All that matters: 2008

Thursday, November 27, 2008

Google Chinese Pinyin IME

Most of users are using the IME (input method editor) provided by Windows XP & Vista for entering Chinese characters. I have been using that for a long time too. When Google has its Chinese Pinyin IME available, I tried it. I find that it's quite user friendly and with many good features, but one of the best feature it has is that it also provides key stroke input option. This is definately one of the feature I have been longing for a long time. For I can use the pinyin method alright but if I can't pronouce the Chinese character I need to input I would run into trouble. Hence I have started using this Google Chinese IME tool a lot.

For anyone who may like to take a look, you can download it from link provided below. As usual as with many other Google tool, it's free!http://tools.google.com/pinyin/

The Google page for the above is in Chinese. There are also lots of information and discussion of the tool when you do a search in Google search page, using keywords such as 'Google pinyin IME'.

For using the stroke input option, you first enter 'u' to get into the correct mode, then use the following characters for the different stroke types:
h - 横
s - 竖
p - 撇
n - 捺
z - 折
d - 点

Saturday, November 15, 2008

yummy breakfast at Petaling Street on a Sunday morning

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Discover life by living it

Life has its own hidden forces which you can only discover by living.

--- Soren Kierkegaard

Monday, October 27, 2008

Lembah Kiara Recreational Park

This park situated at Taman Tun Dr. Ismail, Kuala Lumpur, a residential area. This park is well maintained, and lots of monkeys can be seen when you walk around the park.

Friday, September 26, 2008

Turn your photographs into sketches

I have been searching for a tool to turn photographs paintings or sketches. A few days ago I found this program called FotoSketcher, it is free and can be downloaded from here:
http://www.fotosketcher.com/

It is created by David Thoiron from France, and I really like this tool.
See one of the photo which I have turned into a painting:

and also a sketch:

Posted: 20-March-2008
Updated: 26-Sep-2008

Sunday, September 21, 2008

Video format converter - SUPER

I needed to convert a video clip in WMV format to MOV but the converter I was using doesn't provide this format change. I searched and finally found a very useful tool, i.e. SUPER from www.erightsoft.com

It supports variety format conversion and also a player that plays all the supported formats. It is easy to use and is just the converter that I need.

It is a freeware and more details can be found at:
http://www.erightsoft.com/SUPER.html

Thursday, July 31, 2008

Fax program in Windows Vista

I have been using the default fax driver that comes with Windows XP for a long time, and imagine my disappointment when I switched to Windows Vista Home Premium and found that Microsoft does not provide the same fax drive anymore. It only comes with Windows Vista Business edition. Can't understand why this is so. Doesn't home users also send and received fax, like the Windows XP home users?

Anyway, since I need to use my system to send faxes at times, so I search and tried some fax programs for Windows Vista. Found the following two programs from a number of user discussions:

1) Snappy Fax (US$29.99, for standalone version)

2) RKS Fax (US19.90)

I actually like the RKS Fax better and it's cheaper. But I have already settled with Snappy Fax for easier payment options. Anyway both serves my purpose well though.

You can download and purchase either of the above programs from below sites. Both of them can be used as trial for a period of 30 days beofre you decided which suites your requirement best.

1) Snappy Fax Version 4.0

http://www.snappysoftware.com/

2) RKS Fax

http://www.rkssoftware.com/

Monday, July 21, 2008

Free Photo Viewer

To know more about the details of the digital photos taken, this is a useful little tool to view the EXIF tags.

Exchangeable image file format (Exif) is a specification for the image file format used by digital cameras.

This utility is a freeware program and can be downloaded at:http://www.exifsoftware.com/

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Youtube Downloader

Ever wanted to watch the video on Youtube and also to download it? The following Youtube Downloader is a wonderful tool to help you do just that. It's simple to use, and you just need to enter the url for the video to download, and then click [Ok].

This tool also provides ability to convert the video to different formats.

This is a freeware program, and no registration is needed. Check for more details or download the tool from:http://youtubedownload.altervista.org/

Thursday, June 26, 2008

Life must be lived forwards

Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.

- Soren Aabye Kierkegaard , 19th century Danish philosopher

Friday, June 13, 2008

Blue screen on starting up Windows Vista

I was having blue screen problem with my notebook last night. Everytime the system try to start up Windows Vista, it shows the infamous blue screen. Starting up again in safe mode is ok.

Tried many things to rectify the problem:
1) Remove all the fixes applied just the day before
2) Restore to previous restore point
3) Use the last known best configuration
4) F8, and then go to Repair the system
5) Uninstall the most recently installed programs
6) Taken out the battery and run on A/C

All did not help!

Finally I managed to capture the filename 'acpidisk.sys' on the blue screen. After some searches found that this file is a trojan horse. I renamed the file, and start the system again. And instantly the Windows Vista started up normally. I then proceeded to delete the file from my system. It's located at C:\Windows\System32\Drivers folder.

After that I run my antivirus & anti-spam program for the whole system for a cleanup. So far so good.

Point to be taken:
Take out the 'Automatically restart under the System failure' option from system properties so that you have time to look at the messages display on the BLUE SCREEN.