476F64206973204C6F7665

Tranquility base here, the Eagle has landed.

2009-07-21T00:34:00.004+10:00

20th July marks the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission when man first walked on the moon. 66 years before that (1903) was the first controlled, powered and sustained heavier-than-air human flight. In a span of a single generation, man was able to fly, travel to space and walk on moon!

food for thought; today's electronic toy has twice the processing power of the lunar module that landed on moon.

Christian jargons

2009-07-06T21:03:00.007+10:00

Let's make an effort to minimise the use of Christian jargons and be more relevant to the society around us. If you have many friends who are non-believers, being "holy" in facebook may possibly isolate you to your own little Christian world. Where do we draw the line between professing our faith and not stuffing them down the throat of unbelievers?

I've uploaded more birthday photos.

Photography garbage

2009-06-15T22:51:00.003+10:00

What is photography garbage? it is just garbage. Just log into facebook and you will find hundreds, if not thousands of garbage photos. I am guilty of posting garbage photos at times too...

What I consider to be garbage photos;

the subject is over/under exposed
blown highlights till kingdom come
subject out of focus and blurred

These photos exist because people do not take time to evaluate and edit their shots. Instead, they go and shoot like a machine gun, download every single photo into their computer and dump the lot into facebook and starts tagging everyone. Also, I cringe everytime I see crummy photos from mobile phones.

My question is why some people bother to post photos filled with blown highlights, under exposed like a black hole, subject blurred beyond recognition, and crossed eyed out of focus? is it perhaps a form of art? or people just simply didn't think it was a bad shot?

I dont buy the excuse that "I'm only using a compact camera". Today's compact cameras are pretty sophisticated and are very much capable of taking great shots. Here's the thing, you need to learn to use your camera properly, know what it can and can't do, and keep practising.

June

2009-06-10T22:05:00.004+10:00

New photos posted on Smugmug. Attended a Citizenship Ceremony on Queensland Day, and had a birthday dinner with a couple of friends at Koh-Ya, a Japanese BBQ restaurant in Fortitude Valley.

Both event wasn't easy to shoot, as one was taken during the day with high contrast between subject and background. The other was taken in low light conditions up to ISO6400. I've decided to set picture control to D2X ModeII for portraits as the skin tones are more accurate. My keepers rate is still pretty low. I'll need to brush up on my skills and techniques in handheld low light shots.

GIgapixel photo of the world's tallest building

2009-06-06T16:46:00.003+10:00

Check this site out, all 76 image stiched to form the Burj Dubai. It is an amazing super sky scraper topping out at 818m! Not only the world's tallest building, but the world's tallest structure ever!

Flash in day light!

2009-06-02T22:51:00.004+10:00

Some photos taken from last saturday in a day trip to Montville-Lake Baroon-Maleny up in Sunshine Coast. It was a clear and sunny day and I wanted to capture both subject and background detail. But they are at opposite ends of the exposure, so I had to use the flash to fill the subject and let the camera automatically expose for the background. Camera was set to aperture priority mode and stopped down between f8-f11 to achieve greater depth of field between subject and background.

Not exactly a fan of the flash, but I had no choice otherwise I would have had blown highlights all over the background! Blown highlights cannot be recovered from post processing because there is nothing to recover from a whitewash. It's just white, 255!

The latest is the greatest!

2009-05-28T21:14:00.003+10:00

I used to be part of the ratrace for the latest and greatest in computer technology. Started with an Intel 80386 processor, then the Intel Pentium processor with a measly core clock speed of 133MHz with Windows 3.11. My last desktop was an Intel Pentium III processor running at 500 MHz overclocked to 585 MHz on an Intel 440BX chipset motherboard, the best of its kind in the late 90's.

Back in my primary school years, I can still remember the first time I went online in the mid 90's, the internet was new to the place where I came from and none of my school friends knew what it was. I asked them "Can your computer access the internet?" I received a blank look from them and they had no idea what I was babling about. Accessing the internet back then wasn't as straight forward and extremely slow. Soon I found linux from the world wide web and installed my first non-windows operating system, Redhat Linux 5.2 in 1998. Since then I became an avid fan of UNIX based operating systems and open source software.

Now here I am typing on a fairly old machine, an Intel Celeron 1.7 GHz on Windows XP. My specs are lightyears away from what technology has to offer now, Dual/Quad core processors with DDR2/3 memory, PCI Express graphics interface, SATA2/3 drives, and running on 64 bit!

Lately I had the urge to upgrade my ancient machine, but I had to ask myself a couple of questions;

Is my current system sufficient for my needs and applications?

I don't play games on my machine, it is mainly used for internet browing and post processing of photos. Sure it is not the fastest, but it is adequate for me.

Is my computer broken?

No, if it ain't broken don't fix it.

I can easily upgrade to the latest and greatest computer if I wanted to, but it will be obsolete in less than 6 months. Don't get me started on Apple computers, they have one of the best operating system in the world, OS X has a long history with UNIX! But it stops there. I can't justify paying a fortune for a Mac computer when the hardware will be obsolete in 6 months. If Apple sold its operating system individually, I will be in the queue. But that is unlikely to happen because Apple already has millions of zealots that are willing to dosh up the cash for the latest and coolest Apple gear.

Windows 7 may just give Apple a run for their money. I tried Windows 7 Release Candidate 1 and it looks very promising. But my graphics card is not fully supported hence no Aero feature for me. So I shall wait for now and be content with what I have.

Sleep Hygiene

2009-05-26T22:26:00.002+10:00

Since we spent half our lives sleeping, we might as well learn to sleep well every night. Found this website that gave some tips on how to sleep well. It was last updated in 1999, but nonetheless an interesting read that is short and simple.

Wet week

2009-05-25T21:35:00.004+10:00

Last week was the best rain Brisbane had in 17 years.But the aftermath was pretty bad especially for the northern suburbs. Saw in the news a couple of people were whinging that the council did no clean up the stormwater drains prior to the rain, hence the floods on their street. As it rained continuosly for 48 hours, no amount of cleaning could stop the stormwater drain from overflowing. Just accept the fact that if you live by the hill or mountain, water has got to flow down and visit your house to find the nearest creek or river. And if you live by the creek/river, it will swell up pretty high during high tide. So don't blame the city council for something that is beyond their control.

Remember the bar mat lady? I thought that was pretty dumb. Why would anyone attempt to run away from the police in the first place? You're either drunk or afraid to be caught with an offence. You can do a prank over here and get away with a slap on the wrist. But not in foreign countries around Asia, you will end up spending years in jail! Lesson to be learned from the bar mat lady, be aware of other's culture and way of life, and don't be stupid.

News aside, went to the Gold Coast last saturday and took a couple of pictures at the Spit. The rain was pouring down relentlessly and it was windy too. The froth from the sea was flying all over the place and my camera experienced a bit of everything from the storm.

Yet another clown driver

2009-05-23T00:18:00.004+10:00

Was driving along the road on the right lane. Saw a White GT-R stationary on the left side of the lane waiting for the red light to turn green. I was slowing down towards the red light but fortunately it turned green so I kept driving and it didn't take long for me to get back to 60km/h and cruised pass the White GT-R heading towards a merging lane. But no, GT-R driver didn't like that! "How can that car beat my GT-R on a traffic light!, I must overtake that toy car!" I could hear his car in super duper turbo mode, he managed to squeeze his way through and overtook me. Sometimes, we just can't avoid accidents because foolish drivers will come to you!

How does a car split in half?

iMust have that iPhone!

2009-05-19T22:23:00.003+10:00

Why do I need an iPhone?

1. It looks good and so am I!
2. It's sleek and slides in and out of my tight jeans and expensive LV bag!
3. It's shiny and it compliments my own adornments!
4. It's user friendly because I'm dumb.
5. I will look so cool with one of them.
6. It's way better than your brick phone.
7. It's bling, just like my BMW M3!
8. It's bigger than your iPod!
9. I'm an Apple zealot.
10. It matches my MacPro laptop!

Why do businessmen use smartphones (Blackberry, Nokia, etc)?

1. Check work emails, or face the sack.
2. Reply emails, or face the sack.
3. Reminder to attend meetings, or face the sack.
4. Book meetings, or face the sack.
5. Read minutes, or face the sack.
6. Finish that document, or face the sack.
7. Contact the boss, or face the sack.
8. Buy and sell that share, or face the sack.
9. Save the client's details, or face the sack.
10. Bottom line, it helps to improve productivity.

Goodbye facebook, hello Smugmug!

2009-05-18T21:09:00.003+10:00

My albums in facebook, and flickr will not be updated anymore. Existing albums will be copied to Smugmug and Picasaweb as my secondary provider.

Queensland is a great place to live in! Went to Redcliffe to see the Kitefest by the seaside and ate some of the best pacific oysters at Morgan's Seafood joint.

Sorry Brisbane, the best fish and chips I've ever had is located up north in a little town called Sarina. Even the best steak is not in Brisbane, its up north. They taste so much better and for half the price you pay in Brisbane, it's a bargain!

A foolish driver deserves a ticket!

2009-05-17T21:55:00.000+10:00

I was driving along a single lane road and a car crept up right behind my back at 60kmh. I thought "you're not going to force me go any faster!". I just kept driving at my own pace while approaching a roundabout. Once I exit the roundabout and enter a two lane road, lo' and behold the car behind me went for super turbo speed of light mode. The driver turned his head to look at me and zoomed past with "I can go faster than your little weak pussycat car" attitude.

A couple of seconds later about 300m ahead, I saw a person with yellow safety vest came out of no where and stood in the middle of the road. The car that over took me tried to put the brakes on and pretended to drive normally. Needless to say, he was pulled over by the cops. And I just drove past him with a smile =)

I don't really care if you can drive faster than me. Just don't tailgate me and don't jump queue on a merging road! Show some common sense and be courteous. I don't want to end up like John Doe, "What happened to him?", "Oh, He died because some idiot drove wrecklesly".

A Christian's hobby

2009-05-16T07:21:00.001+10:00

What are we doing outside our serving and ministry time? Apart from going to prayer meetings every fortnight, going to lifegroup and church every weekend, having church gatherings everynow and then. Do we have a means to connect with our friends and colleagues outside of the church realm?

What do your friends and colleague think of you as a Christian amongst them? Will they say, "What do you do on the weekends?, oh that's right, you're not free because you're going to church." or "you're going to this event organized by your church friends right?". They'll probably think we are "holier than thou" Christians.

How often do we attend to our non-believer's invitation to their event? You may be thinking, "Hmm, your event is not holy, it's full of drinking and smoking!" and say "Why don't you come to our church and life group instead. It's alcohol and smoke free!it's much better to praise and worship God in church". Let's not be too caught up with our own events and agendas.

Holy blog

2009-05-15T23:04:00.001+10:00

After serving in a local church for more than 8 years, my circle of friends are pretty much the men and women at church! Been chimping around their blogs (it is not hard to find at all) and found that many of them are spiritual journals, and testimonies of what God is doing in their daily lives.

But is there anything else that we (as Christians) can blog about besides our own spiritual journey and chats with God? some may say it is to encourage our brothers and sisters in Christ, and others may simply reason it is their freedom of speech! all valid reasons.

Blogs are meant to be seen by the world, almost everyone. What would outsiders think of your blog? Can a non-believer understand your holy language? maybe it is not meant for them? I don't know. But the fact that your blog exist means that you have a target audience. Is it to show others that "I am holier than thou"?

By the way, I do enjoy reading holy blogs because their words are full of encouragement.