NOTE: v.Blog migrating to vernonchan.com

Hi fellas. I am migrating again I am afraid. This time it should be permanent. The v.Blog will feature under www.vernonchan.com. Will continue to keep this blog alive just to redirect users.

Update your bookmarks!

Apple iPhone. Take a Tour.

Got this from Apple a minute ago. Isn’t it amazing? The world’s most anticipated phone (cum iPod cum web browser) will be hitting stores next Friday! Apple wants you to take a guided tour to prepare for the goodies when you have one in your hands, so why dontcha?

The R3gister Forum Online + Beta-testing!

My motorsports blog – The R3gister now has its very own forum! Register now for free. It is currently under beta-testing but is fully operational. Do report technical glitches and don’t hesitate to send feedback!

When it rains, it pours!

Oops. Wrong pic.

Ah. There you go. Notice how someone dropped his/her umbrella.

Mother Nature is mad at something or someone. She’s pouring down again – cats, dogs, cows, hippos! Maybe she’s testing the SMART tunnel (which evidently, as reported in the Star, is leaking water!) Management just announced that basement 2 is starting to flood again, just as flood waters from Sunday had been cleared yesterday. It’s mad.

Water level is rising again. Arrgh! Prepare for massive jams and delays!
Pics stolen for Corbis.

Water, water everywhere!

There is never a compromise is there? No grey area. It’s either black or white. Pregnant or not pregnant. Never half pregnant. Half empty half full. No idea what I’m babbling about? It’s the weather. Although no stranger to the tropical weather, monsoons and what not, sometimes I wish for some moderate, in-between type climate.

I mean in Malaysia we either get a bloody heatwave, or a thunderstorm. The unexpected flash floods that hit the city just two days ago is testament of how crazy and unforgiving Malaysian rains can be. Just when I was complaining about the unbearable heat. Hah.

This is nuts.

An Ode to CHIQ

This is a tribute to Chiq who passed away today. For those who knew her closely knew she battled depression and for those who knew her as friends (like me) were blind and clueless to the fact that she, the bubbly person that she was, was indeed fighting to find a reason to not leave this dreaded planet.

This is to you, CHIQ. You will be missed.

RIP.

Links to whom share friendship and love for CHiQ:

• Jeyadev
• Juan
• Digital Awakening
• PalmDoc
• Buaya69
• CheeV.net
• The Wilful Sunflower
• Edwin S

In memoriam – CHiQ aka Valerie Tay – 1981-2007

How much is your Mac worth?

Thanks to David W of MyMacBUZZ for introducing The Mac2Sell – an online guide to used Macs. Find out how much your Mac is worth using the online system, which is apparently accurate as some have reported. Although it does not take into account whether your Mac system is still under warranty (which adds value to your sale price), it is a good approximate if you plan to sell your Mac.

Interesting enough, my 2GB RAM-strong 1.83Mhz iMac Intel Core Duo with Superdrive is worth S$1,600 (close to RM3,700 converted). That’s not half bad.

Any takers?

A 1986 Mac Plus Vs 2007 AMD Dual Core: Guess who wins?

It’s a most unlikely duel. Impossible even. A state-of-the-art (er..way back then) 8Mhz Motorola 68000 processor pitting against a monster AMD 64 x2 4800+ with two cores, each running at 2.4GHz. That’s about a 600 times processing power difference! 4MB RAM (maxed!) against 1GB. SCSI 40MB hard drive versus a 120GB IDE. Mac OS 6.0.8 versus Windows XP.

Pretty obvious which is faster right? Think again. Technology has advanced by leaps and bounds over the past 20 years, but as Hubpages discovered through a series of real world tests, the ‘user experience’ has NOT changed. And there has been absolutely NO advancement in productivity. An interesting read indeed!

Image courtesy of Hubpages 

Chinese Torture

Image borrowed (stolen) from Corbis

A young man was wandering, lost, in a forest when he came upon a small house. Knocking on the door he was greeted by an ancient Chinese man with a long, gray beard.

“I’m lost,” said the man. “Can you put me up for the night?”

“Certainly,” the Chinese man said, “but on one condition. If you so much as lay a finger on my
daughter, I will inflict upon you the three worst Chinese tortures known to man.”

“OK,” said the man, thinking that the daughter must be pretty old as well, he entered the house. Before dinner, the daughter came down the stairs. She was young, beautiful and had a fantastic figure. She was obviously attracted to the young man as she couldn’t keep her eyes off him during the meal.

Remembering the old man’s warning he ignored her and went up to bed alone. But during the night he could bear it no longer and snuck into her room for a night of passion.

He was careful to keep everything quiet so the old man wouldn’t hear and, near dawn, he crept back to his
room, exhausted but happy. He woke to feel a pressure on his chest. Opening his eyes he saw a large rock on his chest with a note on it that read, “Chinese Torture 1: Large rock on chest.”

“Well, that’s pretty crappy,” he thought. “If that’s the best the old man can do then I don’t have much to
worry about.”

He picked the boulder up, walked over to the window and threw the boulder out.

As he did so he noticed another note on it that read “Chinese Torture 2: Rock tied to left testicle.”
In a panic he glanced down and saw the line that was already getting close to taut. Figuring that a few
broken bones was better than castration, he jumped out of the window after the boulder.

As he plummeted downward he saw a large sign on the ground that read,
“Chinese Torture 3: Right testicle tied to bedpost.”