Free Sound Editor — Audacity

If you are looking for a free software to edit you mp3/music files, look no further audacity is just what you need.

What you can do with audacity? From audacity page here’s what you can do:-

• Record live audio.
• Convert tapes and records into digital recordings or CDs.
• Edit Ogg Vorbis, MP3, WAV or AIFF sound files.
• Cut, copy, splice or mix sounds together.
• Change the speed or pitch of a recording.

Don’t worry its absolutely free and no ads are there. Go download in Audacity’s Home Page. More free software intro to come, stay tune!

My Dell Laptop One Year Experience

This month is exactly 1 year old for my Dell Studio laptop, since I got it at the end of Nov 2008. It not just good enough to do normal web surfing, it also can do extreme programming.

My day to day usage is very good with the 15 inch widescreen LCD, in the future I might get another 22 inch widescreen monitor since I sometimes want a bigger screen.

Since its came equipped with 4gig of RAM, I am able to do a lot of various programming on it. Compare to my desktop that has 1.5gig of RAM, my laptop can do much much more.

I am still using Windows Vista SP2 and will upgrade to Windows 7 (Vista SP3 actually) eventually. Too add on to the excitement, I have dual booting with Vista and OpenSuse Linux.

For those that are not familiar with Linux and wish to try it out, I strong recommend trying OpenSuse out. Its quite user friendly and easy to install softwares compare to older versions of Linux. You will have auto detect on most of the hardwares when you plug it in.

If anyone wants to buy a new laptop I strongly recommend Dell Studio series laptop. You won’t regret getting one.

Google Public DNS

Recently Google has came out with a new public DNS server for FREE. Currently I am on OpenDNS, and will give Google DNS a try sometime this month.

After all, it is a lot faster than the one provided by Screamyx (Streamyx). Screamyx DNS just too darn slow and make my browsing experience a hellish nightmare every single day in Telekom Malaysia history.

For more information on Google Public DNS please click here.

New MWA ELO Rating

A few weeks ago I got a phone call from MWA president. On the phone he has politely asked me to help him set a new ELO points for players that are active in MWA at the moment.

For that I went after the old points and readjust them according to some peoples feedback, my observation and checking the previous selection/tournament results.

With the newly adjusted points, I went through a discussion with the MWA management/committee members over the points to fine tune it. After that is done, I have posted it up to MWA forum here.

After the adjustments we also have encouraged people to test the new rating points to give adequate handicaps & komi. A few people have participate and it was quite accurate to the rest of us that help fine tune the points.

Do not worry that you points are too high or too low, we’re still trying it out and fine tuning it. We also hope to have a strict yet flexible ranking for all MWA members in the future. Please try out the new points if you have one and tell us or post in the forums so that we know how much we have to adjust the points.

Lousy Driver Trying To Park A Car

Just a few days ago I went to a shopping mall to get my hair cut and other stuffs done, I went into the basemen for parking. To my amaze, I saw a bunch of people surrounding a car.

So I din’t look at it much when I saw an empty spot for me to park. After properly parked my car, I notice the group of people was actually trying to help a car to get out from that parking lot.

It doesn’t seem too hard to do that, but that car (a Toyota Wish) was actually stuck-ed together with the car beside and nearly touching the pillar on the other side. I was thinking to myself, for a moment I thought it was the drivers misjudge on the entry. But I think that was because of the driver s lousy-ness that got him/her (I didn’t see who was driving) into that trouble.

I wanted to help initially but there were so many people there helping a helpless driver who couldn’t handle a dreadfully simple parking. So I walked away to complete my mission of the day. The last I hear while I was still walking around that they have manage to get the car out from the lot.

Moral of the story, never drive a big car that you can’t even handle with your paid to pass driving license. You just cause more traffic problem and endanger yourself, your friends, your family and other people on the road. If I am the authority, most probably I’ll order him/her to take more driving lessons until he/she can really drive & park his/her car.

Disastrous Year of 2009

Seeing my friends going for Korea KPMC (Korea Prime Minister Cup), Thailand U-Go (University Go) and China Naning for competition. I feel very disappointed that my Korea AABC (Asia Amateur Baduk Championship) has been called off by the main sponsor.

Losing one trip that I have worked very hard to get is unbearable. To add to the big disappointment, I have lost my Japan Pair Go trip and KPMC trip all together in this year! Alex which won the Japan trip wanted to switch for AABC with me but I have insist on going to AABC.

I also switched with Zaid since AABC initially will clash with Malay’s Hari Raya. To our surprise, AABC was postponed due to high number of cases of H1N1 in that tournament area. But I also failed to switch back with Zaid after that.

After knowing AABC got canceled I was very sad, but also gave me great motivation to improve at least 2-4 stone before the next selection which is before Chinese New Year.

For this year I have already gained 2 stone improvements in my overall game. Even that I am still striving for improvements I still maintain high winning percentage on most of the players in MWA. A few of them that was once strong opponents, now I am able to beat them most of the time. Some of the people might not see it but nevermind, they just need to check the results to see where am I and not judge by seeing one game. In simple note, they don’t know how I play, they don’t know how I study, they don’t know how I think and they seriously use their backside to think!!!

Since last month I have been working very hard to find a major breakthrough instead of some improvements. I know where to improve and how to improve as I have all the materials to study. I hope I’ll be springing a new wave of surprises that I have been doing every year.

2 to 4 stones improvement in dan level, that’ll be damn fun to get in this few months!

God Knows Piano Version

I so wanna share this music to piano and violin lovers, THIS IS A VERY DAMN NICE MUSIC!!! The normal one is already damn cool, this is even BETTER!!!

This is the piano & violin duet.

This is the live Aya Hirano version rock version enjoy

Music On My Ipod

Here is my list of songs on my ipod:-

1. Kishi Ou no Hokori
2. Anata ga Ita Mori
3. Sakura Kiss
4. Sakura Kiss – Piono Version
5. Sakura Kiss – Violin Version
6. Honto no Jibun
7. Kokoro no Tamago
8. Meikyuu Butterfly
9. Yume no Tsubomi
10. Heartful Song
11. Tsukiyo no Violinist
12. Black Diamond
13. Gachinko de Ikou!
14. Cagayake! Girls
15. Don’t Say “Lazy”
16. Fuwa Fuwa Time
17. Sweet Bitter Beauty Song
18. Hishoku no Sora
19. Another Planet
20. Joint
21. Innocent Starter
22. Eternal Blaze
23. Orange
24. Silky Heart
25. Pre-Parade
26. Vanilla Salt
27. Jikan yo Tomare
28. Kimi, Meguru Boku
29. Kataomi Fighter
30. God Knows
31. Lost My Music
32. Parallel Days

Okay thats part of it, maybe next time will list more, the above mentioned is one of my most favariote anime songs.

OpenDNS

Been around a week since I switch to OpenDNS instead of TMnut’s DNS. What is DNS? It is something like server that directs you to the where abouts of a website that you wanna visit. And because of that, TMnut’s DNS is basically screwed up and slow, which makes you internet enjoyment sour.

To go to the site at a better speed, I just tried to use OpenDNS. To my surprise, I had a terrific speed!!! Pictures loads super fast than previous, sites loads alot faster. To prove my claims, I have did online speed testing on a few test sites. Results, to my amaze it was 20-30% FASTER than normal DNS!!! That shows how “snail” TMnut DNS server is (please provide better quality service).

Till today I am still using it and I am still very happy todays OpenDNS that gave me that 20-30% speed boost that my line dreadfully need!!! THANK YOU OPENDNS!!! Even youtube LOADS FASTER!!!

If you need more info about OpenDNS, feel free to Google them out. And on a side note, don’t do your banking with OpenDNS its don’t feel safe enough for that at the moment.

My First Violin Lesson – Basics

Finally started my first violin lesson since interest struck me few months ago. My handsome best friend Alex Chan will be my teacher.

There are a couple of things to learn at the start, the first is how to hold the bow properly. It wasn’t easy but it wasn’t too hard either, just need to remember and practice alot of the holding position everyday.

Next was holding the violin on my neck. Unfortunately, my neck is longer than my friend and his shoulder rest couldn’t fit me properly. Guess I’ll need to get another one pretty soon. Well I just hold the violin with one palm at the body at the mean time. Standing position is also another basic after holding the violin, imagine the violin is pointing 90 degree to the left and I’ll be standing 45 degree.

After that it was pulling the bow on the violin, Alex taught me that it is best to have a big mirror infront and properly align the bow and the violin at a cross and practice on that everyday as well. That explains why his home has a big mirror in front of his practice place.

So this morning, I waste no time and rearrange my room abit so that I can use the old monitor to act as a mirror so I can see myself practicing. He also told me that it is best to have a very solid basic so that I can pickup playing many songs later. Basic practicing should last around 6 months according to him.

Hopefully I’ll keep learning and not stop halfway like what I did to my piano and guitar long long time ago. Also will have to save up money as I progress to get a better violin next time, can’t always borrow stuffs from my friend.

Stay tune for more!!!