Young People Are Inherently Beautiful

Picture from mingpaonews.com

Young people are inherently beautiful and they can get away with wearing their mom's boots from the 80s or 70s. The look is absofuckinglutely ghastly. But I guess youth and personality go a long way. They kind of look fine. Just don't try this at home.

Harry and Cheese Cake

Nikon D70, Nikon MF 50mm f1.4.

Amateur Photographer: Dan Chung Switched?

Award winning Guardian photographer Dan Chung, in an exclusive from Amateur Photographer, is alleged to switch back to Nikon after a decade with Canon. AP still holds dearly to its content and I guess its operation is still largely based on subscription and newsstand sales. As such I could not access the content online (because there is none out there?). I made a trip to the Grand Central area hoping that maybe I can read or buy this UK weekly publication the old fashioned way, but no luck there. Previously, on Dan Chung's blog, he does give accolades to D3 and goes on to say he's going to order a pair of them. I may need to check out Barnes & Nobles for this AP piece.

UPDATE: 11/17/2007
Just checked out Barnes & Nobles at Bayside, and they don't carry that magazine either. I guess not a lot of people here in US care about what amateur photographers in UK have to say.

Random Pictures

These two are from my library, as if I really have an image library. These are from my D70 NEF files converted using UFraw and GIMP. The thing with Ubuntu, it's so easy that you don't have to know what you are doing. Things just work, apparently my adulation over Ubuntu knows no bound, I totally forgot how my wifi didn't work just 24 hours ago. The whole Open Source thing is just great for cheapskate like me. I've read somewhere that the $199 gPC (green PC or Google PC?) at Walmart just got sold out.

Ubuntu 7.10

Just updated my basement server to Ubuntu 7.10
Linux mybox-desktop 2.6.22-14-generic #1 SMP Sun Oct 14 23:05:12 GMT 2007 i686 GNU/Linux

The blogger picture upload crashing seems to be gone.

But my wifi driver is not playing well with this kernel. It caused kernel panic when booting up. So I am now hard wired for the time being. On the other hand if I booted from an older kernel, the wifi just worked. Last time I unblacklisted the wifi driver, seems like this time, the kernel really can't stand that driver.

Wifi post, previously.

UPDATE (1/2/2008 and 4/27/2008):
I think ndiswrapper is now built-in in the GNOME menu. So all you have to do is to find the Windows INF file and dump it somewhere to use it. Again, they are making it easier to do wifi. Kudos to the developers.  ehhhhhh.  Not built-in, but I think if from Synaptic, you can type "ndis" to find the package and have it installed.  So, now, installing a Windows wireless driver is just a piece of cake instead of a pain in the butt.  Though this wireless feature doesn't even come out of the box in Hardy Heron, you still need to manually do so, and if you don't have a RJ-45 connection first, no worry, the ndiswrapper packages are on the Hardy Heron LiveCD, so just point your Synaptic manager there and you will be fine.

UPDATE (11/12/2007):

Get wifi working under my Ubuntu 7.10 box with kernel 2.6.22-14-generic #1 SMP (don't ask me I don't know what they mean, I just follow this thread from the ubuntu forum, the below is pretty much a rehash of the instruction found on that thread, kudos to the original poster m_bridge)

My card is the Trendnet 228PI with rtl8180 (or rtl8180L?) chipset. The module that comes with the distribution would cause kernel panic whenever I try to activate it. (Note: I don't know if WEP is a factor but I didn't test it without WEP)

The solution is to get ndiswrapper to nicely wrap around the driver designed for Windows. Don't say Windows is good for nothing. It's just a myth that Windows crashes left and right, I use XP and 2000, they don't crash. I digress. Remove the offending r8180 module. Configure the wlan, and that's it.

Here is the mini howto/cookbook (as I don't fully comprehend every step) from the thread mentioned above.

I have a RJ-45 wired network connection to do all these while the wireless connection is disabled.

Get ndiswrapper
System, Administration, Synaptic Package Manager
search for ndiswrapper, then check and install the found packages, in my case three of them.

Get NET8180.INF
Go to Realtek Taiwan and do some search on rtl8180, I downloaded the one that says for Windows 2000 version 1.73 here. Unzip and put it in some folder /home/me/8180/NET8180.INF

fire up your Terminal

1) see the rtl8180 module got loaded
$ lsmod | grep 818
see something with r8180
2) remove the offending module and blacklist it
$ sudo rmmod r8180
$ gksudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist
add this line at the bottom
blacklist r8180
save the file

3) Reboot machine and make sure the module not loaded anymore
$ lsmod | grep 818
there should be no results

4) Install the Windows driver NET8180.INF
$ sudo ndiswrapper - i /home/me/8180/NET8180.INF
$ sudo ndiswrapper -l
I get net8180 driver installed

5) load ndiswrapper module
$ sudo depmod -a
$ sudo modprobe ndiswrapper

6) configure your wireless network
click on the little network icon on the upper right hand corner next to the date (assuming you are using the default nautilus desktop, and that's the one I know and use). At this point I removed the appending X to the ESSID that I added in order to make it work in 7.04. No more appending extra character for the ESSID.

7) if the card is working, and it "should" then do the following
$ sudo ndiswrapper -m
$ gksudo gedit /etc/modules
append below at the end and save:
ndiswrapper

8) reboot and it "should" work.

Daniel Nutty Day-Lewis

And in America, the articulate use of language is often regarded with suspicion. Especially in the West. Look at the president. He could talk like an educated New Englander if he chose to. Instead, he holds his hands like a man who swings an ax. Bush understands, very astutely, that many of the people who are going to vote for him would regard him less highly if he knew how to put words together. He would no longer be one of them. In Europe, the tradition is one of oratory. But in America, a man’s man is never spendthrift with words.

So it's all an act?

I always think Day-Lewis is a bit nutty and Lynn Hirschberg's piece The Frontier's Man in The New York Times just confirmed that.

Random Thoughts

iMac, so cool it just freezes

It just works. Oh, really?

In addition to the usual seven deadly sins, I just got to admit schadenfreude is probably my eighth.

While people who deeply care about aesthetics and computing as a life style and above all credulous enough to believe that "it just works" are enjoying their you can't be too thin or too powerful aluminum iMac ... as a fine piece of paper weight, still others are contemplating to get their first ever non PC, non Mac machine this holiday season.

The Everex gPC is an interesting piece of desktop equipment selling at $199. The Asus Eee Pc sub notebook is fetching $399.99. Both run on some flavor of Linux. If they somehow decide to re-purpose themselves as some ugly paperweights, you can simply toss them out the window or to the garbage bin or the recycle bin, okay maybe not the Eee Pc. Unless one is some kind of accountant or financial analyst who will simply drop dead without Microsoft Excel, I can't see any reason why any causal user not using Linux.

NOTE: The hyperlinks are pretty arbitrary and nonsensical, which just reflect the state of mind that I am in. I still feel morose over the premature death of my G3 iBook.

UPDATE: 11/15/2007
Look like a firmware update fixed the problem. As discussed here.

Kickys Restaurant

Kickys Restaurant.

UPDATE: 1/25/2008
I can't wait to try out their new menu. Gone are the French elements, in are the more Pan-Asian dishes.

Full text from Yelp.

New comer restaurateur Po (no relationship with the Teletubbies, but equally adorable), a friend of mine, together with Chef Robert Coll, CEC and master sushi chef Ming Yu bring culinary excellence and fine dining on route 34. It offers a very clean modern French-American and Japanese menu, with an equally impressive decor to match, that aims to please and satisfy the most demanding diners.

We ordered the Atlantic Salmon, Chicken Teriyaki, Salmon Skin hand roll, and Sushi for two. And for dessert, we opted for Creme Brulee, a cup of Cappuccino and some ice cream. The salmon is moist and nicely crusted. The Chicken Teriyaki is Chef Robert's reinterpretation of this Japanese staple, quarter chicken with bones fused with a hint of ginger and mixed with vegetables and Teriyaki sauce. The sushi is on par with some of the best sushi I have had in the city. This is not your also-run sushi joint. And my 8-year old Alex's verdict on the Salmon skin roll is "I like it," and that's from one of the toughest and pickiest eater. Alex also likes the bathroom experience, he has fun with the automatic soap dispenser. I digress.

Since I know and love THE GUY, what I review might be biased, I don't know and I hope not. But the whole dining experience meets and exceeds our expectation. Po, don't hate me, but I do think you can use a bigger mug for the cappuccino and fill it to the top, for a second I thought that was an espresso. Except for the cappuccino, all the dishes are of ample size and generous portions, and more importantly they use fresh organic hormone-free ingredients, health nuts rejoice.

Oh, and the bread basket and the butter are just divine.

Kickys kick ass. I say give the new comer a try.

Some Macro Shot

Shot using a Nikon D70 with a manual Nikkor 35~105 mm

Apple Quietly Upgraded its MacBook

The MacBook now can max out to 4GB of RAM and has a 800 MHZ front size bus. I don't know what they mean but they sure sound great to my ear. Previously the maximum RAM is 2GB and the front side bus is 667MHZ.

As reported at macrumors.
From Apple Store.

Happy Halloween

Photographed by Mr. Harry. In Masker Orchards, October 14.

Clockwise from top left: Mr. Harry, Alex, Vivien, and Catherine. Shot by Jin using a Canon G3.

Canon EOS 1 D Mark III Recalled In UK?

While Nikon is gleefully congratulating itself for staying alive for some 90 years as an image technology leader topped with the introduction of D3 and D300 and a slow loading browser crashing (you have been warned) stamp sized Quicktime video, Canon is being judged rather harshly by Nikonians and Canonites alike on its handling of its newly released malfunctioning $4,500 Canon EOS 1D Mark III.

Canon really lost control of the message, assuming there is one, to its customers. Actually up until now, there is still no message from Canon to its users. If you go to its website, it's just business as usual. All we have is hearsay or a seemingly authentic memo from a Mr. Lee Bonniface of Canon UK to its retailers admitting there are some faulty Canon EOS 1D Mark III units. If Canon chooses not to talk to its customers directly, somebody else sure will, and usually not in the most flattering way. And from reading various sources like amateurphotograhy and Gizmodo, neither Canon UK nor Canon USA will or can confirm the authenticity of the letter. I think that's really the worst part.

I wonder what's going to happen to Mr. Lee Bonniface.

UPDATE: November 1, as reported by Rob Galbraith, Canon USA made announcement regarding the Canon EOS what is it, anyway. It's about time.

User Generated Content

User generated content reaches prime time TV. The new iPod Touch commercial by Nick Haley, an 18 years old English student just got broadcast on ABC's Desperate Housewives. His original Youtube video can be seen above. And the more polished one can be seen on Apple's iTunes page and here (no permalink?), and on TV as well.

Once in a blue moon, you have some brilliant user generated content from YouTube that rivals works from the creative departments of the most established ad agencies. Sometimes when ad agencies grow too big and too established, the creative juice may give way to bureaucracy and red tapes.

Reported from The New York Times.

Some pictures

Apple picking from last Sunday. The picture uploading process hasn't been smooth for the past hour or so. It's been crashing my box. So far only one picture got loaded. I don't know if it's Google's problem or my problem. Most likely problem on my side ....

From Inbox Trash Folder

Another storm in a teacup - this time it's about Martin Lee's article
in WSJ and, I think, the Chinese translation of the term "direct
engagement" used by Lee:

http://www.zonaeuropa.com/20071026_1.htm

TVB Jade, HK Cable TV News Channel 9 and Hong Kong Legislative
councillors have translated "direct engagement" in the article as
"直接干预", which I think is an over-translation, if not a wrong
translation.

The term 干预 [literally "intervention" in Chinese] carries a very
negative as well as sensitive meaning, especially to pro-Beijing
groups. They called Martin Lee a running dog and a traitor when they
staged a protest outside the Legislative Council Building.

In fact, in the context of Lee's 17 October 2007 artcle, the term
ought to be rendered as "直接对话" or "直接互动". Even "直接介入" would
be a
better translation than "直接干预" because any talk of intervention
from a
foreign power hits a raw nerve with patriotic Chinese citizens

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< Martin Lee chose his words carefully. Words like "intervention" or
"force China to ..." were avoided at all costs. Yet Jasper Tsang and
his comrades jumped at the opportunity to put words in Lee's mouth.
That's why I said it's a storm in a teacup.

Bye now. I'm leaving in a minute to attend the [redacted] in the capacity of [redacted].

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>


No, it's not a matter of storm in the tea cup, the local communists
hate Martin Lee so much that they used whatever means to attack him.

Lee's article published in the WSJ for sometimes, I wonder why those
local communists didn't aware that, until the [redacted] Tsang
Yuk Shing [redacted] Martin yesterday, I think Tsang is the only guy who
read the WSJ

For those Union [redacted] like Wong Kwok Hing, he used his
people's language that learnt during the cultural revoluation,
claiming Martin was "Ng Sam Kwai".

According to local author Mr To Kit, Ng has did the right things at
the right times, when the gang of "Li Zhi San" [redacted] the women in
Beijing, Ng should invite the Ching army to stop the massacre, like
the pro-vietnamese Combodia communists invited Vietnamese to stop Red
Combodia to kill the people.

For me, I do expect some changes or reform of Beijing Communist after
2008, just like South Korea have some changes after the 1984 Olympia

Enough bull-shit.

[redacted]

On being told that money doesn't buy happiness,
a wise guy once said, "But it upgrades despair
so beautifully!"
>
>
> Wait a minute, man.    As long as you enjoy
life and find some of the things around you
interesting, other worldly matters like marriage,
> career and even money don't matter.   
Money alone can't make you
> happy.
> 

>
> in term in gambling, I have already lost in
my [redacted], [redacted] and
> many, not to mention horse racing, 3T and
Football gambling.
[truncated]
> 

iPhone Dev Center

Apple is going to lead the way. But that's not going to stop the industrious hackers out there who are hell-bent to do it their way.

A tribute to iPhone hackers ....

Ubuntu 7.10 Available

Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon is available. I am upgrading mine online as I type. It's going to take some time. I expect some screw up here and there otherwise where is the challenge? Last night I tried to do my basement wi-fi connected box but no dice. It couldn't get past the preparing the upgrade line. I suspect I better hard wire that puppy to do the upgrade or burn a CD to do the upgrade, what do I know. As for the 7.04 with my wifi setup I have unblacklist and to pad the ESSID with an extra character. So that may go away with Gutsy Gibbon, where do they come up with names like this? The Upgrade really takes hours.

http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/upgrading

http://technical-itch.co.uk/2007/10/19/ubuntu-710-upgrade-first-impressions/

UPDATES: It went through without any problem. So there is no screw up to report about.

Notes to Self

GIMP doesn't do a good job in their File | Open department. But in fairness, the solution is just a search away. If you are a Linux guru it shouldn't be a problem (sadly I am not, so I have to search).

I have to via the interface do a Places | Connect to Server ...
pick Windows share under Service type
type in the ip address of the Windows PC
then able to see MYPICTURES as share (the folder is My Pictures)
your Windows Box will appear on the desktop. But GIMP can't access that.

After that then I can issue the below command, but only on the 2nd time that it wouldn't complain. Is it a bug, maybe, maybe not as I really don't have a solid grasp of what's happening.

1st time failed
mybox@mybox-desktop:~$ sudo smbmount //PC/MYPICTURES /mnt/winshare -o username=yourusername,password=yourpassword
Packet send failed to 169.254.255.255(137) ERRNO=Operation not permitted

2nd time succeeded
mybox@mybox-desktop:~$ sudo smbmount //PC/MYPICTURES /mnt/winshare -o username=yourusername,password=yourpassword
mybox@mybox-desktop:~$

Even you unmount the Windows PC on the desktop, your shared Windows folder will remain on the Linux (Ubuntu) file system, in my case /mnt/winshare where GIMP can access.

PHOTOPLUS 2007

There are no D3 samples here. The below are shot using my D70 or from one of the D2Xs' as seen from the picture below. The lenses used are either the 300mm or the 500mm fixed focal big glasses or my 18~70 kit lens; check the EXIF for more details.

Just another nutty, twisted Nikon shooter...

Nikon man in black. This one is shot using a 500mm lens.

She is one of the D3 mavens at the show. Shot using a D2Xs with a 300mm lens. The live view is operated in 4 simple steps. Turn the release mode button located on the top left hand side of the camera to Lv, press down the shutter release button to first lock up the mirror, now live view on LCD; press the shutter again to focus, now the LCD is blackout; press all the way down to get the picture.

Another D3 guardian/maven. He sits next to the lady shown above, guess who I asks the live view question.

Model/ballerina Irina for Joe McNally. The best model on the floor: classy, professional, and friendly.

The very animated Mr. Joe McNally. He ups the ante by doing some live shooting using the D3 and some speed lights from Nikon. It seems pretty easy ....

Mr. Joe McNally adjusting the flash. He is shooting tethered to a Mac, the JPEGs are shown on two monitors instantaneously.

Mr. Dave Black showing off his clean high ISO images on the big TV. His presentation is followed by Joe McNally's. Good showmanship and impressive images.

The show ends shortly after 4PM.

There are many many D3 previews and samples out there. so I don't bother to shoot yet another high ISO picture from D3.

Report from Wired.

Random Thoughts

Let the revolution continue ...

Charles Platiau/Reuters via The New York Times online.

You have to love the French people, the folks who bring us French Revolution, French kiss, French fries, the guillotine, and a strong sense of self entitlement. The French workers probably spend 60 percent of their time protesting work related exploitation (real or imagined), 39 percent of their time on paid vacation and the remaining 1% actually working, only if you include the 2-hour lunch.

Also, you can't fuck with the French. Apple has had great success selling locked iPhones in the US and elsewhere in Europe. But no, the French won't take any crap, not from President Sarkozy, and certainly not from Jobs. The French essentially tells Jobs to shove his locked iPhones up his arse .... So there are unlocked iPhones in addition to locked ones selling in France.

In another Apple iPhone related news, just when Apple board member Al Gore won Nobel Peace prize on his contribution to environmental issues, Greenpeace came up to spoil the party by alleging Apple selling poisonous iPhones. Personally I think facts are facts, if the iPhone does carry toxic substances I don't see why the fanboys have to defend Apple, maybe that's why they are called fanboys in the first place. It's good that we have Greenpeace, the perennial environmental complainer, to every now and then spoil the party. At least you are made more aware of the facts to make an informed decision. Say if you think your kids are dumb already and so it doesn't matter whether the toys are coated with lead paints, you are still going to buy them anyway.

"Has Steve really reinvented the phone?" from GreenpeaceVideo

Notes To Self

mybox@mybox-desktop:~/java$ java HelloWorldApp
Exception in thread "main" java.lang.ClassFormatError: HelloWorldApp (unrecognized class file version)
at java.lang.VMClassLoader.defineClass(libgcj.so.70)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass(libgcj.so.70)
at java.security.SecureClassLoader.defineClass(libgcj.so.70)
at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(libgcj.so.70)
at gnu.gcj.runtime.SystemClassLoader.findClass(libgcj.so.70)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(libgcj.so.70)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(libgcj.so.70)
at gnu.java.lang.MainThread.run(libgcj.so.70)


mybox@mybox-desktop:~/java$ sudo update-alternatives --config java

There are 3 alternatives which provide `java'.

Selection Alternative
-----------------------------------------------
1 /usr/bin/gij-wrapper-4.1
+ 2 /usr/lib/jvm/java-gcj/jre/bin/java
* 3 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun/jre/bin/java

Press enter to keep the default[*], or type selection number:

mybox@mybox-desktop:~/java$ java HelloWorldApp
Hello World!

More D3 In The Wild

This is again sourced from Nikonwatch.com which in turn got it from Luminance Landscape. The pictures were heavily processed in PhotoShop and have a specific look to them.

The guy, I mean James Russell is a professional photographer unlike me an armchair photographer who reads and talks about photography but rarely take any, or any good ones. Enjoy.

Irrational Exuberance Is Back In Full Force ...

eBay conceded it had grossly overpaid for Skype by about $1.43 billion.

eBay's Meg Whitman is largely credited to getting irrational exuberance back to silicon valley by acquiring Skype for $3.1 billion. Thank you Ms. Whitman.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Apple continues its onslaught with new product rollout every month, almost, in 2007. After got bumped by iPhone, Leopard is finally prowling into the spotlight on October 26, with 300 plus new features. And thank god there is only one version. I can never figure out what Vista one should buy or not buy. Is it home basic or home premium, is it business or ultimate? What the fuck?

Jobs has also just confirmed that there will be an SDK for iPhone/iPod Touch in February next year. Some hackers must be very very disappointed, where is the challenge now? Where is the underground allure of hacking the forbidden?

Notes to Self

I did not create the below files or scripts, it's more like I took them from the web see my prior ref here.

mybox@mybox-desktop:~$ cat .netrc
machine ftp-www.earthlink.net
login 1234@earthlink.net
password !@#$%^

mybox@mybox-desktop:~$ crontab -l
# m h dom mon dow command
01,31 * * * * /home/mybox/Scripts/up.sh


mybox@mybox-desktop:~/Scripts$ cat up.sh
#!/bin/bash
MyDate=`date`
MyIP=`curl -s http://myip.dk/ | egrep -m1 -o '[0-9]{1,3}\.[0-9]{1,3}\.[0-9]{1,3}\.[0-9]{1,3}'`
echo $MyIP > ~/Scripts/.MyIP.now
if !(/usr/bin/diff ~/Scripts/.MyIP.now ~/Scripts/.MyIP.then) ; then
sed "s/~~~MyIP~~~/$MyIP/g ; s/~~~date~~~/$MyDate/g" ~/Scripts/index.html_source > ~/Scripts/index.html
echo -e "put index.html" | /usr/bin/ftp -v ftp-www.earthlink.net
cp ~/Scripts/.MyIP.now ~/Scripts/.MyIP.then
fi


mybox@mybox-desktop:~/Scripts$ cat index.html_source
<html>
<head>
<title>~~~MyIP~~~</title>
<meta http-equiv="Refresh" content="7;URL=http://~~~MyIP~~~/">
</head>

<body>
<p>
<p>

Good things come to those who wait 7 seconds...
<p>
you are being redirected to <a href="http://~~~MyIP~~~/">my basement server.</a>

<br><br>
</body>
<hr>
<p><i>Page last updated on ~~~date~~~</i></p>
<hr>
</html>

What Not To Watch On TV

If you live an indolent life and have a taste for unsavory TV shows, then you wouldn't have missed Tim Gunn's latest foray into yet another make-over TV show, "Tim Gunn's Guide to Style."

The show takes a page from TLC's "What Not To Wear" or actually rip all the pages from the entire playbook. "What Not To Wear" is cheerfully hosted by Stacy and Clinton, the two style mavens who dish out presumptuous directives on their style challenged to be made over candidates. The show is light hearted, almost educational and the two hosts have great chemistry. "Tim Gunn's Guide to Style" is "What Not To Wear"'s ugly twin sister, the show is unwatchable. The show already jumps the shark from the get go. What's the deal with raiding the underwear drawer? It really crosses the line from gleefully putting down the candidate to disturbingly disgusting. I don't know what's wrong with Mr. Tim Gunn's co host Veronica Webb, she seems to have jaundice or something. Her on screen complexion is perpetually yellowish and I am sure it's not my TV. I wish her good health and good luck. As to Mr. Gunn, I guess he better off doing Project Runway and leaves the make-over job to Stacey and Clinton's What Not To Wear.

Project Runway.
Tim Gunn's Guide To Style.
What Not To Wear.

Se, Jie

"Se, Jie" is director Lee Ang latest meditation on celluloid on the themes of lust, love and loss. Set in World War II Hong Kong and Shanghai, the movie chronicles a group of college student activists who are no longer satisfied with their peripheral contribution to the war, namely raising money for the resistance by performing political drama on stage, decide to spend the summer to play real spies. Their goal? To kill a high level political turncoat Mr. Yee (Leung Chiu Wai) who happens to be stationed in Hong Kong. Their plan? Leading lady Wang Jiazhi (Tang Wei) would play seductress Mrs. Mak to lure Yee out of his lair and kill him. Revolution is not a dinner party. Things can go wrong do go wrong. Mr. Yee leaves Hong Kong abruptly and the plan falls apart. It isn't until years later that the plan resumes in Shanghai and gets carried out to its tragic but not unexpected ending.

Lee's films always have that exquisite quality, it's subtle but it's there. Tang when playing Wang playing Mrs. Mak always appears in beautiful Cheung Sam, or in her iconic form fitting overcoat topped with a bucket hat. You see Tang in a beautiful Cheung Sam, not a beautiful Cheung Sam on Tang. The wardrobe and the production design never overwhelm the characters. They just serve their purpose, earnestly and quietly in the background where they belong. What's not so subtle is the much talked about on screen NC-17 performance. <BS>Leung's balls are rumored to be nominated for best supporting actor, and not to be outdone, Tang's erected nipples and bushy armpits are in competition for best supporting actress.</BS> They are as erotic and acrobatic as they are repressive and melancholic. I think those are the most brutally honest sex scenes I have ever seen on big screen. Leung's Mr. Yee to Tang's Mrs. Mak is lust at first sight, but through sexual intimacy they get to reveal their naked selves to each other and to themselves. It's almost like how much do you know a person if you don't ever have sex with him? The answer is not much. In their first sexual encounter, it was almost like rape: it's forced, quick and both are partially clothed. And Mr. Yee doesn't even let himself be seen as he was doing it from behind. As the relationship progresses the dynamic changes, the last sex scene, Mrs. Mak is on top, in control, is able to put a pillow over Mr. Yee's face to do the coming while going, and if she chooses, she could have killed him by using his gun hanging on one of the bed posts. But she chooses not to. So that is it. She is done as a would be assassin. She falls for her target. In the end, Wang's forbidden love is destined to be doomed.

Many people think that Leung's performance here is underwhelming, I for one appreciate his rather stoic, understated presence. I am still mesmerized by his performance in Wong Kar Wai's "Days of Being Wild" in which Leung appears just before the end credit rolls with no dialog whatsoever. I think it's one the most beautiful movie endings. Leung, despite his size does have a screen presence, what he lacks in size he more than makes up with his eyes. He's one of the few actors that can do more with less using his eyes only. In his other performances, mostly collaborations with Wong Kar Wai, he seems to be playing superstar Leung Chiu Wai playing whatever character that he is playing. In "Se, Jie," he just plays Mr. Yee straight up, the charming superstar Leung is gone for good. Tang, as a newcomer, delivers the wide range of emotions demanded for this role and carries the movie from beginning to end. That also shows director Lee's superb direction. I have never seen Michelle Yeoh or even Chow Yun Fat that good until in "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon."

Lee, Leung and Tang deserve Oscar nomination for their no holds barred direction and performance

I can't even come up with a title

Taken from my Inbox

Well done! That is so true. The Japanese were dumb enough to attack Pearl Harbour (and Hitler was even dumber by declaring war on the US because of the axis thing). The giant, with its demographic and industrial might, was awakened. Without the help from America, China would have to sue for peace at one time or another. As a leader, Jiang must have thought about it and must have done something. Of course, after the war, all such evidence was destroyed and disowned. Success has a thousand mothers, but failure is always an orphan. Wang Jing Wei, for his part, also had big character fault. He only sank deeper and deeper. Do you know that he was always petitioning to his Japanese overlords that his regime should declare war on US too (following Pearl Harbour)! It was always a very complex story. The good thing about the movie is that: inadvertently, it reminds us of that part of Chinese history during that time. Who are the good guys and who are the bad guys? Are they really so clear cut?


> Recently I watched many DVDs that I bought in Taiwan, about WWII in China, Burma etc. I have some other insight, as long
> as China alone cannot beat Japanese, why should China still defense, if KMT surrender, or co-operate with Japanese, like
> Chairman Wang Jin Wei or his senior officers, like Tony Leung. Then Japanese will concentrate their efforts in fucking US,
> Pearl Habor attrack may happen earlier in 1939 or 1940, then will make Uncle Sam get into a lot of trouble earlier.
>
> And I just wonder, China will get less civilians or troops being murdered and more US GI will be killed.
>
> As in 1939 to 1942, certainly sooner or later Japan must be in confrontation with US, why should we still defense, like
> Kingdom of Siam, their King co-operate with Japanese, and less Thai people have been murdered. (As I watch a documentary
> from Dept of Defense of US), the King of Siam seems more clever or more care for their people than Mao or CKS.
>
> Enough bull shit, [redacted], what's your idea ?


I watched it last week. It was a good movie. The sex scenes were very explicit. Okay, if you want to watch a skin flick, go watch a skin flick. In one of the scenes, you could see Tony Leung's balls, not to mention Tang Wei's erect nipples all the time. Was this necessary? I had some doubts. It could be that the director's focus was on lust. Then what about the political background of that time. Tony Leung really had not much to do in the movie, If I were the director, I would have given a bigger role to Tony. But the downside is the movie won't do too well at the box office. It is always a tough sell. Come to think of it. How many people know what is going on in China at that time? In the States, a lot of kids think the Americans teamed up with the Germans to fight the Russians in the Second World War. In China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, things are not much better. That said, I could tell that the director gave a lot of heart in the production of this movie. Great attention to details. You should watch the movie in a cinema. In [redacted], at 9:30 in the morning, it only cost me hkd 45.> > > [redacted]>

A Tribute to iPhone Developers

Or Hackers.



This should make the other Steve proud.

Fall Jacket

Bottom Photo: Ryan Pfluger

Ruby Lin (literature and economics) is in a Balenciaga by Nicolas Ghesquière wool jacket, $2,575, and scarf with silver chains, $5,595. At Balenciaga, 542 West 22nd Street. Trunk LTD. T-shirt, $90. At www.trunkltd .com. Lucky Brand Jeans, $98. At Lucky Brand Jeans stores. Melet Mercantile belt. Yarbourough ring.

The top one is what Jcrew calls the Lexington jacket, $250. The bottom one is from Balenciaga costing $2,575; picture and words sourced from The New York Times. Jcrew picture from their online store.

The Balenciaga jacket as seen on runway.

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

The piracy paradox.

From myself.

New York City Cultural Desert

The fact that there is only one movie house playing "Sie, Je" reaffirms me that New York City is a cultural desert ... or the NC-17 really limits the release, there is simply not enough audience for a foreign movie in Chinese.

A Review, A Cad And A Femme Fatale Simmer from The New York Times by Manohla Dargis for the New York Times.

Random Post

Kodak 400nc. When you are serious of making pictures, you sometimes shoot film still.

Mid-Autumn Festival

Shot using a Nikon D70, MF Nikkor 50mm f1.4, on-camera flash set at manual at 1/2 output. NEF converted to JPEG using UFRaw. No manipulation.

Accidental Reading

From the New Yorker: Shouts & Murmurs: Greenspan and Simpson on Writing by Andy Borowitz. published on October 1, 2007.

Untitled

Shot using a D70 with a MF Nikkor 50mm f1.4, guesstimate on exposure, ISO 200. UF-RAW converted NEF to JPEG.

Apple New MacBook

This is sourced from 9to5mac.com

Slim Aluminum MacBooks Coming Soon from Apple

Submitted by Cleve Nettles on Fri, 09/21/2007 - 10:02.

We have received some information about some upcoming Apple laptops - we think they are MacBooks but aren't 100 percent sure they aren't the fabled Pro slim line.
What we know:

• Black aluminum and silver aluminum (like MacBook Pros) have been seen
• They are considerably slimmer than current MacBook and even a bit more than MacBook Pros
• The screen reaches much closer to the edges than current MacBooks but is the same size as current MacBooks - indicating a somewhat smaller footprint
• The keyboards resemble Apple's new Bluetooth Keyboard
• There is something strange about the touchpad (more on this to come)
• They are set to be priced extremely aggressively
• While they are dense, overall they are lighter than the current MacBooks

If it's as alleged, a MacBook model then the price point should remain the same meaning relatively affordable, if it'in between the MacBook and MacBook Pro then it can still be very attractive depending on the configuration, the maximum RAM and the video memory, so on and so forth.

New OS X, Leopard is limping to come out in October after being pushed back by the iPhone, that can be 10 or 41 days from now. If new hardware comes out with Leopard, that would be very interesting. And I have to give it to SPJ for keep cranking out price gouging worthy consumer obsessed items day in and day out.

Sony ImageStation Obituary

ImageStation bites the dust. On an otherwise sunny and pleasant morning, Sony gives us the sad news. ImageStation is formally a failure. I always find their logo strange, like a red pepper? R.I.P. ImageStation. What follows is ImageStation's obituary via email. Actually nobody really cares as nobody uses it except one of my friends.

Dear [redacted],

On February 1st, 2008 Sony will close the ImageStation® online photo service. The closure will happen in phases and most site features such as upload, sharing and shopping will be disabled on November 12th 2007.

We sincerely appreciate your being an ImageStation member and we want to help you find a new home for your images, so we've worked with the online photo service Shutterfly. Together we've made it easy to transfer your pictures to Shutterfly so you can take advantage of their online storage, sharing, prints and photo gifts. If Shutterfly isn't for you, that's OK-we've put together several ways to reunite you with your images. Just click on the link below to review all your options.

http://www.imagestation.com/shutdown.html

Please choose the option(s) that is right for you before February 1st, 2008 because at that time the ImageStation web site will be permanently closed and any images left behind will be deleted.

For more information on the closure of the ImageStation site, please visit our frequently asked questions:

http://www.imagestation.com/closingfaq

Thank you again for being an ImageStation member and rest assured we remain committed to providing you with exceptional customer service throughout this transition.

Sincerely,



You have received this email to notify you of the ImageStation closure.
Sony ImageStation, 16765 West Bernardo Drive, San Diego, CA 92127
Privacy Policy/Your California Privacy Rights | Legal/Trademark
© 2007 Sony Electronics Inc. All Rights Reserved.

MTA Gets Cellular

Daniel Barry/New York Times

When in the subway, nobody can hear you scream. "Can you hear me now? fuck no." "I can't fucking call nobody down here?" "Where are my bars? I thought they raise 'em?"

Just when I thought the MTA is determined to stay in the 1960s when cellphone was non existent, then they came out with this half baked cellular plan for us riders: cellular service in the subway stations but not in the tunnel. For the cell phone happy set and the luddites, both can claim victory and both can't be completely happy.


From the NYT.

SPJ Subpoenaed by SEC

While Steven P. Jobs is busy gouging the Europeans in Germany, England, France and whatnots, he's been subpoenaed by SEC concerning options backdating according to Bloomberg, details as reported by Yahoo news. SPJ is not the target of the investigation but it can't be good news for Apple.

Hardest working CEO in Germany.

Deep Thoughts and Readings

The most read article is ... anything written by yours truly, and some minor pieces by some others like from The New Yorkers.

The Most Read Article of The New Yorker goes to A Critic At Large: Candid Camera, The Cult of Leica, by Anthony Lane, published September 24, 2007. The more things change, the more they stay the same. At least that's some of those Leica die-hards want or until Leica pulled off with a digital themselves, the M8.

Another shorter but no less interesting piece entitled The Privacy Paradox by James Suroweicki which makes the case that copycat of the fashion industry is actually good for the industry and any counter measure in terms of legislation may actually do more harm than good, in short, the cure is badder than the disease. The latest fashion war against copycat is waging all the way to the highest temple of legislation, that is the Congress. On the street level, Anna Sui is handing out Wanted T-shirt of caricatures of Forever 21 founders who allegedly are guilty of ripping off runway pieces by boldface designers like Ms. Sui herself and selling them at a fraction of the original's price to people who want high fashion but not the high price.

That makes me think of all the copyright and intellectual property rights on the Web. My brain is not big enough to address let alone solve this problem but then it doesn't stop me from blogging about it. I think it's really low to steal someone's post and treat it as one's original, it's like counterfeits that pretend to be the real ones, it's just wrong and illegal. What irks and fascinates me the most is that some of the posts that got pilfered aren't even great or anything. And even some paper, allegedly steals from bloggers, you know or I know it's bad when the paper, of all the bloggers they can choose to steal from in the whole wide web, is stealing from some blogger who can't even blog. That's just very disturbing. The day that my post is stolen will be the end of civilization as we know it, not because the act of stealing per se but because of the bad choice.

Then there is this whole fair use gray area. I personally always use other's jpegs and I normally give attribution if I don't forget or too tired or confused to put it. But does it make it OKAY though? Or if your site has all those crazy Google ads, does it make your site commercial (even we know the only persons clicking those ad links are you and your dog, I personally tried it but got busted by Google for suspicious clicks), can you still claim non commercial use of some images you get from the web? Or like embedding songs on the web? I don't really know. My web doctrine is to give attribution whenever you can.

More on knockoffs.

TimesSelect Obituary

R.I.P TimesSelect. Once they have permalinks on their articles, I know it's about time they end this TimesSelect thingy. WSJ is soon going to be free for all. Maybe I should stop subscribing the dead tree edition, so every Tuesday, I have less paper to recyle. Plus I don't have to endure the terrible color printing of their print edition. It's like every photograph that comes with Cathy Horyn's article will get messed up by default. This shoddy Times standard should not be tolerated by us subscribers. But then our subway system is so 1960s where underground cell or Internet connection is nonexistent. All right, I guess I will have to keep the paper edition, thanks to our antiquated NYC subway system.

Here is the TimesSelect Obituary. R.I.P. TimesSelect.

Dear Home Delivery Subscriber,

We are ending TimesSelect, effective today. This will not affect any services you are already receiving as a home delivery customer.

The Times's Op-Ed and news columns are now available to everyone free of charge, along with Times File and News Tracker. In addition, The New York Times online Archive is now free back to 1987 for all of our readers.

Why the change?

Since we launched TimesSelect, the Web has evolved into an increasingly open environment. Readers find more news in a greater number of places and interact with it in more meaningful ways. This decision enhances the free flow of New York Times reporting and analysis around the world. It will enable everyone, everywhere to read our news and opinion - as well as to share it, link to it and comment on it.

All other benefits of home delivery remain the same. You will continue to have complimentary access (100 articles every month) to the complete online Archive back to 1851. For additional benefits, including our All Access suite of digital products, click here: http://www.nytimes.com/allaccess.

We thank you for your support of TimesSelect, and hope you continue to enjoy The New York Times in all its electronic and print forms.

For more information, including answers to frequently asked questions, click here:

http://www.nytimes.com/marketing/ts


Sincerely,

Vivian Schiller
Senior Vice President & General Manager
NYTimes.com
________________________________________________________________________
ABOUT THIS E-MAIL

This is a one-time e-mail about your subscription to TimesSelect.

NYTimes.com
620 8th Avenue
New York, NY 10018

Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company

IBM Frees Us From The Tyranny That Is Microsoft Office

Or Does it?

I really don't like the idea of personal word processing, spreadsheet and database. Any such office suite, individual or bundled together from Microsoft or otherwise, is just pure evil in the office environment. Who needs Word? Let's just have a simple text editor, write in html via blog or wiki. Most people aren't writing any document that needs fancy features say table of contents, index or such. Excel spreadsheet and database for PC users? Please, they just mess up the data and scattered garbage all over the network and on the harddrive. If users need anything, the right way to do it is to custom build it from some SQL server and deliver to the users. Never mess with spreadsheet or PCish database like Access. And the big wigs love PowerPoint. I mean for Pete's sake, just type some words on some slides and show people, I never understand the appeal of PowerPoint. Just say no to office (non)productivity suite, that's my ideal office setting. But it's not going to happen.

So I really don't care too much about IBM's offering free download of some office software. Office software, some invention that shouldn't have happened but happened. Most workers would be so much happier and productive without them. (The New York Times get on the permalink program, good for them)

Nikon D3 Samples From The Moose

He took a few here and here in his blog. Again sourced from Nikonwatch.com, a web site that doesn't talk about Nikon watches (do they even exist?) but call itself Nikon watch.

UPDATE: A couple hours after the above link, Moose's Wordpress is totally overwhelmed.

UPDATE: Moose has created a D3 section for you D3 suckers out there.

Thom Browne

Photo: Marcio Madeira from men.style.com

Is Thom Browne a great American men's designer or is he Pee-wee Herman in disguise? Scratch that, the real life Pee-wee. Either way you can't help but notice his works and him. He actually practices what he preaches.

Notes to Self

We have LAMP installed. Now let's tackle Apache. How to configure your Apache (Apache2 2.2.3-3.2ubuntu0.1)

There are myriads of Howto's out there but this one is mine.

Fire up your firefox, at the URL, type http://localhost/ or http://127.0.0.1/ you should see some website. Good. Now configure the website.

To create your lame or state of the art web site:-
Change Apache default site to your own. Your index.html is going to be stored in /home/some_user/public_html/ (note replace some_user with user name in your system)

Fire up your terminal, call it terminal cutie
now type the following to copy the default site to mysite.

sudo cp /etc/apache2/sites-available/default \ /etc/apache2/sites-available/mysite

Fire up another terminal, call it terminal cutier
now type the following to change the configuration, you can # or rem out the original line before changing it.

gksudo gkedit /etc/apache2/sites-available/mysite

Change DocumentRoot to point to the new location, /home/some_user/public_html/
Change the Directory directive, replace <Directory /var/www/> to <Directory /home/some_user/public_html/>

UPDATE: oh, and take out the Indexes to disable automatic indexing of directory, that's a personal preference of me. I did that by adding # in the front to rem out the original.

#Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews Options FollowSymLinks MultiViews

Save the file.

Now deactivate the old site (the default) and activate the new one, mysite
From terminal cutie, type

sudo a2dissite default && sudo a2ensite mysite

To create an index.html under /home/some_user/public_html/
From terminal cutie, type

echo '<b>Hello World!</b>' > \ /home/some_user/public_html/index.html

Finally restart apache by typing at terminal cutie

sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

Now point your browser to http://localhost/ you should see Hello World! I know I did.

Original reference from here.

Notes to Self

How to setup LAMP in Ubuntu 7.04 fiesty fawn. (LAMP is Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP)

There are myriads of guides out there, but this one is mine.

As far as I know, which means not much at all, the Ubuntu way is rather easy. Everything you do is going to be GUI driven, and you don't have to know a lot to do a lot. But if there is some wrinkles, you are pretty much screwed. And then you really have to know what you are doing.

System / Administration / Synaptic Package Manager
You will be prompted to Enter your password to perform administrative tasks

From Synaptic Package Manager, Edit/Mark Packages by Task...
A dialogue window asks Which tasks should be performed by your computer?
Mark LAMP server and follow the onscreen instructions.

And you are done.

Untitled

shot with my lowly D70 and MF 50 mm f1.4.

I Want My Dog Back

SWF seeks thugs to kill.

When the dog's gone, it's gone for good. Nothing can bring it back.

After a traumatic New York incident, Jodie Foster's Erica Bain is not what she used to be or what she thinks she used to be. Or she totally lost it. The unfortunate incident brings out the blood thirsty vigilante in her and nothing stays the same anymore.

I don't know since when but Foster has come to represent on the big screen the intelligent white female who refuses to be victimized and more than often a fearsome motherly protector of the young and helpless, think "Panic Room" and "Flightplan." Foster just can't do no wrong or so it seems. She is the only female star in today's Hollywood that can actually open a movie.

Disclosure: I have not seen the movie "The Brave One," but that doesn't prevent me from writing about it. The movie is rated R for rather silly one liner.

Read what A.O.Scott has to say.

Notes to Self

The harbingers, geeks, cheapskates of Linux: How to set up a dynamic IP web server in your basement.

By Henry H. Lu and by Jason Bailey(?) circa year 1996 and 2001. I did it some years ago and got hacked into. And I never recovered until now.

Nikon D3 Samples

As a 3rd rate blogger, the best I can do is to recycle the news.

Here's is a post sourced from Nikonwatch. Nikon comes out with some samples from D3 and D300. The D3 samples are all shot with the newly AF-S 24~70mm f2.8G, except one that is shot with the AF-S Nikkor 85mm f1.4. The D300 has only 2 samples, both are done using the AF-S DX Nikkor 17~55mm f2.8G.

The D3 samples are here page in Japanese (page in English) and the D300 samples are here. Enjoy.

Breaking: "Lust, Caution" Won Golden Lion

Ang Lee's erotic spy thriller "Lust, Caution" won the top prize Golden Lion award for best picture.

I hope the winning is not tainted in any way or form as Zhang Yimou, also a Chinese, was one of the 7-member jury. And the win was characterized as "surprise" as in unworthy? Related news from yahoo.com.

Thom Browne

Well protected from the elements or even a possible light kick in between the legs. By Thom Browne. Photo by Hiroko Masuike for the New York Times.

A piece by fashion critic high priestess Cathy Horyn