dEsKOh91 VX

further reading: http://www.sph.com.sg/news/latest/press_060929_001.html

==

SPH Magazines Acquires Leading IT Media Company Hardware Zone Pte Ltd

Singapore, 29 September 2006 - SPH Magazines Pte Ltd (“SPHM”), a wholly-owned company of Singapore Press Holdings Limited, today announced its acquisition of Hardware Zone Pte Ltd and its subsidiaries (“HWZ”). The total investment to purchase HWZ is S$7.1 million.

HWZ is the leading IT media company in Asia, providing marketing channels and services to the information communications, technology and interactive entertainment industry. It has operations in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia, China and Australia, publishing prolific IT magazine titles , namely HWM, GameAxis Unwired and PHOTOVIDEOi, along with operating popular online portal www.hardwarezone.com which has monthly pageviews of more than 35 million.

Mr Loh Yew Seng, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of SPHM said, “We’ve been interested in expanding our magazine portfolio to include IT publications and HWZ is the perfect match for us. HWZ’s entrepreneurial management team has done a commendable job in growing HWZ to what it is today. HWZ will be able to complement SPHM’s existing online and print media portfolios especially in the IT verticals.”

Commenting on the investments by SPHM, Jackie Lee, CEO of HWZ said, "We are very excited to be joining Singapore’s leading newspaper and magazine publisher as we bring together complementary visions of growing beyond print and beyond Singapore. Tapping onto their extensive reach locally and regionally, we are confident and bullish that our brands and products will continue to grow further."

The online magazine business strategy of HWZ will complement the strong print magazine business of SPHM and this will boost SPHM’s profile in the region as a major publisher with multi-platforms to offer readers and advertisers.

The acquisition of HWZ represents a further step in SPHM realising its ambition of becoming a major magazine publisher in the region, following the 2004 acquisition of the titles under Blu Inc, and other acquisitions in Singapore and Thailand. Mr Arthur Seet, Chairman of SPHM said, “HWZ is a young company with strong management, we believe that given SPHM’s publishing expertise and resources, HWZ has significant potential to grow further.”

Issued by SPH Magazines Pte Ltd
Co. Regn No.: 196900476M

==

holy crap. guess this is the goodbye to the loosely-moderated EDMW.

Singapore Press Holdings is owned by hmm... tummysick holdings which is in turned owned by the singapore gahmen.

this may potentially affect the posts in EDMW during the big event of 2010/2011. cant afford to be too direct to save my ass. oh well.

ExamNoMeter: 14 Days (faster! faster!)

today's english paper is in quite a mess.

paper 1 is probably the worst essays I have written in a long long time. I wasted quite some time pondering over the format for the functional writing (decided on report) and deciding on the compo question to write.

eventually I wrote on the power outage thing. while my start is spectacular (by my descriptive essay standards), it simply went downhill till it reaches rock bottom in the end.

paper 2 seems quite easy. in fact you can understand what the question wants, but you just cannot put it into the answer in words. vicki loh indeed has been evil.

I also stoned at the summary part for a while as its requirements are rather strange. got me pondering for nearly 10 minutes before I started doing all the underlining, drafting, cancelling and finally writing it.

by the time I am done I only have 10 minutes left. great.

dont know what else can I say. tomorrow going for maths supplementary. havent done the worksheet. shit.

just to prove zp wrong,

the "iPod Video" is really called "iPod". see for yourselves. http://www.apple.com/ipod/ipod.html

sorry. have the irresistable urge to correct brand name errors. pet peeve of mine.

==

just to appease zp,

this is how much damage a Nano can take: http://arstechnica.com/reviews/hardware/nano.ars/3

sorry. have the irresistable urge to show off what I find remotely interesting. pet peeve of mine/

ExamNoMeter: 15 Days (wtf?)

this is marks the beginning of the special End of Year Examinations 2006 series of posts. actually it isnt special anymore. I do it everytime.

but it is precisely because I do it everytime that I do it now. got used to it already.

==

virgin experience of doing an exam in school hall. seat 101 for today. dont know for tomorrow yet.

those people who went for english retest last year are like telling me "ooh it is damn f*cking cold you better bring windbreaker" and so I brought.

I went in expecting a blizzard.

but nothing happens.

in fact the aircon feel a bit underpowered.

I am sure my room is colder when I turn on aircon.

cheapo school.

nevermind. lets continue.

==

chinese paper 1 is easy. not paper 2. especially the comprehension. got my head spinning as I wondered whether it is a thinking question or a "copy and paste" question.

hope I dont do too bad for it though. it is one of my better subjects after all.

English tomorrow. how should I revise?

==

crap man. I GOTTA revise for geography man. everyone seemed to have began their revision for it EXCEPT ME! shit.

cannot afford to fail geography. or it will really be the end of me and I will go barking mad if I had to catch up on subjects other than maths and chemistry.

my end of year aim is to pass everything I fail, and all that I pass get 60>. wonder if that is remotely possible.

exams always cause me to have depression. now I feel like crying again. argh.

long time since a serious life post. so here it goes.

got back chemistry common test. COULD HAVE GOTTEN FIVE MARKS MORE IF NOT FOR ME ERASING Q7. WHAT THE F**KKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK!

I am so damn pissed by it that everyone can only spectaculate about my sudden craziness. it is a big waste lah! I could have jumped a grade higher with it okay! and pull up my atrocious chemistry performance for the past few terms!

enough about that fucking chem common test (okay, cant hold it back anymore.) and move on to something not much better.

==

I finished watching Ouran High School Host Club 25 not too long ago. and I am pretty unhappy with how the studio (BONES) decided to wrap up the anime (manga is far from ending by the way).

while you learn a lot more about the characters' backgrounds in this second-last episode of the season, it is much more emotional than your typical ouran fare. it nearly made me break down at one point, a feat achieved only by final episodes of anime like DN Angel and Chobits.

to fabricate an ending for the anime version, they added a girl called Tonnerre Eclair (cream puffs. eew.) who is supposedly from some big company who sexually assaults Tamaki (and makes Haruhi jealous, the cheek of her!) and Tamaki is forced to marry her (of course with some other factors too lengthy to explain here) and dissolve the Host Club.

that means one thing. NO TAMAKI x HARUHI ?!?! (for those not in the know, the x demotes goes steady with). I am a loyal supporter of this pairing and refuses to see it destroyed by BONES.

however there may be a chance for this pairing. haruhi is obviously jealous when she knew about it that even the club notices it, something you dont often see from her. SO GOT HOPE OKAY!

some screenshots...





that idiot cream puff told Tamaki: "The thing you want the most, Tamaki, I can give to you". interesting.



haruhi's jealous face after seeing cream puff and tamaki





everyone agree's she is jealous





"I'm not jealous already."
"Already?"

You know you live in 2006 when..


1. You go to a party, sit down and take MySpace pics.

2. You haven't played solitaire with real cards in years.

3. The reason for not staying in touch with your friends is that they don't have AIM/LiveJournal/MySpace.

4. You rather look all over the house for the remote instead of just pushing the button on the TV.

6. Your evening activity is sitting at the computer.

7. You read this list, and keep nodding and smiling.

8. You think about how stupid you are for reading this.

9. You were too busy to notice number five.

10. You actually scrolled back up to check if there was a number five.

11. And now, you're laughing at your stupidity.

12. Forward this to your friends if you fell for it. You know you did! :)

one week without post.

further reading: http://www.vivocity.com.sg

one of my post exam activity would be visiting VivoCity, a new-concept shopping centre opening near the current HarbourFront Centre.

it would officially open on October 6, but I believe it is gonna be delayed due to some construction accident some weeks back. it would probably be just in time for the period after exams anyway.

I had long heard about VivoCity and its impressive architecture. after viewing their demo (http://www.vivocity.com.sg/page.php?id=24) it seems VivoCity is really a shopping centre with a difference.

it is not your normal shopping centre that are squarish and boring. it is designed to let in as much natural light as possible, many outdoor spaces and a big playing pool (meaning a swimming pool for playing =.=) on the roof.

it will also house many leading brand stores and a new concept supermarket. together with the largest cineplex in singapore, the Golden Village VivoCity 15-cineplex Cinema.(http://www.gv.com.sg/Booking/GVVIVOCITY/index.htm)

I will go there and look at its interesting architecture before trying to get a seat in the GVMax, with the largest cinema screen in the region. what super-new movie is premiering then ah?

exam havent even start already thinking of post exam activity. stupid.

life is hardly exciting nowadays.

I am getting increasingly nervous as the end of year exam draws near. hope to do well enough to at least maintain my mid-year position.

but seeing how things are going. it is gonna be damn hard.

yet I am not studying enough. argh. I ought to start on geography before I die from studying it on Week 4.

good luck to all with your exams!

==



(Image is clickable for larger version. Some parts are censored to maintain anonymity.)

some people from the RC of my Zone came over to explain details of the Lift Upgrading Programme just a moment ago.

the most important things that are mentioned are the cost to be borne by the resident and the voting days.

shall not name exact figure, but it is in the regions of $600, which is about half the price borne by pys'es estate.

voting is from october 27 to 30. heng ah, after exams liao, can go there look look see see.

==

forgot a very important quote I wanted to mention since two weeks ago.

a guy named H saw a particular girl, J, wearing one of those bras that are tied at the back of the neck (halter tops? sports bras?).

seeing a knot at the back, he felt very curious and asked J:

Is it pullable?

it isnt funny here. but you should see how it happened. I had done very well to maintain anonymity. the letters used in representing the people are in no way related to their actual names. quit guessing. seriously.

==

found this hmm...great song on a particular blog.

it is the season where sec 2s are learning Chapter 6 and 7, leading to the creation of this song.

wonder what will happen when we learn Chapter 21 next year. I dont dare to imagine, actually.

here it goes. ballpark whatever you want for the censored words.

it goes to the rhythm of a nursery rhyme whose name I forgot. but it should be easy to recall once you see the words below.

==

You stick your pe*** in,
and you stick your pe*** out,
you stick it in and out
and you shake it all about
when u cant bear it any longer
you can spray it all out
that is what it is all about!

==

gotta go on a journey of self-reflection to clear my mind of such filth.

sec 2s nowadays..

5th anniversary of the 911 incident. may the victims rest in peace.

anyway,

StarHub is getting pretty agressive. they are starting to insult their opponent sarcastically. look at their description of Olaf.

"Flash Green" is obviously MaxOnline while "Olaf The Red" is SingNet BroadBand. the dedicated line thing makes it obvious.

just to save their own ass, check out the disclaimer at the bottom. entirely fictitous. ha ha.

the flash movies of theirs are quite...well...enlightening as well.

while it is true dedicated line arent really dedicated, they are making their "Fat Green Pipe" sound super-powerful. let me just tell you that it isnt as great as it should be.

if you are playing online games, stick with SingNet. you will appreciate the lower pings.

to know more, check out http://www.fatgreenpipe.com/adventures/main.php

DSC00766
Originally uploaded by deskoh91.

at the library today with those two you see above and zhepeng to study. I did finish History SBQ =)

and they decide to do the erected-fingers pose (that pisses phyo off) in a random moment of narcissm and told me to put it up.

so here it is.

damn my computer is male!

when I tried changing the wallpaper to another one, it hanged!

no joke.

I hoped that the computer would be female, but just like in real life, you cant (normally) choose the gender of the newborn.

should have made the components go for artificial insemination.

damn, havent did maths and combined humanities and I am lazy to crap for CH. damn damn, I still have to study for maths common test. damn damn damn, gotta mug for end of year, and I had loads to mug to bring myself to a borderline pass. damn damn damn damn. someone please join me for a study group. zz.

interesting quote off a patricular blog, who got it off an anonymous source. hee. no, I dont mean the one on top. I meant the one below this paragraph.

--

Too often, we loose sight of life's simple pleasures. Remember when someone annoys you, it takes 42 muscles to frown, BUT it only takes 4 muscles to extend your arm and slap that bastard in the face. - Unknown

--

"I understand that Scissors can beat Paper, and I get how Rock can beat Scissors, but there's no f***ing way Paper can beat Rock.

Paper is supposed to magically wrap around Rock leaving it immobile? Why the hell cant paper do this to scissors? Screw scissors, why can't paper do this to people? Why aren't sheets of college-ruled notebook paper constantly suffocating students as they attempt to take notes in class?

I'll tell you why, because paper can't beat anybody, a rock would tear that s**t up in 2 seconds. When I play rock/ paper/ scissors I always choose rock. Then when somebody claims to have beaten me with their paper I can punch them in the face with my already clenched fist and say "oh s**t I'm sorry I thought paper would protect you, a**hole." - Unknown

--

NOTE: Hope the ladies in the

photo do not mind. If any of

you have issues, please

inform me and I will

change it.



w00t. chiobus background. =P

after installing, troubleshooting, formatting and all the crap for the new computer, I realised I lost my old wallpaper since I left it in the old C drive which I formatted -.-"

so I decided to use a less conventional background. digging around, I found a whole load of pictures from metinee's camera back to the time during Esplanade performance.

this is one of the less blur and better ones. so I chose this. hah. note that the choice of picture is NOT influenced by the presence of one particular girl.

if you had to ask, my mother is the one playing the Destruct-O-Match II, not me.

the first account of the OBS trip I read so far. from josef's blog actually (http://heylookwhosblogging.blogspot.com). pretty detailed.

sounds pretty exciting though. if I knew how to swim well I am sure I am gonna enjoy the OBS. especially the peeing in sea part. great sights. and maybe sounds too. haha.

okay okay pardon my pervertedness. in case you are too lazy to even click on the link. here is the entire post wholesale.

==

Just got back from OBS. Such a great and memorable experience. Whatever shit we've been put through in those 5 days really made me feel free and alive. It's fun to just get away from all the repetitiveness of our daily lives.
-----------------------------------------------
Day 1
Wasnt really feeling any anticipation and excitement for the camp. Observing people was fun cos i didnt expect that many schools in the camp with us. The ACS Barker boys were amusing. I really liked the whole 'boys-school' thing they got going on. Really wished i'd have gone to ACSI at that time, heh. Grouped into Cousteau with WenSong and other ppl.

Not many activities. Repacked all our stuff along with the camp equipment to huge bags. Damn heavy. Probably half or more of our own body weights. Food was quite a shock cos we were given mostly junkfood. Did mostly admin stuff, group matters, belaying skills, field cooking & tent-pitching.

Day 2
Trekked to the main OBS campus in the morning. Trekking was really fun except for the heavy bags and tents. The main OBS campus was cool. The best camp facilities i've seen so far; high elements, kayaks, dorms, the works. Too bad we didnt get to utilise most of them.

Kayaked for a couple hours, doing some capsizing and rescuing and stuff. I lost my specs too. Such a bummer. I was so fked the rest of the day i swear i cursed almost twice as much as Jolynn and ZQ combined. Did some high elements in the afternoon. Boring stuff cos we did the same stations as the ones in the sec3 camp.

To make matters worse, our campsite was fking bad. Had to use rocks to pitch cos the ground was too hard to use pegs with. Pitched at night so it was fking dark. I started to get rashes and itchy and shit. And yeah i had no specs. So that was shitty.

This instructor named ZP or Zippy or sth made me laugh tho. She said my 3-1 class tee was so nice. She said it in such an excited almost child-like way. Funny.

Day 3
Trekked for almost 7 hours all over Pulau Ubin. The other mobile team who trekked the next day only trekked from campsite3 to campsite2 in just 2.5 hrs so too bad for them they didnt enjoy the trek. There's nth to enjoy really cos of the fking heavy bags and tents. It's good tho cos we got to see the whole of Ubin. The jungle, the quarry, the summit, the village and all the way to the other end. Saw this buddhist or taoist shrine for this catholic German girl. Lol that was weird.

Did some lame presentation about the whole Pulau Ubin being a casino thing. Funny stuff. Commonwealth dominated cos all the presenters from all the groups were from CSS. Lol.

Once again, the night at the new campsite was 1 of the worst nights of my life. Stormed like shit. Cold, wet and windy. Pitching and cooking dinner were hell. It was so windy and wet u cant leave ur tent for more than 5 mins unless u want it to get messed up all over again. No sleep at night. It was so moist and stuffy, the most u can get is a 2 hour nap.

Day 4
Sea expedition day. Kayaked round the whole of Pulau Ubin. My mobile team set off to sea at around 9am. It was raining from start to end of the expedition so we were all freezing. It was so rainy and windy, i started shivering like hell just 5 mins into the sea -.-" It was fun and enjoyable even tho it was freezing cold.

Stopping in the middle of the sea for lunch was horrible. Had nothing but a wet bun, crackers and fruit bars. I wonder how the other ppl survived the whole journey without peeing. How can u not pee when it was so fking cold? Or maybe they peed in their kayaks. HAHA. Well, u had to jump into the sea to pee. It was hard cos it was freezing, and u had to pee around other ppl cos they had to support ur kayak. Haha funny to see some of the girls having a hard time peeing.

There was this funny part near the South China Sea tho. Had to paddle and push ur way through this shallow 'wave-cut platform' area. Ppl were standing the middle of the sea to push the kayaks and this lameass girl was screaming like a retard just cos a fish jumped onto her legs -.-"

The waters at the Straits of Johor was so fking polluted, it gave me a headache. U can smell, see, feel and taste pollution in the water. There was this huge orange jellyfish that floated past my kayak tho. Beautiful thing but kinda scary cos i thought it would jump into my kayak.

The final stretch was fun. Everybody just 'chiong-ed' it all the way. To make that more fun, the rain got stronger, the wind picked up speed and the waves got bigger and choppier. Despite the cold, everybody was paddling as if it was a race. Especially Akash and Shun Jie, the mofos kept banging into my kayak -.-" Sad cos none of my teammates capsized, heh.

After that 6 hour expedition, i was so cold i felt like i was on the South Pole. I thought my fingernails were gonna fall off cos my fingers were so wrinkly and white and shit. Heard the other team spent 9 hrs cos of some mass capsizing and anchoring or sth.

Lost to Columbus for the land expedition the day before. I bet they won cos of their presentation even tho we completed the trek first. Blah. Must be Shun Jie's overacting presentation lol.

Final night and the new campsite finally got better. At least this time it didnt rain. Too bad got reprimanded by the instructor before sleep cos of not clearing our cooking place. Oh well.

Day 5
Woot, felt so good in the morning cos finally gonna go home. My group had this so called 'commitment run' early in the morning. Packed up all the equipment back into the stores. Had some final group gathering and stuff. Too bad my group didnt get to do the jumping off the jetty =( That looked fun. The stuff at the souvenir shop were crap. Barely any activities for the day, so yeah.
-----------------------------------------------
Too bad i didnt really click with my group that well cos i thought they were all weird. Some were lame and dumb, some were funny and weird and some were posers and act-cool. But they were all easy to work with. I have to say WenSong was really helpful and hardworking and everything during the 5 days there, haha. My instructor gave us lots of inspiring words and food for thought, they really made me think and reflect.

Probably the best and worst camp by far. All the trekking and kayaking and every little activity in between were awesome. Regret not bringing a camera. Learnt lots of new things and realised lots of things too. Kinda makes u wonder sometimes if u'r just sleepwalking mindlessly through ur daily life that u just have to stop and notice ur own breathing (? lol ?)

I'm sure everybody who went through OBS left the course a changed, enlightened or improved person in one way or another. Like the instructors there said, the real outward bound starts once we get off the island. And yea, here it is.

==

the last week of school is really unimpressive. probably except the last day with all that events.

the entire week we are busy doing topo maps for geography. and I am becoming better. soon I can be a geographer or something.

the OBS people also lost out on this week's lessons. not much lah. just a bit of homework to catch up on. really. very little only. believe me =)

==

thursday, which is teachers day eve, our school had ACES Day as well as the celebration.

ACES stand for All Children Exercise Simultaneously. the acronym seems damn gay and forced to me, like CHERiSH (CHampioning Efforts Resulting in Improved School Health).

we had a bit of lessons (more topo maps) and then it is the teachers day celebration.

the classes selected are performing as usual. but this time round, the performances are not bad. actually enjoyed most of them. zhengqun would do better standing further from the microphone though.

2/5's dance also seemed suspiciously alike to that done by 2/4 of last year. I remembered the girls slide in between guys legs part most vividly. but why still no girl's head hit the guy's groin? =(

==

we are dismissed after the performance and I went back to Rulang.

the attendance is record breaking. there are about 25 of us there.

realised some of the girls from 6L are actually quite chio, or maybe became "chioer" after leaving rulang. hmmmmmmmmmmm.

nothing much happened in the beginning as Miss Beh (used to call her Madam Beh) was MIA due to some situation. so we went for lunch at mac before coming back.

then finally Miss Beh had time to talk to us. she had become much thinner. the change is so big that it is jaw-dropping. you can actually make out the shape of her cheekbones.

she said she lost weight because of pressure. heading Rulang Robotics is quite a challenge with the increasing pressure to perform with each passing year. hope she takes care of herself.

we talked till like 6+ before leaving. had loads to catch up.

==

gotta start preparing for end of year exams. my maths and chemistry is so weak that I am worried that it might affect my chances of getting promted to Sec 4 Express next year.

now to find some people who dont mind helping me out. any volunteers?

==

All pictures found in this post could be found in the Flickr! Photostream
under the tag "L1970HR".

Went with my parents to COMEX at Expo yesterday.

normally, my parents wouldnt even have wanted to go. but because I am buying something this time, they wanna follow since they are worried I will lose the ATM card. right.

this is part of the computer overhaul project since my desktop has died and it will probably take me years to finally fix it and make it the third computer after the new desktop and the laptop.

didnt take much pictures this time since my parents are in a rush to get home. they look the same everytime anyway. except this time it is much bigger with 3 halls.



in case you do not know, alight at Tanah Merah and board the train in the middle platform to reach Expo.

we actually went from woodlands due to some reason and we forced to get off at Ang Mo Kio to switch to a train at the middle platform to continue the journey. this does not usually happen and I guess it is specially arranged forseeing the crowd going COMEX and downtown along the line.

after getting the LCD, we walked around a little bit and left since my father will be late soon. back at home...

it is the LG L1970HR-WF, a 19" LCD monitor with f-hinge and f-engine. I bought it only after I spent quite some time snooping around online and find that it is actually a good buy





the box. apparently it is designed for the entire (HE/HR/HR-WF) series. a small sticker at the side indicated mine is a L1970HR-WF.



from that lucky dip of theirs. normal wired keyboard and mouse.



my previous screen, a 15" Compaq FP5315 on the left compared to the LG L1970HR.

the most interesting thing the LCD has is something they call f-hinge (FLATRON Hinge). allowing the screen to be upright...



...or have its base down...



... or become horizontal...



... or lie flat on its base while being horizontal.



one last thing. look at all the wires running around in order for me to test the LCD. the keyboard is left ajar so that I can type. zz.



I shall post about the past few days as well later.