MLai - Reflecting my Life

So, last time i was here, it was all about the bike. No pics as yet, and not sure when I’ll get the time either. So whats been happening… On the sunday, went mountaining biking for the first time in a while. The Giant Talon was tops! oh the gears are so nice, the weight was superb. This being my first ride in a while on a new bike, I thought i had it under control, but how wrong I was. Having been taken over by another cyclist, I started to speed up and ride his speed, thinking “I can do this”. Bottom of the first corner he took me on, I lost control, slid, killed my arm, leg, handle bar and pedal. Its not actually THAT bad, well the bike is fine - im over the barrier of protecting my bike from everything. My arm and leg is still recovering. My leg is the worse.

It was a great ride. Short break, and FOUND THE SINGLE TRACK!! Oh and yes I was on the Oaks Trail. I had gotten lost the last time, and now i know exactly why. There was a stop sign after the picnic ground. I FOLLOWED that road, rather than crossing it. The single track is INSANE. I loved every second of it. I’m so sure i’ll never hit the road ever again.

Work wise, its been busy. The thursday after, I released a version of one of programs i had been working on. Big day really, still a small issue to fix, not regarding my update, but rather something else we had found and not scoped. Other than that, moved onto another project - the big one, and yeah, its slowly moving. Having regular sessions with the client. Slowly getting my head around the whole project. Meta-data is all worked out… i think and so, i’ve started developing.

Otherwise, its coming up to peoples 21st’s. Adrians was on just last saturday. Top party. I got … well reached a stage of… drunkedness … only reached once ever before. So I do apologise for my poor behaviour - only a few people experienced that one.

Harry Potter came out - finished that just on sunday - loved it so much. Its been the only books that i’ve ever read outside of school. Nothing else - well, I could say that, I’ve never given any other books a go.

So now, at mates place, he’s 21 today, going out with the family for dinner - party this weekend. Long weekends ahead. So we’ll see when the next update will be…

and oh yeah!!!! very annoyed!!! macbook pro…. keyboard and trackpad have been dying when I use it for a while - coincidently whilst programming. It then stopped working completely on friday!!!! only witha usb mouse and keyboard can i still use it. Took it to TSQ repair centre and they ordered a new logic board… I hope thats all…

Written by Milton Lai

Today was a beautiful day, bit chilly though. Started off at Croydon Park at the brides place. Well actually, ended up starting at the hairdressers. Then proceeded back to the brides, for the girls to get ready. Church ceremony was at Leichhardt - a Greek Orthodox church. Then we spent the next few hours in and around the Rocks area as well as Martin Place. Reception was at Dockside. Here are a few pics:

The rings:

The flower girl pulling faces at the camera:

As the bride and groom were wandering the streets of the Rocks:

A postcard image:

The bouquet, dress and suit:

Zorba’s Dance:

More pics at www.vlblog.net .

So this was the first wedding, of many i hope, that i brought my MacBook Pro along to the reception to start going over my pictures. I was able to go through all my photos for the day and save Vince some time. Was originally using a program through Parallels to do the previewing, but that took way too long. It was running through the networked shared folder and just took way too long to go through them. I guess i either need more RAM, or just to set up BootCamp - still yet to do. So I decided to use Apeture. I was able to use the ranking system to achieve the same results which was good, and it was so much faster! So, it means that I’m home and able to blog these pics right away.

So in the past week, Sunday, I had a very relaxing day. It was planned that I go check out the Kitty Hawk, but the weather turned out quite bad, so I ended up having lunch at Pancakes on the Rocks, and long relaxing day out and about in the city with an early night. The weekdays were spent on my new project, doing data modelling. After a meeting on Monday, it was decided that, instead of having modelling sessions with the boss, I would start coding, and start creating the metadata for the database I would be using. So I of course had to finish the modelling first, which is now complete, well its over to my boss to see if anything is missing. I started on the meta data on friday, and still yet to complete it.

I had been slightly distracted throughout this week with the idea of a new bike. So, Kona has stepped into view and its the Caldera that I’ve been looking at. Went to Anaconda on thursday to check it out. I also spotted a Fluid Rhythm which is an Australian company, with good parts and a good price, but not too sure on the frame. So now having a toss up between the Giant Talon and the Kona Caldera. I’ll be hopefully have a test ride tomorrow.. or today and see which I like more.

Last night I ended up going to a friends place for dinner - was running late, had to drop off some biking accessories and take a few back from my friend. Had a nice dinner, before chilling out. Also had to pick up another subwoofer for the car. Cousin bidded for it on ebay. It was a steal really. Its the same specs as my Rockford Fosgate one (not sure of model right now), and so hopefully hook it up soon enough, of course, would mean i would have to redesign my whole boot, but for the moment I may just hook it up at home.

One thing I must complain about is my Alpine head unit. So my display has died. Sound, functionality still works, but the display is dead. So I call Alpine in melbourne and they say, its never happened before so send down the face plate and it should take a couple days to fix. So I go to JB Hifi, where i bought it and it has a 5 year extended warantee. They send it off to Alpine. I call them on Thursday to check on the status. They say to me, they just received it but since they dont have a back unit to test it on, they cannot diagnose the problem. so until they get one in, it will just sit there. I’m thinking, this is just freakn great. So I personally said, so if I call back next week and you still havnt touched it, I should send in my back unit. And of course they agreed. So, its been a week now with no audio - since i still havnt hooked up the remote cables for my dvd player unit, and itll be at least another 2 before I will have that sweet sounding music again….

Written by Milton Lai

So, I have been way too busy with work. Started off with my 10 day project. Was able to get it done after 6, and 4 days of testing. There was just too much testing. I was able to get it done, and was quite impressed with the speed at which I was able to get it done. This project was finished in the week of 18th June.

On the 23rd, I had a shift at Telstra Stadium at the Swans v Collingwood match. Didn’t get to watch too much of the game, though I was at the entrance to the Legends Room. Let through quite a few TV personalities majority of who are from Home and Away. This game was followed with a quick trip to Sydney Kebabs in Yagoona. Its open 24/7 and a top place to go for a late night feed.

This was then followed by a week of Michael Buble. Yes I am a HUGE fan, quite jealous really. First appearing on Rove Live on Sunday night (recorded by a guy at work), then appeared on It Takes Two on Tuesday night (again, recorded), appeared on Sunrise on Thursday (also recorded) BUT I had made the effort to go there, so now I can proudly say “I’ve seen Michael Buble LIVE!” (through glass though) and here is evidence:

I wasn’t able to see his performance since there were obstructions, and there were also quite a few screaming girls (quite possibly one of a few guys in a sea of girls). This of course also meant that I saw Mel and Kochie:

That brings me to JP’s 21st on Friday night. Was at scruffy murphys which is a top spot of a nice cheap dinner and drinks (although drinks arent so cheap). Good night overall.

Project wise, I started my 6-10 month project just last wednesday. Lots of pressure on me to get around so much. Basically the whole data model is changing and the whole application is going to be redesigned by me! Trying to steer clear of any distractions so to make sure I do the best I can with this project, and so far its not so bad, but i know in a couple of weeks the programming will start and I’ll be head deep into it.

Well news on my toys - MacBook Pro. Oh its soooo sweet. So I opted for Apeture to use for my indexing and quick editing of photos. The other choice was Adobe Lightroom which does exactly the same thing. So far, I’m liking Apeture (it was also cheaper!). One thing to point out maybe, since im storing the photos on my 2.5inch external HD, when I first imported them in and disconnected the drive afterwards, on reconnecting, Apeture wouldnt find my pictures for me to edit. Managed Referenced Files, is the button you need to press and link back ONE photo, and the rest will find themselves as long as you do not move the folders. What Apeture does is write meta data for the photo rather than editing the file. This just means the original is not touched and you can do so much with the photo. Once you are happy, you can export the photos out. You can make the decision as to which one you would like yourself - here.

I’ve moved all my calendars over to iCal. It now subscribes to Vince’s wedding calendar and I’ve published my calendars to a website, so now my calendar is accessible anywhere. Also, for a PC, when you close the lid, you can set whether or not your laptop will go into standby or hibernate or do nothing. I had it doing nothing so i could listen to music without the screen showing. On a Mac, there is no option to do such thing. I did however find myself an application called Insomnia X which allows a mac to do such a thing - turning your mac into a GIGANTIC ipod. I’ve also installed MenuMeters which is a great tool to keep an eye on CPU usage, RAM usage as well as Network throughput. iStumbler is also a really great tool to see what wireless networks are around and whether they are secure or not and the signal strength (great for wardriving).

No new toys yet though. Been spending some time shopping since its sales time, as well as being able to catch a couple movies - Oceans 13 and Transformers. Both are top movies. Oceans 13 - you wouldnt expect anything less. Transformers - loved the special effects, they are really unbelievable.

So having given my bike to a mate of mine, I’ve got to start looking for a new one. So I’m currently eyeing the Giant Alias, Giant Talon and also the Avanti Montari. The later two retail around 1200. The Alias retails at just under 1000. It’ll just take me some time to find out good prices as well as which parts are better than others and whether they would suit me.

I do hope I can have more regular updates with some more tech related posts, just so I can remember what has happened (so I can write this damned report for uni).

Written by Milton Lai