Tablets Seem Fun To Work With

29 November 2006 | Hisham | | Misc Sci-Fi, TV
 
McKay draws a solar prominence, we think.

Tablet PCs, used by the personnel of Stargate Command's Atlantis Expedition (particularly Dr. Rodney McKay) seem to be cool little gadgets to work with. I wish I can buy one around here. Are there any being sold here in Kuala Lumpur at all?

Perhaps the PC Fair at the KL Convention Centre coming up next weekend?

Networked to the Lantian database?
 

In a galaxy far, far away... Southwestern Road Trip Day 3

27 November 2006 | sila | | Family Pics
 

After getting to Taos, New Mexico after dark, we were pretty exhausted from our excessive sight-seeing. We were really glad to find the Hampton Inn in Taos. We spent a quiet night in Taos and bright and early in the morning of Day 3, we headed to Taos Pueblo.

Taos Pueblo is a thousand-year-old, still lived in traditional pueblo. Unlike Acoma, it was right by Taos, the city, and we didn't have to go searching for it for long. We paid our entrance fee into the pueblo, and paid a mere $5 per camera to take pictures of the pueblo. After Acoma Sky City's $10 per camera, it felt like such a better deal! And they charged a group fee for the 4 of us that was cheaper than the advertized $10 per person rate. Already, I warmed up to Taos Pueblo. :)

 

What Transpired In Pakistan

26 November 2006 | Hisham | | Recent News
 

Like DSA 2006 back in April, we were at another defence exhibition only this time in Karachi, Pakistan. My apprehension was soon laid to rest as the local organisers as well as the other foreign exhibitors who were great folks whose company I enjoyed. Whenever we got together, there usually was loud chuckling and sometimes there were incredible belly laughs, which I believe began for the first time when we tried to figure out what the acronym "CIP" actually was.

Nope, ain't tellin'.

 

In a galaxy far, far away... Southwestern Road Trip Day 2 (Acoma Sky City)

24 November 2006 | sila | | Family Pics
 

So, after we left El Morro, we went east on the NM 63 until we hit the Interstate I-40 again. And we went on for a short way, and decided we would visit Acoma Pueblo, and then look for some lunch. For your convenience, here's another look at the map of New Mexico.

Review Map of New Mexico

The plan for the second half of the day was after Acoma Pueblo, we would drive to our next hotel in Taos, New Mexico.

 

In a galaxy far, far away... Southwestern Road Trip Day 2 (El Morro)

23 November 2006 | sila | | Family Pics
 

After a relaxing evening at the Hampton Inn in Gallup (Mak and Abah ate their tar paued mexican food, and Vin and I went out briefly for a quick bite), we had a good night's sleep and hit the road at 8:00 AM again. Gallup is a lot colder than Phoenix so everybody was bundled up for the 40+ Fahrenheit (about 5 C) weather.

Map of New Mexico

On our itinerary for the day, from Gallup, we would get off the I-40 and head south on the NM 602 then east on NM 53 a little ways to see El Morro National Monument. After El Morro, we would take the NM 53 north east to the I-40 and then stop at Acoma Pueblo. We took so many cool pictures I'll divide Day 2 into first El Morro, then Acoma Sky City.

 

In a galaxy far, far away... Southwestern Road Trip Day 1

21 November 2006 | sila | | Family Pics
 

So on October 27th, the four of us flew from Dayton to Phoenix where we planned to embark on an ambitious tour of the Southwestern USA. We arrived in Phoenix and rented a car. Armed with our guidebook and a roadmap of the United States, we thought we were ready for everything.

We had a half-planned itinerary, and some hotel reservations along the way. The rest we would make up as we went along. We arrived in Phoenix late in the evening of Friday October 27th, so we got our rental car and drove straight to our first hotel in Phoenix. We planned to spend the night and in the morning we would hit the road.

Map of Arizona

From Phoenix, we planned to drive north on the I-17 and at Flagstaff, head east on the I-40. We had reservations at a hotel in Gallup, New Mexico (just east of the Arizona border on the map).

 

Karachi is Sunny but Cool

20 November 2006 | Hisham | | Recent News
 
Today Hikam and I took a drive around town with a tour guide / taxicab driver. The idea was that we'd tell him what we needed to buy on a souvenir hunt and he'll know the best places to take us.

Although we tried very hard, we couldn't find a T-shirt that reads My Friend Went To Karachi and All He Got For Me Was This Lousy T-shirt. In fact very little T-shirts were sold at the souvenir stores. They mostly have leather and fur goods, onyx-carved trinkets, ornate metalware and beautiful cloth for traditional wear.
 

So There We We Were At Jinnah International

19 November 2006 | Hisham | | Recent News
 

Hikam and I arrived at about 2025 local time via the Pakistan International Airlines flight. It was enjoyable. I think I slept four out of the six hours airborne. The inflight movie was Pirates of the Carribeans - Dead Man's Chest.

Luckily the hotel transport people were waiting for our arrival. One less thing to worry about.

It's now almost 1000 local time in the morning, and we've had some breakfast. Access to Wireless LAN in only in the lobby on the ground floor and on the 6th and 7th floors. So, here I am in the lobby trying to get some information down the internet tubes.

 

First There Was Lunch, Then It Rained

15 November 2006 | Hisham | | ACS Memories
 

Today, Teik Sing, Ahbau & I went out for lunch, just because. We had nasi lemak ayam madu and talked some. The restaurant is situated near the Glenmarie industrial park's Petronas gas station. Across the street was the Federal Highway. On the other side of that was the Batu Tiga train station.

I thought the nasi lemak was delicious.

 

Next Week I Fly To...

13 November 2006 | Hisham | | Recent News
 

...Karachi, Pakistan.

The journey will be nested between the coming two Saturdays. Since the company is small I have to run around getting stuff done in preparation for the trip.

Between this and the course assignment - that had me on edge for weeks until I finally submitted it one week late - I had no time updating this here weblog. Heck, I didn't even have time to come up with some artwork which I promised myself I'd come up with for recreation time.

A stand-out moment during the running around would be last Friday when the Airline employee looked at me (when she realized I was booking the tickets for myself) and asked with a tinge of disbelief, "You're the one going?"

Hopefully by two weeks we'll have some photos of Karachi here. (And hopefully we'll have internet connection at the hotel there.)

 

Torchwood Is An Anagram, See?

08 November 2006 | Hisham | | TV
 

Some TV stuff:

Captain Jack is looking for a sex-addicted gas alien
I've seen the pilot of BBC's new Doctor Who spinoff Torchwood and I like it so far. The production design is leaps and bounds better and a far cry from the time Tom Baker was the good doctor. It follows the adventures of the Torchwood Institute branch dubbed Torchwood 3 which is based in Cardiff.

Apparently Torchwood One in London was destroyed in a recent Doctor Who episode (which I haven't seen), Torchwood Two is in Glasgow (with a "very strange man"), Torchwood Three are the protagonists led by Captain Jack Harkness a former Doctor Who companion and Torchwood Four is... missing.

We get to see the weirdness of the investigations (which involves aliens and other strange things slipping through a rift in and around Cardiff) through the eyes of newbie Gwen Cooper.

In other news, Heroes' Hiro has posted D&D stats of himself on his blog:

Hiro (Future)
STR: 14 (I'm going to have to work out more to get this)
DEX: 18 (with +4 modifier) (ditto as above)
CON: 12
INT: 18 (I can use magic)
WIS: 17 (I survive till the future so I have to be wise (^o^))
CHA: 15
Race: Human (Japanese)
Alignment: Lawful Good
AC: -1 (I would think that I would be wearing lighter gear, but get AC
dexterity bonus)
Class: Kensei

No Base Attack Bonus?

 

sudo apt-get install linux joke

06 November 2006 | Hisham | | Humour, Linux, Trawling The Net
 

Before the Deepavali-Aidilfitri vacation I had zero experience working with a Linux machine. Some time fiddling about with Ubuntu in Pasir Mas changed that. (Not by much, but some.)

I wouldn't have understood this joke before three weeks ago, so don't feel bad if you don't get it. When I saw this one on RPG.net it really cracked me up. I have no clue who made this or where it originated, though.

Look I made a Linux joke

Updated: The webcomic is xkcd is now among the webcomics links found in the left column of this weblog's frontpage.

 

A Tag! A Meme! A Meme Tag!

03 November 2006 | Hisham | | Friends
 

Diamond Lil tagged us with a meme about blogging it would so we have to oblige some answers to a set of questions.

1. Are you happy/satisfied with your blog, with its content and look? Does your family know about your blog?

I am somewhat happy with my blog, but not really satisfied. I tried getting it to make me coffee at nights but it just sits there immobile in my computer. I might not be talking to it correctly.

Yes, our family knows about the blog. We tried to ensure all of our relatives know about and read it regularly, even the ones without any computer or internet connection. Unfortunately none of them liked me kidnapping some of them in the middle of the night for me to perform surgery to implant neural Wi-Fi datacommunication transceivers in their brain, so they could browse the blog whenever they're in satellite range.

 

He Had A Sword

01 November 2006 | Hisham | | TV
 
Meanwhile back in Las Vegas

Actor Masi Oka, who plays Hiro Nakamura (the character of the new NBC series Heroes) is one lucky guy. Not only does he play the only character on the show reacting positively to his superpowers (with the abilities to freeze time and time travel), but you should read what his day job is when he's not acting.

I am at awe.