

Did anyone do Distributed Systems or Data Warehousing? If so, do you have any notes/slides/books that you could lend to me?

The New Zealand ski trip sounds good, count me in for interest. But for $2k, we can go skiing in Switzerland.. I'm interested to see how much each aspect of this trip costs.

move it to Sunday and I will attempt it.

b4 u blow $2000 on skiing, pay everyone else back for what u owe em!

Hey guys I have a cousin that just came over from China. I haven't had the time to show him around Sydney and I was thinking if maybe we could go to the northern beaches on Saturday. Have a repeat of our get together two weeks ago with beach and then soccer afterwards. Uni is resuming for some us and as for the rest work is kicking into high gear I am assuming. So it will be great to hang out. Anyone up for it?

Count me in for skiing...

7 days Ski trip to NZ with Pinchie July 21st $2000 includes accom, food airfare, ski gear hire, 5 day ski pass, tours for 2 days More details soon, post your interest

Interested:
Marc
Spain
Me

I would go, but I prolly need the $2000 for magic come August.

Ne1 have quota they do not use? I ran out, seems like I need to upgrade to next plan (60 Gb seems ok)

I'm down for the NZ trip if I have a noob-buddy but tentative because its getting close to August and I'm not sure if I'll find work in between.

There were aerial counter-terrorism exercises being conducted across the city today. The camo helicopters flew between buildings and it was awesome seeing the reflection off the mirror glass windows. Urge to BF2 rising...

Eric: now that I remember. iTunes allows you to keep your file system the way it is. You go to Edit -> Preferences -> Advanced tab and uncheck the "Keep files organised" and if you don't want duplicates "Copy files..." Not much consolation now, but yeah I got some albums which were manually put into the library and not part of the iTunes filing system although they still appear on the interface.

Don't be disheartened Darren. Last two subjects, and being electives, it should be easy.

Don't be discouraged Darren, u can still spell H-D with Defence Of The Ancients!
You can also spell it with Magic:The Gathering, Manga, Anime, Tv Shows and Movies and DOTA !

But what u can NOT spell it with is Infernal Affairs =(

Another 2 subjects? Did you enrol correctly? Honours is only supposed to be an extra 48uoc isn't it?

I'm having similar problems (but should be sorted out now). The uni was trying to bar me from grad because I should have done a COMP lvl3 elective instead of a free elective. I supposedly solved that last year with Tim, but it was good thing I insisted everything be down in writing then otherwise I'd be doing the same shit all over again. The uni is full of lazy bastards. You can't leave a discussion without some tangible assurance.

The never-ending Comp Sci degree continues.. I have enrolled in 2 more classes, as it turns out I needed that many more subjects to finish. At least I don't have to travel far from work to get to my classes on time, but the 9am-9pm days are going to suck.. 2x 14 hour days, including traveling times.

So, if I don't fail any of these courses, I will truly have finished my degree by the end of first session.

Remember, you can't spell HD without D-O-T-A..

Good news, Yi!

I am down for star tonight, 6PM Sydney time onwards.

The one great game of yesterday does not suffice to quench us of our thirst for battle!

Hope to see you guys online.

and when u finish ur food, high-tail to Burwood for a truly magical evening

Chinese New Year lunch! Grab some food from chinatown and walk to somewhere where you can eat it sitting down.. like CFN. Its better than sitting at home without any Chinese food in front of your comp.

where: Chinatown food stalls along dixon st
when: 1pm
Meet At: The golden tree opposite the bank of china at 1PM

My brother and dad are going to be working one of the stalls, so we could get cheap whatever they are selling..

Courtesy of Alexis - best film(s) ever!!!

I fail to meet the recommended requirements for the demo ... That's it, Time to Upgrade the V/C! and RAM. Hopefully, I can still use my 9700 to render the minimap XD

Looks like we'll be playing on the bored assie's server at around 1:30PM. Scott D. Sellers will be joining us. Get on MSN for config details.

Lolz, star should be fine. I'll try get my cousin in on it too. He's pretty good. (the one that went to Jono's place if u recall).

James, you are suppose to support our argument for the Chinese! Lolz, Hash, that's right...own the world...own the world through sex (as Charlie's alter ego, Bonobo would agree).

EDIT: For the many TA/SupCom diehards, here are the specs for the demo (possibly the real one too)

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS:
Microsoft® Windows® XP Service Pack 2, Vista
1.8 GHz processor
512 MB RAM
8 GB available hard drive space
128 MB video RAM or greater, with DirectX 9 Vertex Shader / Pixel Shader 2.0support (Nvidia 6x00 or better)
Sound card, speakers or headphones
Broadband internet connection (DSL/Cable).

RECOMMENDED SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS:
3.0 GHz Intel or equivalent AMD processor or better
1 GB RAM or better
8 GB available hard drive space
256 MB video RAM, with DirectX 9 Vertex Shader / Pixel Shader 2.0 support(Nvidia 6800 or better)
Internet connection with Cable/DSL speeds

Go Eric !!!

See China had the rite idea - population explosion!

The Roman Empire died to its predilection towards debauchery! The entire empire went bi ( as can be seen by one of the Roman legionairries battle chants - "Caesar, the husband to every wife and the wife to every husband" ). The Chinese had the rite idea - breed! Breed! BREED!

Now, I wonder which 'empire' is an emerging superpower ...

Marc,
Alexadner's empire was no less transient than the Mongolian one. But no one is complaining. I don't get it.

Eric,
Yes, the Chinese lasted for 6000 years. The problem is, the 6000 years were all bad. XD

Fellas, it's Friday here, I want to play something with you guys. I got just about every game ever released here so it's your pick. Star and CS are my top picks. Yi, where are you? Can you organise something??

My ideal time is 6PM onward, which is 1PM onward Sydney time. Put yourself down on the Wiki list and get on MSN to communicate on server info etc.

Yes, let's talk about the size of penises now!

Alexis, although we can't argue about the fact that the Mongols, having conquered most of the land, getting owned afta 87 years by the Ming dynasty, the point is, China remained as an empire, or country afta 6000 years. Show me the REAL Roman empire on the map. Don't give me the "Rome is in Italy you tool" bs. If i remembered correctly, the Roman empire got split up at some point in time, then the eastern empire got pushed back to a lil small Island in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and renamed as the Byzantine empire. The western empire just got owned by the north. So tell me, who last the longest?

Yes, China got owned many times, but all were internal conflicts. Name ONE outsider that has managed to capture China. You may argue, on a technical basis, that Japan did manage to control China during the 1800s (can't really remember but during the reign of Po Yee) and basically controlled the kid as their puppet king of China, but it still remained as a country called China?

You may also aruge that China almost lost their country (actually lost Beijing) when the Japs invaded, but if you recall, that's because there were freaking 8 countries attacking China. The end result, China still remained on the map, but lost HK and Macau for quite sometime...

Darren : so what u'r saying is I can randomly point and call someone a mongoloid and I would be correct 1/3 times!?!?! SOLD!

Screw those empires, Brotherhood of N.O.D and G.L.A ftw!

James: yes, but the Romans have bigger penises.

Ridiculous argument? Well so is judging the mongol empire on how big it was. They spent too much time pillaging and not enough on diplomacy. For all it's size, it was transient. Show me the map of the mongol empire in 1400.

Charlie: no we do not have better things to do than to measure the relative sizes of our empires.

I dont think we have anything better to do than argue over the spelling of dead rulers' names. Those that do have better things to do are not at a comp to participate in this stupid argument.

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go pointlessly mow the lawn..

Alas, it takes a fellow NT to look pass mere spelling, and embrace the elegance and infinite beauty of logos!

caesar
ceasar
cesare
who gives a fuck!

don't we have better things to do on a friday night?

Ceasar Salad La~~

wid bread crum!

Ceasar!!!
Ceasar!!!

I have never felt so dissapointed in you James. I hereby decree your honorary Italian citizenship revoked. Bloody peasant.

And though Genghis Khan might have conquered more land than Julius, his empire ceased to be once he died. Julius managed to transfrom a Replublic into an Empire that stood for over 200 years as the world's most powerful nation.

Eric: I think that apple stores your playlists on its servers, but I may be wrong.

I heard that 1 in 3 people in the world are related to Ghengis Khan, thanks to his seed-spreading ways..

Yes indeed, for lamb vindaloo made the Praetorian guard kill a generation of Ceasars.

Yes James, coz they first got the taste of defeat from ragin' curries!

No Hash, all three empires were undermined by themselves.

Lol, what do all those 3 empires have in common? They got owned by subcontinentals!

James : After checking reviews, I was pleasantly suprised to find that you were not lying through your teeth. Though they cost relatively the same, the 8800 GTS (overclocked 320Mb) beats the X1950 XTX in most scenarios. The only major exception being Company of Heroes (for Alexis). Still, it costs ~$500 here . Can u ship us some XD? $299 USD @ 0.75 exchange rate is only $400 AUD!

Kicks the living shit out of Alexander and the Roman Empire:

Eric,
Unfortuntately, there is no staff discount. NVIDIA just released a $299 USD Geforce 8800 GTS 320MB edition. Possibly the best value graphics card ever. You should consider it.

Yi,
WTF is Accenture doing to you? Can you run a server on Saturday?

You know you've had a good night when you're not in your own home and getting to work at 7:20am

No I'm not at work yet since I can't post on the blog there ...

But I am at someone's house in the city...

Nothing will happen this weekend due to Chinese/Vietnamese new year I think...

That or I'm going to die of alcohol poisoning so count me out for beach

I don't think there will be any transpacific gaming unless Yi sets it all up since KJ and Darren play WoW while Scott, Marc, Roden play Diablo2.

Another work tip

Buy lots of gum for the day after, it's horrendously hard to get rid of the beer breath

It's called bad design. If u want robust portable music for a bargain price - buy a laptop!

Hmmm, true. Plus guys don't like carrying stuff around. I mean, FGS, if you have a GF, you have to carry her shopping already. WHY BRING AN EXTRA BAG?! But from my research on pods, some guys actually broke their nanos because they sat on it. Also depends on the person's choice of clothing. For people who prefer loose clothing, wouldn't the pod bounce more?

I have figured out why girls have high turnover on portable electronic devices. They have hangbags and don't like to put things into their pockets which cause unsightly bulges. Guys don't care about this so they keep it in their pockets anyway.

When you get home, you tend to throw your bag into the corner. Because guys have their electronics in their pockets, they don't exert much force when putting it away. Girls on the otherhand probably forget that they have their mobile/iPod etc in the handbag.

This was probably a contributing factor to why my iPod died so quickly because its the only electronic device I don't carry in my pockets. So either don't throw your bag so roughly or keep your devices somewhere closer and less prone to careless force.


can't hang on to

James, u r absolutely correct!

I need help ... running Supreme Commander and C&C 3.
That's where u come in!

Darren : nope, wrong interpretation. It means James should get us some mad V/C's by any means possible (which includes us re-imbursing him). And its the iPod's fault - Apple only test on the systems they bench against ... i.e WinXP Home!

Eric : Rage more! I am with u on this 110% ( wearing Red-Out by Tommy H, now with +10% to max raging)

Lolz, James, please why would you dream about me? Yes, I've been posting a lot, simply because Apple has been a bitch to me. Been complaining about James not sending 8800GTXs, itching for SupCom to come out faster...lolz.

So how much are they really James? I m tempted to buy one off you...I am sure you can treat us to some nice discounts...

Darren, can you actually get apple to somehow back up your mp3s or something? I know there are places/services that helps you retrieve lost info. Don't know about ipods and mp3s.

A brief psychoanalysis of that dream reflects the recent posts on the blog.

I had the oddest dream ever.
Eric
Eric has posted the most on the blog in the past few days, recounting his woes with iTunes, yearning for Supreme Commander and 8800 GTXs.
was in my Putney house helping my mom catch a lobster
BBQs at your place after tennis, not to mention the BBQs that you have recently had.
which had run loose.
Little Manly wharf fishing with KJ's dad, where he caught an octopus and put it in a bucket. The octopus then climbed out of the bucket, and crawled on the ground trying to get back in the water, but was stopped with a whack on the head and returned to the bucket for later consumption.
The second he caught it, it turned into a Half-life headcrab and got him.
Impending trans-pacific games night, or possibly talk of graphics cards or games that you have recently played.
LOL!
Because its funny.

For a star server that we can all play on, we could use BoredAussies, as it also supports star.

Regarding Apple and iPods, I was able to revive my iPod again, after placing it in the freezer for a few hours, then leaving it to charge again overnight. I put it in the freezer because I thought there was a problem with the hard drive, but it seems to be more the case of a flat battery. So, its working again, and the songs that were on it are still there, but strangely I am unable to mount it on my laptop, as windows doesn't recognise it as a device.

Even stranger, my laptop has XP pro on it, and this problem happened, but when I tried it on my desktop, running XP home which also has not been updated in a few years, It mounted without a problem. Highly annoying, being that all my music is on my laptop...

Also, getting this fixed with apple will cost me $369, almost the same amount of money I paid for it in the first place. I remember you mentioning about the battery replacement for ~$59 or so.. but I've also seen sites with DIY battery replacement kits for $20, with battery. Since my warranty has expired, its worth a shot.

Finally, Saturday beach: a tentative YES for me. Plans may change according to how long my dad is staying in Sydney in the next few days.

Hash, I may be weird but you need serious help.

I think the ozone from all those high RPM FOP38-esque Nvidia Cooling Fans are affecting ur perception of reality ... more than usual!

From an expert on dream reading - here is the meaning of ur dream ::
Lobster == Supreme Commander (SC).
SC had run loose == run rampant == running rampant over our comps
Eric catching it == being able to play SC.
with your mum == nVidia - ur surrogate mother
Putney + your mum == where we can pick up the video cards u r to send us
HL headcrab == each unit in SC will be rendered to at least this lvl
headcrab getting Eric == drooling over the pretty graphics which have captivated him
LOL == Lots of LOD (Level of Detail)

I had the oddest dream ever. Eric was in my Putney house helping my mom catch a lobster which had run loose. The second he caught it, it turned into a Half-life headcrab and got him. LOL!

Hey 2/3 ain't bad! It could have been worse, I could have spelt Austria.

Cheers for the link Kwong XD

Kwong if I read it correctly, that's an article relating to general street photography and not child photography per se. Sorry to disappoint you but I am not a paedophile =)

You didn't even spell Australia right marc...

Charlie, you can take photos of children without consent!

Lolz Darren, I have an nVidia 7800 or something Laptop too.

I haven't played Star for so long. Let's do it. Better yet, let's have a Mechwarrior battle! I will use my custom Timber Wolf (yes TIMBER WOLF, none of that Mad Cat bs) against whatever.

Damn Valentine's Day...

Last, I second the idea of James sponsoring us with 8800 GTXs. 2 each would be sufficient. ATIs suck. Being an ATI owner, I ABSOLUTELY POSTIVELY AGREE!!

EDIT: Seriously, how much would it cost us to buy 8800 GTX (or S) with you as our supplier? Do you have staff discounts or something? I mean legititmately ok?

oooh, nice dodge James. Good to see Marketing A and Politics 101 have payed off!

I am down for star at 0000hrs at +1000 GMT this Sunday

Happy Valentines everyone!

*Cheers -- to the infinite pleasures of single life!*

Back on topic: let's commit to something on Saturday. I am down for star. Can someone commit to a server and hand out instructions/IP etc?

Would you ever approve of an ATI product under the employ of nVidia?

Radeon X1950 sux. Trust me, I am very neutral on these things.

7600 is not tank enough James! we need at least 2 8800 GTX's in SLi or 2 X1950 XTX's in X-fire.

Australian public turns on Corby family

Thats right! The ninemsn readers constitute the Australian public and there are only 242,868 who actually live in Austrlalia.

dont you have to go to work in 2 hours? (says the man eating spaghetti bolognaise while playing dota at 1:20am)

5AM, eating instant noodles and listening to Bonnie Tyler.

God is great.

Go and buy a 7600 GT. Cheap as dirt.

Or just meet and play at CFN!

Eric, lend me Supreme Commander and I will try it on the comps at work. Core2Duos with GeForce 7900GTXs.. with the possibility of 8800 GTSs to come.. now if only they had decent internet bandwidth..

friday/saturday star sounds great, i just need to find my star cds and i'll be set. someone set us up a server..

I need 2 for SLI

Just watched C&C trailer, ZOMG the hotness !!!

James, we know it may lose u ur Job, but its worth it if u can play some RTS with ur friends - go steal us 16 GeForce 8800 GTX's !

*edit* check that - we need some nForce 4 mobos, 4 gigs of DDR 2 533 RAM and some AMD x64 X2 4000+ chips.

Lolz, James. That's if our comps can run those 2 games. I have pre-ordered my copy of SupCom, but might not be able to run it (I wan the special ed), while my cousin has ordered his C&C3. However, you can change all that if you sent us a copy of the latest nVidia card each at your employer's expense. XD

But yeh, iTunes can SMD. I think i will stick to Microsoft products...only because Apple has screwed me over twice...40gbs worth. And no, this is not the start of the Apple vs MS war aiite.

Sorry for hijacking James...

Saturday: Low-20 High-26. Beachable?

Sorry to hear your troubles Eric. Maybe iTunes is not good for your use. I hear the latest Windows Media Player is meant to be pretty good.

Guys, Command and Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars, is getting released in March 28th. Two new giant RTSes in the same month. We should organise a cross-Pacific RTS get together. How about Saturday afternoon, say 2PM Sydney time? It will be my Friday 7PM and we can play some Supreme Commander or C&C when it comes out. Or we could just play Star. XD

Well, it's now 5am. After spending almost 8 hours re-organising my mp3s, I've finally finished the task. Thanks to the tools at Apple, I've wasted 8 hours of my life doing something that would've not have happened if the tools didn't:
a) release iTunes 7 with so many bugs
AND
b) cbf adding an extra command line so that it can alert the user before they reorganise the library into something the user hate...

Sorry for the swearing. For the record, Apple iTunes 6 has screwed me over twice...majorly.

lol Eric. I don't have that prob. Maybe its just your MP3s :p

I created a vent server, but its only up when I activate it.

IP: 211.30.61.134
Port: 3784
Password: cto

If you're behind a router don't forget to forward it. The IP is not permanent and changes whenever optus changes it.

Lolz, Hash, just wait till 22nd of Feb...have they released any specs?

EDIT: Apple iTunes has once again screwed up. After re-installing DoTA and playing it again, I've come to realize iTunes suck! Version 7 of iTunes, apparently, is so bugged that it will play perfectly fine mp3s like they came out of a badly scratched cd. It skips, sounds become crackled and hisses, use my RAM like a mofo and lags DoTA. GET IT RIGHT!

EDIT 2: Oh fucking iTunes has done it again. All my anime OSTs are fucking organised in their fucking artists now! well done apple. You have successfully AGAIN fucked up my 10gbs worth of fucking mp3s. well fucking done! But fuck you apple. I've 90% of it! so fuck you!

SEEF BENNY'S PHRASE! He ninja'ed that off me! (which I ninja'ed off Eddie Murphy...) What a nigger.

Supreme Commander Demo is out!

How to describe it? In the Immortal words of Benny the Ho - "Sexual Chocolate!"

I've burnt my face again...lolz. I need some blikness i swear. Before I forget, happy chinese new years everyone (since celebrations have started) so no more dogs this year aiite! It's pigs this year boys!

Gong hei fat choi ppls!

Tennis booked at West Ryde - 10:30

Benny, stop being a Balean and come join.

Give my tennis racquet to hash please btw marc

Ahhww.. tennis at West Ryde. Go hard hitters!

Too bad no BBQ at Putney afterwards.

Oh Benny, I had a BBQ lit with mesquite logs yesterday. You would have loved it..

Kwong, what are the details for tennis 2morrow? West Ryde 10am? Hash? Charlie? Alexis? Benny? You guys in? Why don't we do a tennis then soccer thing?

K with kim tomorrow call her for details

I shall also play tennis tomorrow. I suggest lunch afterwards as well.

Yi wasn't top dog. He was top gun wing commander!

I'm for tennis tomorrow morning.

Lolz, Marc. It drew first blood back in 2004 as the first 8.1 MP camera on the market. Back then the 828 was the camera to beat. Then came along D100s, and D80s..and 350Ds...

I'll back someday...with a bigger and better camera...someday...

Why asian restaurant/eatery, Darren? James is a fair catch as shown by spain, busu and jono's interest over years...

Yi must have been top dog in China than XD

Dominating? Stand next to charlie or kwong and then tell me its dominating...and when you get out of the urinal compare the cameras XD

hahaha, James, I am sure that someone will be out there somewhere in nVidia waiting for you. You can try use your K10D to pick up. I've managed to pick up with my 828 back when it was cool...and dominating...

Anyway, anyone down for some Tennis/Soccer this Saturday Morning? I think we SERIOUSLY need some exercise. Feeding mosquitoes will NOT happen. TB!!!!

omg s09e02 of top gear is awesomely hilarious! Glad to see its back to itself and being a bunch of middle-aged men acting like teenage fags.

Thanks to an unexpected quota windfall at work, I am posting..

What about a beautiful mind? Don't worry James, she's out there somewhere, waiting to be found.. I suggest eyeing waitresses at your local asian restaurant/eatery.. or clubbing.. The first suggestion has yielded a candidate set for me, but do I dare make any move on it..

3 weeks later, and my contract is still 'in the mail'.. After working at the same place for almost 15 months, because of this contract mixup, my name has ended up on the Mining Engineering welcoming party invite list. Strange thing is, the other guys with contracts didn't get an invite..

I want someone with beautiful hands and a beautiful voice.

Soz Eric, seems like organisation is stalled for the time being, have to build a garden shed on the weekend

A picnic. With just guys. How romantic!

Yi, welcome back!

Well, that means only me and kwong's down for that cruise. Let's just postpone it to the week after, and we can try fit a whole picnic and soccer thing in between. And let's play some tennis this saturday before we go and help you pack your room...leeching stuff is counted right? Lolz

Zeus is back!
(And what's with the new heroes??)
:D

A Buzzsaw should do the cutting as well as any other tool. Don't know about PVC glue, but I should have plywood and some larger pieces of wood.

Come on Benny! Tap symbols on the rims bro! Fully sick!

Hash, I may just come over. I got to create some CD boxes. Got some plywood or sturdy cardboard and PVC glue and appropriate cutting tools?

I agree. Benny, pix plz. Show us the side thats been done up.

Benny got an integra?? Pics!

Eric: Soz but I might be out for this Saturday. (Akuna bay, Akina Mountain, hmmm still eems sus XD)

Reason :: Organising my room and my belongings (i.e Cards)

Ne1 want to help me build 20 or so boxes from plywood (KJ - if u can bring ur card box as a reference plz XD) ?

Benny - if ur Bro wants cards, come help me organise, ne uncommons and commons that have copy numbers > 4, he can have. Same for non-power rares (i.e. I keep my Wraths!)

*edit* That should reach about 300 (uncommons + commons per block) *5 (blocks) *4 (usually have a double playset) or so cards.

Lolz, Hash, I really did "accidentally" find those locations...while I was searching for Akuna Bay...

Marc, just give me a confirmation by Thursday. So far, we have 3 cars?

Benny's '89 Integra can come along...no worries. Just don't leave us behind aiite!

I think the early morning would be the best time to do it. Its cooler and on the way back in the afternoon or something you can beach.

But my sis frequently has stuff to do on weekend mornings. I'll see if I can make it.

I think Benny should come bring his '89 integra and show us what drifting is about.

I woke up yesterday feeling completely trashed. One leg hurt from cramps, the other from injury (Kwong!) and pex that burned from the pushups.

For some strange reason Eric, I think u should delete the word "accidententally".

I am down for some driving - I need more practice to hone 'precision driving' as Kwong calls it.

After speaking to Kwong about the roads, I think a trip up north through those roads is in order... hence I call upon ALL drivers who wishes to participate in the Northern Cruise to RSVP on this blog. It will probably be around 100kays max, through windy roads, and you won't be having a full car. So fuel costs will probably be at your own expense, unless some wants to sit in as passengers and not drive...

This will happen on Saturday...

Oh and thanks for letting us in KJ, and Benny for letting us play poker at ur place...even though u were Dota'ing throughout...

Lolz, Hash.

While I was flipping through my map, I've accidentally found three GREAT drives in the north. Galston Raod near Hornsby Heights, Berowra Waters Road in Berowra Waters and McCarrs Creed Road in Kuringgai Nat Park. Perhaps we can go there next time for a great time... :). Especially Galston...~13 consecutive Hairpins.....that's a LOT more than Akina's consecutive hairpins!

My Pentax K100D Photo Gallery is open.

Of course Kwong!

You should see me in Mario Kart - I can hit all the obstacles and miss all the power ups!

At standstill, according to my trip computer, fuel consumption almost doubles with the aircon on. So yeah, I generally don't use the aircon anywhere below 90km/h, even with 40ºC Richmond weather.

Eric, you missed out on Hash's awesome U-turn outside Charlie's place a few weeks back. Precision driving!

Yea I was driving it harder than I usually would a lot of times, plus we had A/C on most of the time we were in the car.

Of course, where are my manners. Thanks once again for opening the doors to our own home, Benny. KJ, I love what you did to your place, it looks pimpin'!

Lolz, James, you know a Jin? The only Jin i know is in Tekken that juggles dudes in mid air with the occasional devil side coming out.

Petrol consumption is also related to your driving habits. Hard acceleration will increase fuel consumption, so try smoothing out your acceleration while hard deceleration means wasted speed (thus leads to more acceleration out of corners). Other factors that you might look at includes tyre pressures (though i doubt 1psi less than recommended will increase the fuel consumption by that much.)

Hash, damn your AWD...so much grip around corners. You can feel the car screaming for more speed into corners...lolz. Hahaha, interesting enough, I actually trust Hash's driving! =D

Petrol consumption on the Impreza is way poorer than the Golf about 420 Km on a 50L tank of premium. In peak hour traffic consumptions runs at about 7-8 km/L. Going to Katoomba and back went at about 9 km/L.

As far as the drive goes, it is a huge improvement on our '88 Death trap. The AWD system completely owns! Winding roads at 60 kph was fun, though Alexis and KJ thought I was gonna get everyone killed.

Nah, thanks to everyone for coming and making it a random yet successful session. Special thanks to KJ who still came out even though it was minimal to no notice.

Thanks to Benny for organising beach/soccer and then letting us crash at his place for a while. :)

On a related note, the B747 we saw and heard yesterday morning at KJ's place did indeed suffer an engine flame-out.

With the Golf, I can get around 13.6km/L (750km on 55L tank), based on mainly 80km/h roads for 5 days and the rest through heavier traffic.

LOL, I only just read your whole post Benny. The first time I looked only at the first few sentences and discarded the rest so I didn't pick up the reminder on ur tennis racket.

Speaking as someone who has been forced into granny driving by fear that the second-hand cars may carc at any moment, I've cowed below 2000RPM mark. But man, the Mazda 6 changes that completely. Considering it is a mid-family car it is really fun to drive! The acceleration is smooth and the engine quiet, but thats pretty much given.

I had no idea I was missing out on a completely different world. Granted there is a 15 year difference, in comparison I braked heavily when turning in the benz. With the 6 I approach corners, roundabouts, windy roads with complete confidence and without having to apply brakes much or at all. It hugs corners without throwing the occupants around and I don't feel like I'm losing control of the car at all whereas in the previous cars, I lose control even when I'm not doing anything harsh! The novelty will wear off, but hopefully not too soon.

The downside is that out of the 300kms that has been travelled, when I fuelled up - 55L please. So thats like less than 6kms/1L. Half was used to drive in peakhour, the other half we used today and I was generous on the pedal with aircon on as well. My sis was probably the same. Compare that with the 10km/1L fuel when driving granny on the benz.

Tokyo Durifuto!!!

What about you guys Hash/Kwong? We considered the subaru liberty, but that was too exp.

I still don't know how Soccer at Centennial Park turned into Northern Beaches, but I suppose we'll have to run with it.

Also, can everyone please check if they have ne DVDs that they borrowed from me, I seem to be missing about 50 and have nfi whether I left them somewhere or my dad KO'd them.

I'm just up from a night of drinking...

Everything is still on.

At this rate I should be able to get home by 10am buy the bread andhead back out to Kj's by 11

Bring a soccer ball and whatever else is you have that'll be fun on the beach.

Marc bring my tennis racquet please

Hey Eric,
I agree with everything you said, except Jin is not my friend. XD

And now for something unrelated to Macs and PCs..
Boston bomb scare and the suspects talk to the (Fox!) media

And more unrelated Fox-reported news sure to inflame..

Lolz, James, I just don't think knocking each other out till someone goes over the edge is real nice. I mean, ffs, we are all friends, 've known each other for at least 5 years. What's the point of doing that? Joking, knocking among friends is no problem at all, but just know the boundaries.

Marc, I think Spain's one died. Didn't it? *shrugs* I thought I've heard it from him...or maybe it was someone else's pod that died. Either way, i've read quite a few stories about pods dying on them.

Gyahh, posting in wikiBulletin seems constricting.

Nice Clip, I especially like the bit that said "Monday 9:00 Heroes - New Episodes".

For transport - I owe many ppl about 5 years of accumluated lift mooching, so who needs a lift from around the Ryde, Hornsby or close area (Darren, Marc, John etc.)

Plans for tomorrow:

Meet at KJ's place at 1100 hrs, before heading off to Bilgola beach. Those needing a lift please post here. Also, Benny's buying $5 worth of viet bread rolls, so people can bring some cold cuts, etc. Whoever has a soccer ball can bring that along too.

So is it soccer or beach tomorrow? When?

Shit, spain's iPod died too? that only makes Alexis' and James' one (which was stolen after a year of use) the only ones in the group that have survived without fault.

Right, okay. I'm not interested in arguing over this and hearing Hash's multitude of defences. It's over, so if you still want to be an ass about it, you are welcome to free shots, or you could hug it out, bitch

I also want to take the time to say that Eric is the best person of this group.

My god, guys play nice. Think the jokes seriously went overboard this time. Jokes are fine, but when people are stressing and fighting, it's time to stop. Hash, sorry to hear about your uncle's experience. Hope he's fine. And what's this Jin thing?

Guys, let's just drop the Apple vs PC thing. I am no engineer, just a mere comp user (surf the net and play games) but I am sure that they both have their advantages and disadvantages. Eg, I'd rather use Microsoft products because I've been using it all the time (except for the 3 years back when I was in Trinity...they just love their Macs). No, I am not bagging Macs, but it's just a matter of preference. However, Microsoft Zune is a POS, so I'd prefer an Apple Ipod. If Darren/Spain/Marc's iPod didn't die, I'd probably be an iPod user too.

I am interested in Tennis before beach and soccer, but beach is out for me. Don't like sand. Hey Kwong, you peeling atm? I am peeling all over my arms...goddammit!

I just want to take this time to say that I still don't understand why Jin exists. His existence almost single handedly disproves the existence of God.

Which mac joke did James find funny? The right-click mouse button joke was good, but abused a lot so its lost much effect. Or is he talking about the one where all you say is: "Its a mac, you can't do this or that. Mac users can't do this or that, Mac users are retards. Mac users have no reason" on cycle? Yea coz that requires wit and smarts. You should go freestyle with that like Jin.

Speaking of beaches. I am for Palm Beach. If that is the case, anyone interested in tennis beforehand? And just curious Benny, who can't make it if it's one of the northern beaches? With all these people with new found means of transportation, I would think that getting there wouldn't be an issue.

Ripping on you for being brown is fun.

But like I said, you voiced objection to the Tamil comment, so I crossed it out. You did not at any time in the 5 years of this blog object to the brown jokes. In fact, you embraced them on several occasions so don't go emo if you encourage it.

It feels like we're all at a cocktail party with loud music playing in the background while someone is trying to communicate to us on the other side of the door through the keyhole XD

Bilgola is good. Smaller, but also quieter - not as packed.

There was no point to asking if we think Hash should come back, since by asking that question you obviously think Hash has been off the blog long enough. Of course everyone would say something along the lines of Hash should come back while posting a couple of shots on his 'claymore' carrying darker shaded back.

Beach, Northern beach for less people?

I'm not sure
we'd enjoy the masses of people at Coogee or Bondi.

If no one complains it'll probably be palm beach or one of kj's hideaways

What do you guys think? Should we let the token brown man come back, or does the Tamil Tiger he still need taming? XD

I am down for Beach in the afternoon. I am meh for Soccer. Benny, is that a euphemism for the events of Australia Day weekend?

Edit: I'm sorry to hear about your uncle. See unlike you, if you voice a genuine objection I will know when to quit.

In other news, would the person using the wikibulletin please use it for announcements only.

Well now I am pissed. The only two works ever published with extensive information on foward flight aerodynamics for co axial helicopters are in freaking RUSSIAN!!!!!

Soccer on saturday yay...

Count me in for soccer. More preferred than beach, but I can do either.

Soccer CentennialPark 11am Saturday

Or Beach soccer somewhere north if ppl respond or get back to me asap.

We got heaps for soccer already

Soccer Or Beach
Me, Joel, Eric, Kwong, Hash, Scott

Soccer
Flinky

Unknowns
KJ, Darren, Marc, Spain, Kirill, Eric, Char (is probably too busy)


Post as soon as you see this or this is going to get dropped faster than a Srilankan on an asian blog.

Lolz, Kwong how did you guess? xþ. We are racing for "pinks" right? Oh, yeh, tennis this weekend. Anyone interested? I think kwong is organising right? :D

Also, if you have to choose between the following numbers which one would you choose? (Think Asian, there are too many fours in there, but I have to choose one....)

1445
1446
1447
1448
1449
1450
1451
1452

Eric is challenging both of you in a drifting competition.