Saturday, November 24, 2007

Improving Teh Experience

On a Side Note...
I'm feelin' hungry, real hungry. Despite that, I'm eating less in a bid to cut down on my intake since I don't exercise much these days.
Experiencing a slowdown in processing speed or computer performance? Most computers tend to function slower in time, and it's probably due to users clogging it with more data (some which are useless). Besides scanning for potential worms or spyware, you could clean up your system with programs that you already own.

Ever notice the Disk Cleanup or Disk Defragmenter under System Tools? (Start> All Programs> Accessories> System Tools) Though it might not have a significant effect, these tools can aid in maintaining your system's health. If you're not the adventurous or techie, here's a simple guide on how to use them.

Disk Cleanup


Select the Hard Drive that you wish to clean up and click on 'OK'. If you got time, clean up all the Drives that you got, otherwise just clean up your main Drive (C Drive by default).


Now wait while your system is being scanned.


Select the segments to clean up (all if possible). Before you proceed, you might want to check out the 'More Options' tab.


If you know what you're doing, you can choose to remove the programs that are not in use to free up more space, otherwise just skip this.


Chances are that you haven't done this before (or in a long time), so this will take some time. Click on 'OK' and go make yourself a cuppa coffee. Once it's done, you might want to defrag your Hard Drive (which might take up to an hour).

Disk Defragmenter


Select the Hard Disk that you intend to defrag and hit the 'Analyse' button.


After the analysis is complete, you will be prompted to (or not to) defrag the selected Hard Disk. Proceed by clicking on the 'Defragment' button. Now grab a book or watch the latest episode of the anime that you're following.


Defragmenting complete.

If your computer tends to lag or take a long time to become speedy after you power it on, it might be due to the fact that too many (redundant) programs were set to run during your computer's start up. You need to know a 'lil on your computer to fine-tune this.


Click on the 'Start' button and select the 'Run' program. Enter 'msconfig' and hit 'OK'.


The System Configuration Utility pops up and by default, under the 'Startup Selection', 'Normal Startup' should be selected (if you've never done this before). Click on the 'Selective Startup' radio button and check all the boxes. Click on the 'Startup' tab to proceed.


By default, your list of 'Startup Item' should be clogged with lots of selections. This is a list of programs that run when you power up your system. Most of the programs might seem alien to you (since you might seldom even use'em). However you may not know which are the ones that are beneficial to run at Startup. Having many programs to run at Startup will slow down your computer as they all require processing power.

To roughly find out what that particular program does (if its name doesn't already tell you), click on the line in between 'Command' and 'Location' and drag it to the right. This will allow you to see the destination of the program, providing you with an idea what program it is. Shorten the list of 'Startup Item' by deselecting the programs that you do not wish for to run at Startup.


Notice that after expanding the width of the 'Command' column you're now able to see the destination of the program? For me, I've chosen to run only my instant messenger programs and Norton Protection Centre since I don't want my system to be unprotected against viruses and trojans. Click on 'Apply' and 'OK' to finalise your decision.


This box will pop up to notify you that the changes will only be made if you restart your computer. To restart now or later, the choice is yours.


You will see this box the next time you restart/turn on your computer. Unless you want this pop up to appear every single time you turn on your computer, you should check the box. Did you notice that your computer is now slightly faster (or maybe not)?

Now that there isn't much left to do with your system, let's try to improve on the Internet experience. You can check your Internet speed at Speedtest.net. Running a Speedtest will show you your Download, Upload, and ping time. Note that your results may vary from time to time. If you have multiple computers that are connected and in use, your speed may suffer (especially so if someone is running a BitTorrent client). Here are my results:


While this does not actually improve on your Internet speed, it will give you a good idea if your network is lagging or experiencing spikes.

If you're using Internet Explorer, you can improve on web-browsing speed by installing the Google Web Accelerator add-on. Note the emphasis on web-browsing.

For Firefox users, you can fire up your browser by installing FireTune.

If you commonly experience disconnections, you might want to get a download manager which accelerates the downloading and allows you to resume a download if the connection is lost. You can get the Download Accelerator Plus (which I'm using), or try the Fresh Download (recommended in November's issue of FHM). That's all for now =)

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Penning my heartfelt thoughts at 3:02 PM

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Saturday, November 17, 2007

A Pieceful Twentieth

On a Side Note...
I'm no longer a teenager. T_T

Strawberry Kisses

Home-made cake from my baby filled full of sweetness, warmth, and love. That's just what I need to heal my ill body. Unfortunately, it's filled with too much goodness so I can't really eat all of it until I get better. I spent the day that I turned 20 at home, resting (coughing) in my bed, far away from where I thought I'd be at with my friends. Not exactly the best way to spend that day, but you made it better by staying by my bedside =)

Had dinner at The Bottle Tree restaurant with my family in the evening. I picked most of the dishes, and I must say that I was good at picking what's good. The food is pretty good, at a relatively acceptable price too. The remaining evening was spent groaning and coughing away in my bed. I'm down with a really bad sore throat and cough, flu, and sore eyes. The medical officer gave me all sorts of medication but didn't give me any status. That's relatively hard to believe, but considering what my course commander can stoop to, I rest my argument. Bottom line is, he's not a very pleasant person.


Pariss International Buffet

Had lunch with Mom and our relatives at Pariss, which is located at Marina Square. Though my sore throat didn't get much better, this was a meal that I didn't wanna miss. The traditional annual birthday meal that involves most of my aunts and some of my cousins. I didn't fully enjoy the meal 'cos it was wiser to keep away from some food. Still I got some forbidden pictures (they don't allow patrons to take pictures of their food and decor) to show:


Finger food and Crocodile Meat Bah Kut Teh


Satay, scallop and juicy oyster


Chocolate Fountain


Bed of giant oysters


Sweet dessert

I don't fancy fresh juicy oysters much. Oyster omelette and fried oyster is okay, but definitely not fresh oysters for me. I'd puke if I ate more than one. After lunch I parted with the group to join Yao Wei for some shopping. Headed off to Peninsula Shopping Centre where I got a pair of skinny jeans and (yet) another pair of sneakers, then off to Bugis for more.

By the time we finished, I was quite tired (considering that I'm still sick), so we headed home. Back home, I finally got down to clean up my messy room. Most of my friends don't find my room messy, but I always find it messy anyway. It was really messy this time, with everything everywhere.


Damn messy, by my standards

Since I was already down to doing cleaning up, I decided to empty out my wardrobe and get rid of the hand-me-downs as well as the clothes that I'd never wear again. The end result was a basketful of condemned clothes.


Junk

As always, whenever I buy a new pair of shoes there would be a mandatory picture of it, so here goes:


Levi's sneakers


Also, the bermudas that I got

Thanks to my shopping spree and unexpected expenses, I can safely say that I will not be able to save up the amount that I targetted for this year =\ I'm just not good with my finances =p Oh well, at least I got new apparels and some bermudas that I've been wanting for some time.

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Penning my heartfelt thoughts at 11:55 PM

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Sunday, November 11, 2007

Deepavali @ MOS

On a Side Note...
4 days of my long weekend is 'bout to end. The days pass one by one without much realisation. Soon I'll be back in camp for another week =\
Deepavali was spent at MOS. The crowd was neither overwhelming nor sparse, which made the atmosphere ordinary. It was the bottle of 151 that brought us lots of fun (and idiocracy). Sometimes the poor experience may be due to a lack of mood, atmosphere, or the wrong people who are around you. That night as relatively fun, but it seems somehow that the more I club, the more my interest wanes. Perhaps it's time to fast from clubbing for awhile?

Anyway, here are some random pictures taken during that night:


Hear JJ's ROAR!


Suckin' It Up


Hot Medics' Club


Calling Mr. Vain


Gay Love


I've been in somewhere worse


Jason's Bitch


Brothers in Arms


Casualty


This concludes that evening at MOS.

JJ got fucking smashed. Owned. Who's next? *grins*


BLP #011

There are three golf balls sitting on the moon. Don't ask me why or how, but there just are. Maybe Armstrong played golf while he was there.

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Penning my heartfelt thoughts at 3:15 PM

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Thursday, November 08, 2007

Bathing Ape!

On a Side Note...
Smoove @ Main Arena tonight. Who's going?

Baby got me these stuff from Taiwan:


Caramel Apple


A BathingApe Tee and a pair of Hello Kitty boxers

Pink coloured boxers with hearts on it! Omg >.< Though it's kinda girly, I still love them 'cos it's from you =) xoxo

Last week my course underwent chemical defence training, which saw us donning on the MOPP suit. The suit was made to make the toughest of men melt under it. No kidding.


MOPP 4

I didn't manage to find any images on the SAF standard MOPP suit, but this is close to what we wore. The suit is made of thick cloth that is resistant to chemicals and absorbs moisture, which is something that you wouldn't want to wear under the hot sun. The gas mask 'enhances' the effect, and if you see a company of soldiers running around in that suit, you would find them hot, literally.

We had a training session in a smoke training facility (filled with tear gas) where we had to do basic exercises in the MOPP suit. Later we had to remove our hood and mask and say our rank, name, IC number to conclude our training. The tear gas gave a burning sensation on the skin and made my eyes watered. It wasn't much, but it was an experience.


Bean's Learning Pod #010

During the Middle Ages, victims of the bubonic plague were used for biological attacks, often by flinging their corpses and excrement over castle walls using catapults. In 1346, the bodies of Tatar warriors of the Golden Horde who had died of plague were thrown over the walls of the besieged Crimean city of Kaffa (now Theodosia). It has been speculated that this operation may have been responsible for the advent of the Black Death in Europe.

The Black Death swept through Eurasia, killing approximately one third to one half of the population and changing the course of Asian and European history.

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Penning my heartfelt thoughts at 5:15 PM

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