So how can we make things easier? Simple, create your own proxy.pac file.

Create a text document on your computer. In this file, write the JavaScript code necessary to help Safari use your proxy only when needed. See this Wikipedia page for examples. Here’s what mine looks like:

function FindProxyForURL(url, host) {

proxy = “PROXY companyproxy.address.com:8080″;

// Next, we want to send all traffic to company.net browser direct
if (dnsDomainIs(host, “.my.intranet.domain.com”)) {
return “DIRECT”;
}

// Loopback and localhost goes browser direct always.
if ((host == “localhost”) ||
(shExpMatch(host, “localhost.*”)) ||
(host == “127.0.0.1″)) {
return “DIRECT”;
}

// Test to see if host is an IP address
reip = /^\d+\.\d+\.\d+\.\d+$/g;

if (reip.test(host)) {

// Check for local IP address
if (isInNet(host, “192.168.0.0″, “255.255.0.0″)) {
return “DIRECT”;
}

}

// Default return condition is the proxy, since itâ??s assumed that everything
// else is on the Internet.
return proxy;

} // End of function

Save and name the file as proxy.pac. One site recommended that the file encoding be set to UTF-8, which I followed and it seems fine. Take this file and copy it to anywhere on your iPhone using tools such as iFunbox or iFile or SSH. I put mine in /var/mobile/Documents.

Now go back to your iPhone WiFi Settings in Settings –> Wi-Fi. Tap on the > button of your WiFi network to view its settings. Swipe all the way down and change HTTP Proxy to Auto, and in the URL field type in the file location, e.g. file:///var/mobile/Documents/proxy.pac. Exit, and all your programs should now automatically detect whether a proxy should be used whenever you are on this WiFi network.

As you may know, both our cats are formally adopted from SPCA.

Cat #1: Shcamper. Not yet neutered since he was still a ‘teenage’ kitten when we picked him up. The neutering fee should be free as part of the RM100 adoption fee. Called them to see if we can walk-in or schedule an appointment and the lady on the phone flat out said that they don’t do neutering. Told us to go to the Kembiri clinic instead. And we did, but the guy told us that actually SPCA cats should be neutered by SPCA back at Jalan Kerja Ayer Lama. Since we were already there we might as well proceed, with an additional RM50 donation for the procedure.

Cat #2: Chewmil. Spayed by SPCA but still shows signs of heat. Called SPCA to get her checked out but the girl on the phone said they don’t tend to adopted cats after one month of adoption. Like lepas tangan only right? Will most likely have to spend another RM100 for another procedure at Kembiri. Poor girl.

It would have been great if these people behind their desks would take the trouble to explain to people exactly how and what the process is. If there’s going to be just one month of support, at least say so in the beginning. I don’t know if these people are there just for the job or for the cats, but please lah, be more emphatic with the people you deal with.

Cats
We were in JB for a wedding in Singapore, and we met this tiny grey kitten wandering alone at an open-air restaurant close to where we were staying. It was a rainy day and we were there for lunch, so as we sat down it would park itself between our feet for warmth. It would do this for all of us seated at the table, until it settled down atop of my left foot, its front paws tucked in above my foot and its head shaded by my pant leg. We were tempted to take it home, but it was a long journey back to KL and so it didn’t seem like a good idea at the time.

Since then, we’ve always had it on our minds, and we regretted having left it behind. This led the both of us, Faizah and I, to develop this constantly growing yearning to get felines of our own. These feelings continued to grow till one day we met an old schoolmate of mine at a wedding, and turns out she’s a vet with Zoo Negara. She told us that there were plenty of strays captured at the zoo to keep them from infecting the larger cats with possible disease (or possibly eaten by one!). They were usually sent to SPCA, but if we were interested we could take one ourselves. And boy, were we interested! It didn’t take us long to make a visit, and by then we choose this handsome teen of a ginger tabby we named Shcamper. We also visited the SPCA nearby to see if we can pick up any companions for Shcamper, and took a gorgeous female grey tabby we named Chewmil. This happened over a span of 2 weekends, of course, as we had to think things through and logistically and mentally prepare to bring them into our home.

Go on over to Ayin’s blog for piccies: Introducing two new additions to the family.

It’s been about a month now since we took them in. Most of the time, they’d be in their self-sufficient 4-tier cage outside in the porch or we’d bring them in to play for a while after work. They were wary of each other at first, always hissing at each other on eye-contact, but they slowly warmed up and are now the best of friends. While we love them to bits, they’re not quite affectionate as we’d liked, but hopefully this will change in time. Chewmil is like the mistress of the house, while Shcamper enjoys bounding up and down the house with his seemingly limitless energy. We’ve plans to toilet train them, so if that works hopefully we’ll be able to keep them in the house where it’s more comfortable and safe.

iStuff
I have an iPhone 3GS. and Faizah has an iPod Touch. I <3. Blizzard seems to have an interest in these gadgets, releasing free Armory and Authenticator apps for them. While I use mine mainly as a phone, and Fai mainly uses hers for music, the availability of so many apps makes them just so very useful, especially when we’re bored on a flight. Never leave home without ‘em.

WoW
The things we do for WoW. Fai’s machine is now a Core i5 with an ATI HD5870 video card, for faster dungeon load times and smoother graphics. It may not be as snappy as a Core i7, but the difference is barely noticeable, and it has plenty of overclocking potential. I’ll update the specs in the Machines page right after this.

As far as raiding goes, the guild is pretty much farming the first 4 bosses of Icecrown Citadel. There’s still generally a lot of issues going into Plagueworks, but hopefully we’ll get them sorted out. In any case, things are getting easier with the constant boss nerfs and the upcoming zone-wide Ashen Verdict buff.

Farewell, Mario
The old Pentium 4 server that hosted this site as well as related services since 2001 has finally been shut down. Mario, then named Phoenix, was originally a Pentium 3 machine I built and used during my college days in the US. As newer machines were purchased, old hardware were reused, turning Mario into what it is today. It still remains intact at the ‘datacenter’ in Section 16 until we decide what to do with it.

That’s not the end for this site though. All important contents were successfully migrated to a virtual machine running on Alexstrasza. We’re now on a newer FreeBSD operating system with less installed clutter. The host machine runs on Windows 7 RC, which sometimes decides to restart itself without restarting the VM. Don’t worry, we’ll be switching to a proper copy of Windows 7 soon.

http://www.bangsar.net/blog/2007/07/12/windows-automatic-update-annoyance

Okay, you don’t like the post. It’s 2 sentences and piggybacks a reputable site. So? I don’t see why I must give my own thoughts to every single thing that happens in the world. I don’t see why I have to try to improve on something even when I don’t have anything to add. But if it’s useful, why can’t I just forward it and make it known? It’s a reputable site after all, so shouldn’t we link to reputable sites? Would you rather I link to your site instead, if you would have cared to share it with us?

Just because you can’t find anything of useful value here, doesn’t make this site useless. You might be the god of {insert subject matter here}, but what gives you the right to be so aloof and condescending to others? Everyone has something they’re good at, but not everyone needs to show off and be a prick. Before you even try to point out other peoples’ faults, why don’t you look at yourself in the mirror first and do something about that attitude of yours.

Oh, and Donald, why don’t you add me on Facebook so that we can compare friends? Maybe even Friendster? If you’re anything the smart guy you put out to be, you should be able to find me easily. Regardless of that outcome, go fuck yourself.

I hate Apple. Wife has a Powebook G4 that’s eligible for a 2006 battery recall, but Apple Malaysia won’t honour it as it is out of warranty. After making calls and making a query on Apple Discussions, I decided to just pass my battery to a colleague going for a vacation in the UK. New battery was delivered no questions asked.

I hate Citibank. When you talk to their customer service people they sound like all they want to do is get rid of you. You know, not in language but in the tone of their voice. Their collections department is so hard to reach.

I hate Streamyx. As usual. Been having sporadic network issues over the weekend since Saturday; download speeds would fall to shit without affecting my uploads. Couldn’t even access Streamyx or TM’s own website. I hate calling for tech support because it usually ends up making things worse.

Customer service is a failboat in this country.

I love Ip-Man. Such an awesome movie.

Upgraded some cables to CAT 6 in the hope that it’ll improve my HD streaming to the PS3. Somehow or rather my Aztech Homeplugs got fried in the process. Such delicate things.

By right, the default usage of just Mencoder for transcoding with subtitles is just fine. However, I have some anime files that don’t size/zoom just right on the TV (i.e. there is no Zoom screen mode on the PS3, instead Normal mode displays like Zoom mode). AviSynth/Mencoder displays them fine though, with all 3 screen modes available, but of course, no subtitles. And since I have CoreAVC with CUDA acceleration, might as well make use of it for the other 1080p files.

So yes, follow the instructions for CoreAVC in PS3 Media Server’s README/FAQ files.

Then implement this hack to stop Windows 7 from using its built in DTV-DVD filter:
Replacing the Default DTV/DVD Decoder without Breaking Live TV Playback
(Take note of the different registry path for 64-bit in the comments)

Now, you should be set. I’ve tested this so far with MKV files that have built in subtitles. With vsfilter.dll in the Avisynth plugins folder, I’m expecting double subs to appear for movies with external subs (this is my assumption by logic, but might not be the case), so removing vsfilter.dll from the plugins dir might help with that.

Forgetting about hardware for the time being, we need to do a POC.

PS3 Media Server does not show CDG files on the XMB, so that’s off the table. TVersity shows them, but requires a DirectX filter to play them. A free DirectX filter available on the net can’t work, because it’s too old and missing some tech. There’s a paid one available from Power Karaoke, but I can’t get the trial version to work (no audio in WMP, slow load in PS3 and hangs after about 5 seconds of play).

Another issue: English CDG files are usually paired with an MP3 file for the audio, so they’re usually zipped together for distribution. We assumed that they should be unzipped to be played, but apparently most karaoke players can play them zipped (in fact the free karaoke filter I mentioned earlier can do that using a bundled unzip filter). The IRC channel that we hang out in to get new English karaoke songs also requires our files to be zipped for sharing. Seems like a waste to keep 2 sets of the same files for different purposes (1 set is currently 7GB).

Both PS3MS and TVersity don’t show ZIP files on the XMB. PS3MS has an option called Browse ZIP/RAR files, but that doesn’t help in this matter.

The next idea that we had was to instead stream the karaoke playlist from the media server as a webcast. We can then configure PS3MS to grab it as Internet TV. It’s better than the original idea whereby we can browse for songs and add them to the playlist while people are singing.

Problem is, we can’t find any webcasting programs that simply supports DirectX. None of the karaoke players have a webcast function either. Windows Media Player has a media sharing function, but you can’t drag zip files into its playlist.

I’m currently attending a C# .NET class. Kinda tempted to just code one someday.

But anyway, that particular alternative is a dead end. The last choice that we have: use a dual-screen notebook. A notebook would be better than a desktop because 1) we already have two, and 2) we’re trying to keep the number of running machines in the house to a minimum. Besides, having a full tower that generates enough heat to power the Matrix in a living room without A/C isn’t generally a good idea.

So we have Faizah’s Powerbook G4: it’s nice and small, but it needs a proprietary AV out. It also has an overheating battery that was recalled in 2006 but we’re still using it. Contacting Apple now to see if we can still get it exchanged. Available karaoke players are also not free.

And then we have my HP Compaq 6910p: new and tons of RAM, but it’s the office notebook. Only needs an S-Video out, so we’re set! For software, we’d use Karafun, which is free and simple enough to use. We’d just mount the karaoke folder from the media server and use Windows Search to search for music and drag them to the Karafun playlist.

So that’s settled mainly. Just need an S-Video cable to complete the POC.

Then we moved on to looking for Japanese karaoke files. Scoured IRC for a few days but couldn’t find any. Searched the web but nothing in English. Enabled Japanese IME to start doing Japanese language searches, which finally shed a little light.

There was one major source for Japanese karaoke: Club DAM, a website for the makers of a line of Japanese karaoke machines. At 1035? a month, you can download all the DRM10-encrypted karaoke videos you’d want. But my Japanese is rusty, so I’m not sure if the files expire after you terminate a subscription.

Today, I managed to find some videos on YouTube (search ????) but it’s definitely not comprehensive. It’s a start. Most are high quality and downloadable using DownloadHelper. Playing them back, however, was another problem: the FLV splitter that comes with K-Lite does not play the HQ35 Youtube format (which is essentially AVC/H264 and AAC in an FLV package), but I fixed that easy by downloading a newer version of FLVSplitter (1.0.0.5) to replace the K-Lite one (1.0.0.4).

But now I’m stuck with the fact that Karafun can’t play FLV files. O.o I’m pretty sure there’s another player that does, but I can’t remember which one. Or I could just convert it to AVI or whatever.

I’m still tempted to sign up for a karaoke@DAM subscription. Might acquire Tunebite Platinum for DRM removal.

Shiny!

Love how I can have two sound systems, and the OS will automatically switch outputs depending on which sound system I plug my headphones into.

Internet Explorer 8 corrupts downloads like a runaway train. True to tradition.

NVidia drivers need to be installed manually from the Device Manager.

Everything else seems to work: Firefox, WoW, SecureCRT, Proxifier, Steam.

Things left to try: Install PS3 Media Server, TVersity, CoreAVC, AviSynth, any Karaoke MP3+G filter to work with TVersity. Test CUDA acceleration. Play Portal, Left 4 Dead, CoD4.