I'll be exporting my entries over, but things like my moods and hypnotunes will most likely be lost. So I'll probably keep the old site up for reference purposes.

Page regeneration on this site was also getting very slow (when posting comments, etc) so removing all those plugin code was also a good idea. At least now I have a somewhat clean slate to build my Doukutsu Monogatari theme.

There's actually a utility called MPTray that lets you start MediaPortal with the MCE Remote's Green button. And since I only use the remote for MediaPortal, that led me to uninstall HIP and the replacement MCE IR driver.

One interesting development though is a new MediaPortal plugin that caters for the HIP/MCE IR Replacement/MCE Remote combination here. However it requires a newer, more unstable version of MediaPortal not yet released to the public, so that pretty much puts it out of the running until a new stable version is released.

Now, all I need to figure out is how to keep my VGA fan from spinning loudly while MediaPortal runs in fullscreen mode.

SpeedFan has a function that lets you change the clock speed based on CPU load, but it didn't seem to work.

After scouring the net for a bit, I found a link to RM Clock via Guru3D. It somehow works on the power management features of the CPU/motherboard. So I set it to use a Power Saving profile that I had set to throttle the CPU to 50% when a standby/hibernate command is issued.

Either that made it work, or as Az aptly mentioned, a Systems Engineer solution of 'keep trying till it works'. :P

Yippie. Will test this further at my usual clock of 3.75GHz.

a [Hamachi] fallback: [OpenVPN]. i think i've set up my vpn server just nicely. now all i need are some guinea pigs.

i need to start working on my abandoned projects, namely the garage and myuucon. who knows, they might become secondary earners.

here's a shout out to all plumbers and electricians! :)

it seems to work if I drop my overclock to 3.6GHz, but my wi-fi connection becomes erratic after that. haven't thoroughly tested it on stock settings, but i definitely need to overclock on my gaming machine. :P

i'll just have to wait for the remaining components for a proper htpc.

anyways, the tw-light thing we tried earlier failed catastrophically. azuan's ships were self-destructing upon respawn, so we didn't even get a chance to play a proper game. hopefully the developers will fix it. seems that they might try using a third party network library.

also, sydney photos are up! here's the link: http://www.bangsar.net/gallery/syd0608. i usually integrate pictures into the entry, but in this case the albums are nested, so nothing will show. too lazy to write myself a parser. :P

sunday saw me started on my two washing machine intake project. while i've assembled all the parts a few times (acquired from Home-Fix) it's still incomplete cuz it still leaks despite the amount of Teflon i put on it. was supposed to try again today, but then i found this: http://timewarp.sourceforge.net/. me and azuan will be online more often now. :P

i was also fiddling with my MCE remote, trying to get it to work with MediaPortal. so far, i've tried a few configurations, but can't quite get what i want exactly. MediaPortal natively supports the remote, but since my pc is not a full htpc yet, there's no way to run/invoke MediaPortal in the first place. on the other hand, i can install HIP with the MCE remote plugin, but that means i'll have to reset the MediaPortal key assignments. so close, yet so far.

at the same time, i'm also fiddling with the remote's PC on/off button, which lets me put the PC on S3 standby mode via the remote, but so far i'm having trouble getting the PC back on again (well, it turns on, but as a complete boot instead of a resume from standby). Research shows i might have some non-ACPI compliant drivers, so i need to try and unplug as many devices as possible and see if the problem persists. if it does, it might mean a windows xp reinstall. we'll see how it goes.

S3 standby is desired for HTPCs because it lets your computer standby with minimal current. everything is turned off including fans, except your RAM which needs to store your session data before the suspend. It's basically similar to the Hibernate feature, but with your data in RAM rather than the hard drive. both types are actually part of ACPI.

so that XP reinstall is very possible. cuz how cool is it to be able to turn on and off your pc with a remote? :D

[ edit ]

because TimeWarp is such a huge download, and i only want to play the SuperMelee component, i'm going to get its TW-Light version instead.

anyways, i'm now at Gnome 2.14. and i didn't read the upgrade FAQ. :P and i think my dependencies are shot (i just select the first option in pkgdb -F without realising there are others). so the server is pretty bloated right now. every morning i find the server running out of swap space, and i'm not sure what causes it. guess it's time to take out that 256MB ram and replace it with my spare 2GB set.

mom and i are still in cold war mode. oh well.

or since his behavior is rather childish, we can treat him the same way you discipline a child? or perhaps some quick counseling will suffice?

the drive home takes approximately 1 1/2 hours. no problem. lots of chit chat along the way. so far so good.

then we get to a jammed junction near sunway. it's a shortcut. we cut in. she keeps talking, telling me to look out for this and that. fine.

then i was a little slow in closing the gap in front of me. a car cuts in. not so fine anymore. she starts chiding me, condescendingly mocking my driving. why am i so slow? why did i let the car in? grrr.

so just to continue the conversation in a lighter tone, i replied that the girl in the passenger seat was staring at me and i just stared back. then she starts attacking that fact, saying i'm easily distracted, saying things that make you feel like the whole day of keeping her company was a damned waste of time. telling me how girls distract me so easily, and how i've lost my Iman. and she keeps going on and on while i'm trying to negotiate lane switches because this car that just cut in was just acting fuctup.

so i snapped. just because i let one car cut in doesn't mean i'm a bad driver. heck, if you think my driving is so bad, go drive yourself to some remote kampung in selangor. why make me haul myself there, wanting to help you out since you're soooo old and helpless and all that, then start nagging me like i don't deserve to be in the driver's seat?

and while we're on the subject of iman, maybe i already have gone down the wrong path. maybe i'm doomed to go to hell and burn for eternity. yeah, that girl took one look into my eyes and sucked my soul out. please lah, she's not even that good looking. if i set my standards that low i might be hitched by now. and i thought you were worried about me still being single?

but you might be right. i am easily manipulated by the opposite sex. moms included.

hooray for doukutsu! looks like i'll need to replay the game in order to get all the captures i need for my new theme. oh well, it's just another 4 hours, give or take.

hooray for dota! me go lookie at dota forums for game mechanics, as advised by rising expert fish.

now, back to 1920x1200 gridwars. :)

Some interesting spam: http://www.phantomplate.com/

I need a new theme. Thinking Doukutsu.

To celebrate, the gang and I took our machines to Bodhi Tree for a day of LAN fun! While it was supposed to start in the morning, I went to visit my dear cousin at SJMC, so I was rather late and missed a round of DotA. But the company's good, the food's good, and I still managed to clock in a few hours of DotA, and Midtown Madness 2. MM2 is old, but such a superbly fun game. I was playing with my face streaming with tears due to the constant laughter. It's too bad Microsoft didn't release MM3 for the PC.

Anyway, as part of finding an alternative for MM2, I'm on my way to acquire Micro Machines V4, which is basically.. racing those tiny cars across household terrains. I played the Micro Machines 2 demo a long time ago, and had some nice memories of it. Another game that I liked was Re-Volt, which lets you race RC cars. But if I recall correctly the network play was a little problematic.

During the LAN party, Az passed me a copy of Doukutsu Monogatari, which is a Japanese freeware RPG side-scroller game that was translated to English (i.e. Cave Story). So I got hooked and finished it today. :P While the graphics presentation is retro, the game design is awesome and attention was paid to detail like character animations and scroll effects. The plot is riveting, and is quite... adult. Adult as in you can expect elements as you would expect from adult fiction, minus the sex. :P And blood. :P Anyways, I loved the stereo soundtrack. Might just try to rip it.

Post LAN party: wedding in Gombak.

So it's (actually relative to this post, was) Saturday. My company finally adopted a 5-day week policy. No more wasting weekends at the office, yippie! Had lunch with Fish and Khay Hoi then mahjong then balik for Doukutsu and Crimsonland (survival score: 2.6m, just 200k shy of Fish's score).

The highlight of the day was having played MOHAA online with Fish. We used Hamachi to create a zero-configuration VPN (our network name is #bangsar, what else? :D). Hamachi works like most chat programs, except that its main purpose is to create virtual LANs. Yummy! That also means I can turn off my PvPGN server too, since Hamachi supports Warcraft III as well.

A list of Hamachi games connectivity guides can be found here.

Oz pics still en route. :P