Welcome abroad, Yu Zhe

Our baby boy Yu Zhe, has come to this world at 10am this morning after we being in the delivery room for >11 hours. From this only I realize how great mothers are.

Hope there will be a better tomorrow for our generations to come.

Black Sheep in Office 2007

Any PC users will agree that Microsoft always produce ‘user friendly’ products, like their flagship Office.

The latest version of Office introduces the new interface, making the interface more intuitive and colorful. However, I found a Black Sheep among all the Office 2007 applications recently!

Referring to the screenshot, there’s a window which is totally B&W, no color at all.

Its of course not a PS touchup. Try yourself to compose a new mail, then click the little button besides Options ribbon (somewhere near the Follow Up big red flag, as shown in the figure).

I think it’s a mistake by the developer, when rushing for the publish date. Maybe MS could consider giving me a lifetime free office upgrade for finding this little sheep?!

Taking Word templates along

Microsoft Word users can get various types of templates from Office Online. There are some really useful templates around, like the Meeting Minutes that I have downloaded just now. For Office 2007 users, we can also access the list of templates by Office Button > New, then choose a category from the Microsoft Office Online panel.

However there's one problem with this: You can select only 1 template each time! And imagine you work on various machines (company notebook, home desktop etc), its very troublesome to download the same thing again, and not to mention you might left out any.

So the easy solution is to pack the templates, but wait a minute… where are they?

After some searching, I found the templates are all stored in C:\Documents and Settings\<user name>\Application Data\Microsoft\Templates

Just zip the whole folder and take the templates along in your flashdrives. Easy right?

Is it the way to express the Patriotism?

31/08/2007 is the 50^th anniversary for Malaysia's independence.

Normally flags are seen everywhere throughout the whole August. And in this country, a lot of patriotic show their nationalism by making up their vehicles with the national flag. Nothing wrong with it actually, as this is the way we show how much we love our country. But I found a few problems with flag flying vehicles:

1. For some extremist, especially those truck drivers, putting big flags on the side mirrors can really obstruct the other road users
   
2. Some people stick the little flags on the car, and when they are driving at 110km/h and above, the flags drop easily. I have seen more than 20 little flags lying on the highway while I was driving back to hometown during the National Day. Those flags are run over by cars and dirty. This is really in no way showing respect to the flag.
   
3. Also there are people who put a big flag at the back of car, making it look like a sail. But the problem is, they are not driving on the sea, and so the flags become road sweepers and you can imagine how dirty it is.
   

We all love Malaysia. So in my 2 cents, its really not the right way to show the nationalism. What say you?

Nokia Image Converter to complete PC Suite 6.8x

I am someone who likes 'completeness'. So it was sad to see that Nokia has removed Nokia Image Converter since PC Suite 6.8.

After a whole-night-long (slept at 4 in the morning , woke up at 7 to work :p) research and trial and error, I have managed to mod the Image Converter 3.0 that comes with PCS 6.7 to work under PCS 6.8x and having the same themes.

2 files were modded here:
- ImageConverter.exe for the exe icon
- ImageConverter_Nokia.NGR for the image resources and icons in PCS

In fact besides the 16 applications shown under PCS, the new Nokia LifeBlog 2.5 creates icon under PCS also. But testing shows that PCS supports maximum 16 shortcuts only.

I have tested this with N70. Others Nokia phones that .

Hope you guys love it

Download Here

The steps are as below (also found in Readme.txt in the archive)

Copy the following files to the path below 1. <drive:>\Program Files\Nokia PC Suite 6 - ImageConverter.exe - ImageConverter_coc.dll - ImageConverter_gl.dll 2. <drive:>\Program Files\Nokia PC Suite 6\Resource - ImageConverter_Nokia.NGR 3. <drive:>\Program Files\Nokia PC Suite 6\Lang - ImageConverter_eng.NLR

This guide is originally posted in Symbian-Freak forum by me.

When the gamepad meets the mouse

I have been a Microsoft hardware supporter, from the very first Sidewinder gamepad series, I have collected quite a number of gadgets. Although most of them are in the store room accompanying the spiders, I am still always looking forward for new MS hi-tech toys.

The latest (as of 09/2007) one being the mix of sidewinder gamepad and intellimouse, and they call it SideWinder Mouse. (riddle: Who's the offspring of a white horse mixing with a black one?)

The mouse looks weird at first glance, without the famous MS ergonomic shape. Its edgy look reminds me of the new Nokia 7500 Prism phones. Is that the 2007 trend?

Back to the mouse, there are a few attractive features, like the LCD display, dynamic DPI changing and weights. MS claims the mouse be the first in the history to have LCD that displays DPI and macro information. What attracts me is the macro recording ability. This is quite useful esp. for strategy games like my favourite Command and Conquer and Age of Empires.

Besides this, the mouse also includes 3 different weights for better control, and it is topped with a button that can change the DPI on the fly. I have yet to try this but it is surely some innovations that a futuristic mouse could have. Anyway, I read that Logitech has introduced the similar gadget earlier.

Microsoft has again made a weird gadget. Whether successful or not is still a question mark. At an estimated price tag of USD79.99, it is another high priced toy for those really interested. Just be sure to give it a try at local computer shops.

The pictures and info are adapted from the Microsoft Hardware site

9 More Days to the 50th National Day

50 years ago, this land was still ruled by the British. In order to gain the independence, everyone worked together beyond the race and religion boundaries. And with this spirit we had achieved the land's independence.

50 years later, we ought to be happy for the country to reach the golden anniversary. However the environment here seems not letting us to feel the joyfulness. So many crimes happening every day, so many disappointing news every day, so many rubbish being said every day, these many and many have really not helping our country in any manner.

National unity has again being brought up for discussion recently. On the air, some seniors called in and shared the stories of national unity during the early days of independence. Everyone lived peacefully and people really get along well regardless of Malay, Chinese or Indian. There were really tolerance across races and religions, unlike the current state, which a little thing can cause a great stir.

We are all people of this land, a fortunate land full of resources and without any natural disaster. Why can't everyone be really united under the Jalur Gemilang as Malaysian? Let the bygones be bygones, we the next generations of Malaysia, should start to find back what was lost decades ago, and be sure to realize the 2020 dreams for the generations to come.

Believe in The Power of Dream.