Pan Admun Republic of Western Blog

It's sad to see the great mightly fighters retired. I still remember reading about how the F-14 is the center piece in the US Navy Carrier surface group air defense system. It's the front and formost layer (none the least, the most important) of the umbrella that protect the carrier and the rest of the surface group. Only the top pilots flying these knights in the sky.

Of course, then come moive Topgun, which put F-14 and Tom C. together as the most dangerous thing in the sky, and launch Tom's handsome face as an icon on the movie screen. It's almost 20 years now.

Planenews Aviation News Portal - The Tomcat's final flight

...I am a control freak. I want control, a lot of them!

- ED$ telling a L2 instructor on a skilift in a -30c night up the hill (discussing the eariler run and self analysis his turns)

Putting art, a puzzle, and encyption together. You got Kryptos. There's a fog of mystery surrounding it; It's stand on the CIA (yes, _the_ CIA) HQ in Langley, Virginia. Section of the message contains some KGB document (I guess it's declassifed now?). Many are working on it and yet to solve the last part. Even the populer The Da Vinci Code refers to it.

Wired News: Solving the Enigma of Kryptos

The weather is not as cold as the last couple days, it is at -8 or so. My gloves is warming up, and my Ride boots is soften to a point it's getting a bit too loose.... maybe should think about a new boot?

The focus today is more on anticipation, and I screwed up badly on black terrain.....

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I just can't pass the opportunity after seeing some snow falling on Saturday night (and ez10 is running a session in the afternoon...).

So, I went up in the morning. The weather is not as cold as I expected, even it's still quite cold. The biting cold ease off a bit in the afternoon.

Burton was up on the hill for demo today, unfortunately they don't have my length... bomber!

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I was checking around for blog from Hong Kong, bumped into Blogwise. A lot of blog from HK are registered there.

So, now I'm registered there too.

Some calls it craziness, some calls it dedication, but I calls it I like it.

It's -22 right now, probably over -30 with windchill, and I'm going up the skihill for the class tonight.

I was up there last night for some boarding myself, didn't take a break at all for 2+ hours with the element. Too bad I dropped my camera while boarding (stupid me...), I could take some pixtures.

Hehehehe.... waiting, while significant other shopping.

無奈的男人們 from here

It must be a Japanese thing. I mean you get fired for been educated, even after you show year after year you can handle the job well?

In Hong Kong (probaly else where?), it used to be that "overquailfy" is a reason to turn down a candidate. The employer sees since you have higher qualification, you might used the job as a temparary job before you can find a better one. It is a hassle to have to hire again if the employee left soon after started. It sort of make sense to me. (Hum, wondering if this is still ture in Hong Kong?)

But firing someone that is overqualified after they have work many years, I hope that mean loyalty to in the eyes of the employer, that really confused me? I can see if these drivers were fired for false information provide during the hiring process, at least that sounds more legitimate to me.

Anyway, I can imagine the manager say this when firing the driver (just joking, no offense):

Manager: "We learned recently that you have a degree, true? Tell me the truth now"
Driver: "Yes, I have one...." (cut short by the manager)
Manager: "You Bastard! You're a shame to us all work here, how you tell some lie like this and work here everyday?"
Driver: "But I can do..." (cut short again)
Manager: "You're a disgrace to us, the school that educate you, and your family! Go find a job else where and don't waste your time here!"

I serviously want to believe it happens like this....

Japan Today - News - Aomori fires two bus drivers for being overqualified - Japan's Leading International News Network

Another year, just another year in life.

I don't want to make it a big deal.... But hey, I'm blogging about myself and things around me.

It's been a long way from the beginning; tumbling childhood years, schooled in the colonial society, graduated from F.5x3, from Hong Kong to Canada, graduated from high school again, college/university, working in the profession I love in the capital, all the adventures, perfecting my ride on the hill.

I've been lucky in life and I'm glad the world been easy on me.

All the recent tragic in the world and things happen around me makes me treasure more what I have today; families, friends, health, whatever.

Maybe I'm just getting old.... I mean more mature.

For my birthday, here's my wish(es) (Yes, I'm greedy):
- A relationship with someone I can share my life with
- Be a better me, excel in every aspects; might that be work, wealth, snowboarding, EQ
- Happiness, for myself and all people
- And of course, world peace

...It's about the man next to you...

- Hoot, Black Hawk Down

It's just hilarious, but yet sad and sarcastic.

Yahoo Presents JibJab - Second Term

After a week of rain, bitter cold, and ice world, snow finally coming down. It just in time for tomorrow so I can hit the hill for a night of snowboarding.

So, Google's proposing a new rel="nofollow" attribute to discourage comment/trackback spams on blog.

This problem is getting worse everyday and I'm glad someone is taking point to deal with it.

Google Blog

Sorry in Chinese.....

有冇玩過呀?

I'm this nerdy:




Just Another Blog: How nerd you are?

So, they're having 100Mbps up/down DSL in HK now.... I sure want something like this at home!

HKBN BB100

Bump into this from Artung's blog.

arTung's blog --- public interests: BBC NEWS | Programmes | Click Online | Hong Kong's hi-tech haven

Bump into this at Misohoni Diary

talking cantonese dictionary

It's 5:30am in the morning. The sky is still dark. I pull on a sweater and close the door behind me.

Exit the lift, get on to the street. It's all dead quiet on the street. I just can't imagine the same street is full of people during the day. Actually, there is a janitor pulling garbages and putting them on a cart, under a yellowish street light.


Heading to a random direction, cross a street, turn a corner and see some graffiti on the wall. I thought it is a North America thing

Walking on passed by a karaoke, some young people just exit and walking to the MTR subway. It's 5 in the morning, but I already feel the city coming alive.

Keep on walking, under the yellow street light, people are standing at bus stop. I wonder if they just come off a night shift or heading to work.

Newspapers are already arrived and stack by the news stand waiting for sorting. The city is well awake, under the dark sky.

It's dead quiet by Times Square, a old lady is setting a street stand to sell some old stuff.

A bakery is opened, a small eatery place is serving good old Chinese breakfast, a mom and his son is waiting by a bus stop to go to school. All is surrounded by the noise of the crossing signal for the blinds.

For window shopping, that's always a Smart dealer near by. The neo light reflecting on love in the dark. No matter how modern the city is, there is alway a borderline population that sleep in the tunnel under the star. It's an example of how wide the gap between the rich and the poor.

The sky is turning bright bit by bit, the cityscape is gearing up for another day.

There is a by a primary school student on China's first taikonaut.

It's a city of "one country, two systems" at work.

The weather tonight is typical Ottawa cold-like-hell; icy, bone chilling, skin biting. It's not the worst, but definitely not a warm night. After the session, I can feel the warm blood rushing to my toe... it's cold!

The focus in this session is advanced sliding turn with timing and coordination.

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I was so envy Tom C. using the 3D/holographic API in "Minority Report". It's such a nice user interface.

But this is better; just think and computer execute your wish!

It will be really cool to able to control computers by thinking, especially now this can be done without putting a chip in your head.

Even better if we can pipe the computer screen back to my brain without have to get output via analog device, aka my eyes. It just like Bateau in Ghost in the Shell in reality.

Even better than better, if we can preserve someone's brain out of his/her body, great experience can be preserved.... just like in Futurama. (The head in the jar celebrities) It's all good for humanity.

I'm just wondering what we can do when plug such a I/O interface to a coma patient.

Wired News: Patients Put on Thinking Caps

So, T-Mobile is hacked and documents/photo are leaked. This include US Secret Service. That's how you should trust your system....

SecurityFocus HOME News: Hacker penetrates T-Mobile systems

Some reading on how bittorrent going to evole and how podcasting going to benefit from it.

BitTorrent, eXeem, Meta-Torrent, Podcasting: "What? So What?": Corante > Get Real

So, it's here. They started cracking down on people uploading movie using BT.

Since they cracking down tracker sites, I know it eventually will target the users.

It's only in Hong Kong right now, but I'm sure they're going to follow suit in North America soon.....

Yahoo Hong Kong! 男子網上發放BT電影被捕 (Sorry, this is in Chinese only)

The flight from Ottawa to Hong Kong is a long march; 5 hours to Vancouver, 2 hours stopover, 14 hours to Hong Kong. The plane is loaded with kids returning for X'mas vacation. Over 20 hours in the air, eat, nap, watch "Without a peddle", "Heat Team" and "The Notebook", then I arrived Hong Kong.

Get through custom and pick up my luggage, drag the luggage to the bus station and found my optopus card has expired. Fortunately, I already draw some money from ATM (via Plus). So, I buy a ticket.

The ride to the city is pretty smooth, the TsingMa bridge is light up in the background, created a bridge of light in the distance. The bridge is getting closer and eventually the bus goes on the monstrous structure.

Arrived Causeway bay without further event, actually notice a lot of new buildings by the harbor. A lot of the harbor is filled and land is created. No wonder people are complaining the new devlopment destory the harbor and the "Preal of Orient" scene.

Join Uncle Dennis and the rest for some Italian food to celabate Jocelyn's birthday. This Galano place is okey, for the standard and the price range.

Settle down and get to sleep. But since I have some jetleg, I wake up at 5:00am on X'mas eve.

The hill is almost empty until the ski instructors shot down the hill. The weather is kind of warm early in the evening, with snow comes and goes all night. The scene looks amazing when thick flakes of snow falling from the sky, covering the whole hill.

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Usenet been around for a long while...

Since the good old days, a lot of historical things happen on the net.

My first post: here

The 2 games actually still at my parents' place in San Francisco.....

Before that I posted on local BBS on Calgary and Medicine Hat. (FidoNet)

20 Year Archive on Google Groups

So, history repeats itself.

I still remember the infamous Win98 BSoD (Blue Screen of Death) demo and it happens again. (see here)

It's embarrassing for sure to bomb in the demo......

I remember heard of a few close calls elsewhere (not at MS) and luckily it didn't bombed out as bad as what happened to MS. For sure it's a stressful time during the demo, and things is in Merphy's hand (see the 3rd law)

[update]
p.s. Forgot to mention, the MS demo team sounds really top notch to me, handling out of hand situations very well. A deserved credit.
[/update]

Addicted to Digital Media - Part II: Behind the Scenes at the CES Keynote

After 20 hours, I'm back to Ottawa. Stay tuned for pix and stories from the trip.