Photo Contest 2008

There are plenty of photo contest that either accept submission from September like Nikon or ending by end of September, DCMag. So submit yours before the contest close.

National Geographic International Photo Contest 2008

Nikon Photo Contest International 2008

Smithsonian magazine 6th Annual Photo Contest

Digital Camera Photographer of the Year 2008

The Pilsner Urquell International Photography Awards Competition (more for commercial photographers)

Language Translator using MSN TBot

All you need to do is add mtbot@hotmail.com to your MSN list, and type anything. You will have several language options to choose from.

1 Arabic2 Chinese Simplified3 Chinese Traditional4 Dutch5 French6 German7 Italian8 Japanese9 Korean10 Portuguese11 Spanish

Give it a try, it will definately reduce the language barrier gap.


bRiaN says:
hi
TBot says:
The Microsoft Online Privacy Statement (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=74170) applies to all information you provide to this Windows Live Agent.
TBot says:
Hello bRiaN. My name is TBot.
Your source language is ENGLISH. Please select your target language
0 Change source language
1 Arabic
2 Chinese Simplified
3 Chinese Traditional
4 Dutch
5 French
6 German
7 Italian
8 Japanese
9 Korean
10 Portuguese
11 Spanish
bRiaN says:
2
TBot says:
Now translating: ENGLISH > CHINESE SIMPLIFIED!
You can always type: TBot ? to see everything I can do for you.

UK news of the day 8/9/08

House prices 'to reduce by 25% - BBC

The chief executive of the Nationwide Building Society has told BBC News that he thinks house prices could fall as much as 25% from their peak. This prediction implies that 2.5 million homeowners could be pushed into negative equity. Read more here.

All-party call for 20,000-a-year cap on migrants arriving in UK - DailyMail

An unprecedented coalition of public figures will today call for a limit on migrant numbers settling in the UK. The group of MPs and peers, including a former Archbishop of Canterbury, want a policy of 'balanced migration'. Read more here.

Fire drill came at bad timing

It was raining outside when the fire alarm started to rang. What a bad day for fire drill.

Finnair promotion to Asia

Finnair is having promotion when travel to Asia. It only cost £443 return to visit Osaka, Japan :)

Travelodge £9 deal for winter

Travelodge launched yet another cracking deal, price per room as low as £9.

Sweet Vinegar Pork Rib for Dinner

Cherlyn cooked this dish for the first time to try out the taste, and it turned out to be delicious. It will be one of my regular dish now :)

Sandisk 20% off on 2 September 08

MyMemory is having promo tomorrow, with extra 20% off all Sandisk product on top of the existing discount.

8GB Ultra 2 SDHC will comes at £13.592 delivered and that's a great deal!
As for Sandisk CF Extreme 3, it will only be £16.792 delivered.

Singapore Comex Nikon gear pricelist

I got the latest pricelist from a source in Singapore. There are plenty of freebies but the price is not attactive.

nikon D90 is officially announced

Nikon has announced successor to D80 mid range camera, D90 today with several accessories such as a hotshoe GPS unit. Among the highlights of this camera are:

• 12.3 megapixel DX format CMOS image sensor with built-in self-cleaning sensor unit
• Low noise performance from ISO 200 to 3200
• D-Movie function offers Motion JPEG movies in exceptional D-SLR image quality
• Live View with 3-inch, 920,000-dot, high-resolution LCD monitor
• Extensive in–camera retouch functions
  

This is the first DSLR comes with video recording function. I was expecting this camera since beginning of the month. Frankly, I'm a bit disappointed with the announcement as I thought gps will be built in to the body. Nevertheless, I'm going to evaluate whether I should upgrade for the new features above plus auto dust removal, lighter body, longer battery life from my d200/ downgrade to a mid range camera without rubber grip, fast sensor, bulk mode shutter release.

More on Video Sample here
More on 16 pages brochures here
More on Sample Images here

The following is the video on the pre-release d90 done by Chase Jarvis, Nikon D3 pro user.

Hot and Sour Sea Bass

Yesterday Cherlyn cooked hot and sour sea bass with lemon grass, corianders, onions, tomatos, chili and lemons. It increased our appetite for more rice. :)

Hot Summer in Rome

We went to Rome on 22-25 August, and the weather was fantastic for summer lover. It was 28-32 degree with clear blue sky for most of the time. On the first day, we reached Rome city around quarter to 7pm. After taking our dinner, we walked to Trevi Fountain and spent our evening there.

A mini car on our way to Trevi

Crowded Trevi Fountain

On the second day, we went to Colosseum and the queue was long. However, it worth the wait. The historical site looks amazing in each way, it was used for gladiatorial contests and public spectacles.

Inside colosseum

Outside Colosseum

Dixons Lunch time deal 15/8.

Dixons deal is back, but only for today.

Watching Olympic 2008 in Office

Thanks to BBC, I'm able to watch Olympic live in my office although I scheduled to record it at home.

Math: Back to School

I was trying to solve a problem for several days for a bug, that involved getting a new point when a move related function. Problem start when I tried to move the Valve together with the connected features.


Ideally, I want to keep the ratio and the distance of the text from the line, and calculate new orientation based on the slope of the line, but the existing function didn't that.

I didn't know it is so complex to begin with. After a few attempts, I decided to consult my indian programmer. I'm impressed that they still remember the formula I learned in school. My problem involved digging my head for several old school lesson for math: distance (sqr((x2-x1)^2+(y2-y1)^2)), slope(m=(y1-y2)/(x1-x2), point(y=mx+c),trigonometry(sin,cos,tan), quadratic formula (ax2+bx+c=0) and linear formula (m1*m2=-1 for pependicular).

This equation below is just a subset of the works.

Best phone I ever used: N95 Black

I've been using N95 Black 8GB for 3 weeks and I'm loving it everyday since. The phone itself comes with the more than everyday needs features (5mega pixel camera,mp3,wifi,auto screen rotate), but with some extra application I installed, it becomes a super mobile phone. All you need is to install the following applications:

Psiloc IrRemote 1.03 - remote control for your TV, Music, DVD player.

VNC+ 1.3.2 - Remote control your PC

Sygic Drive 7.5.408 /Nokia Maps 2.0.2602 - GPS SATNav, even while walking

Windows Live Messenger 1.1.9000/ Skype 0.9.6 - everyday chat

DivXPlayer 0.90 - Play divx avi directly without resizing

SymSmb 3.5.018- Connect to Network share via Wifi to copy/paste files

Mobiola WebCam 3 - Turn your phone camera into bluetooth Webcam

MsDict 5- Mobile dictionary with severals dictionary modules available

My Wii Fit with accessories

Got my Wii Fit and accessories this week. Can't express how excited I am now.

Hoxton £1 London hotel

Hoxton 1000 rooms at discounted price start tomorrow.

Ex-collegues involved in plane crashed in Java

News from CNA confirmed no survivors in the recent plane crashed in Java. News can also found in BBC, and detiknews. I got confirmation from my friend that 5 of my ex -colleagues had passed away. :( May all of them RIP.

Finally ordered my Wii Fit

It is like the hottest commodities in gaming industry, Wii Fit is always out of stock whenever it is available. I'd spent almost 1 month monitoring the stock at various online stores and finally I beat the rest on the latest Toys R Us stock and got myself one. Hurray.

And I'm waiting for Wii Fit accessories after ordered it from Woolworth. Even the accessories are not available on the spot.

Firefox 3 is officially released

Firefox 3 is out at http://www.mozilla-europe.org/en/firefox/

Halifax 10% Regular Saver

Amid the interest rate cut for saving account from 5.25% to 5%, Halifax announced a massive 10% regular saver rate valid for 1 year. This is the best deal I ever seen since 1998.

UK InterBank fund transfer done in 2 hours

Just discovered today, transfer £ from HSBC to any UK bank only take 2 hours instead of 3 working days. That's a good news. :)

Mario Kart from Ebay

After a short chat with Johny, I decided to buy Mario Kart with Wheel. Unfortunately it is out of stock in most game store, I bid it from ebay for £41.12, cheapest in after spending 20 minutes trying grab a final second deal.

This is the most expensive game I ever bought, so hopefully it worth my £££. :)

Update 10/6: Got my Mario Kart and extra Original Wheel from Game.co.uk. I'm ready to be vs :)

Wall Street Sweet 12999

Today Wall Street had fallen below 12300 mark, and 12999 too sweet for me :)

Invest with Tradefair Part 3

Well, 2 days left with tradefair demo account to win £100 for being the leader and I'm number only 37 of the leaderboard. I'm nowhere near the leader at massive 85900!

I just noticed being in the top 100 leaderboard will be rewarded with £100 upon opening of account. :)

Update: 6/6 - Tradefair demo ended on 4/6 and I'm happy being at 29 place of the leader board.

12 hours of funs

On Saturday, we went out from 12 and back at 12 midnight. We were hanging out with our Swindon mates. From dim sum lunch to chinese takeaway dinner then our usual past time games, Mahjong, UNO and Pictionary.

Takeaway from Da Shanghai

The usual gang

UNO game

UNO game result

Pictionary, it was male vs female after decided by card draw

Our Pictionary drawing

Finally a Wii

Yesterday I went to town center and bought a Wii. game.co.uk is having a bundle sale for £199.99 to get both Ultimate Board Game and Sega Superstar Tennis. This is my first ever game console as I'd ever bought and played.

For now, I'm waiting for a HD components cable, Wii Play and Nunchuck to complete the purchase.