iphoting's Sink

From the passengers’ point of view, driving has always been safe and easy, up until I have become a driver myself. Most of the time, passengers have no access to the minds of the driver while he is driving.

Over the past month, I have had thoughts such as, “that was close!”, and “a little more and I’ll crash”. Driving is, in my opinion, rather dangerous if the driver was distracted. Personally, I believe that as drivers, we go though many close shaves from accidents. The fact that an accident happens is because both parties reacted too slow or is not responsible enough in avoiding a crash. Oh course, there will be drivers who pass the burden of safety to other drivers by driving recklessly and carelessly.

I’ll always be on a look out for dangerous drivers and stay far away from them. They are an accident waiting to happen.

For those you who make frequent comments on my blog posts would have noticed that reCAPTCHA is employed to stop spam. Recently, I’ve come across a paper by them, published in Science, that speaks of the results they have achieved – human computation.

They did a comparison page between the results generated by humans from reCAPTCHA and OCRs and the results are rather amazing. Your solving of simple CAPTCHA indeed helps digitise books by tapping into redundant human resource.

In addition, they also did an article for Science which details the results of the reCAPTCHA project. Do take a quick peek, it’s an interesting read.

After having my TA-088 v3 PSP-2000 Slim Piano Black lie on my table for most part of this year, I’ve finally found something for it to do. Keeping a close eye on PSP Updates, I saw a post that talks about a new release of CFWEnabler that works with 5.03 version of the original firmware. Some weeks back, a new discovery by some people about a tiff exploit by the name of ChickHen which allows the loading of homebrew software.

These 2 discovery is extremely significant in the PSP world as this will finally allow PSP-3000 and PSP-2000 TA-088 v3 users to exercise their right to run game backups.

If you indeed have one of the abovementioned devices, the procedure to enable this cool unsupported feature is pretty complex but doable compared to previous methods.

Requirements:-
1) PSP Slim 2000 (TA-088 v3)
2) PSP original firmware version 5.03 (exactly, not newer, not older)

Files:-
Follow the 3 links as mentioned to get them.
1) OFW v 5.03
2) ChickHen enabler R2
3) CFWEnabler

Instructions:-
1. Ensure that your OFW is at 5.03. Check under system settings. To upgrade, place the EBOOT.PBP into a folder named UPDATE under X:/PSP/GAME.
2. Execute the update by launching it from the game menu.
3. Once the update is complete, proceed to delete the 5.03 update files.
4. Unpack the ChickHen R2 archive and copy the ChickHen folder under either Slim or Phat folders into X:/PSP/PHOTO.
5. Unpack CFWEnabler 3.50 and copy the CFWEnabler folder into X:/PSP/GAME.
6. Go to the photoviewer, select the ChickHen folder and scroll all the way down to the .tiff file and wait for the screen to turn green. If nothing happens or the green screen fails to appear, try again. It took me three times before it crashed.
7. The PSP will automatically reboot and start after the green screen.
8. Go to system settings and check the system version. It should read 5.03 ChickHen.
9. Once the version string contains the ChickHen phrase, go to the game menu and launch CFWEnabler.
10. It will request to write some files into the flash. Just say yes and follow instructions. PSP will reboot.
11. Go to system settings and check for firmware version. It should now read 5.03 M33-6.
12. The CFW is now successful. Before you can launch .cso or .iso backups, you must launch CFWEnabler and go into the configure menu. Look for the UMD mode option and choose M33 driver.
13. Exit the configuration screen and you’re back to the XMB screen.
14. Proceed to fill you X:/ISO folder with your backups and your PSP will be able to launch them.

Note however that once the PSP is totally powered off, you must redo the ChickHen and CFWEnabler process. Hence, it is recommended that you leave your PSP to sleep and keep the battery charged.

To be really frank, I still have some degree of fears when attempting to drive on my own. I’m just not used to driving alone, without someone beside me, acting as the ‘last-resort’ lookout for traffic which I may have inadvertently missed.

With my limited driving hours and experience, I find that the PIE is the hardest expressway to handle as it is very bendy and filled with much traffic in the mornings. Driving along this expressway from end to end during rush hours is quite a challenge as the traffic is extremely heavy, flooded with heavy trucks and lorries from lanes 2 to 4, near Pioneer area. Squeezing in between them and changing lanes is a sure way to increase ones speed/distance judgment.

Fortunately, in a week and two days time, my course in the Far West would end and I’ll be back to work at the Far North. By the time I check my work mail, it would have been 5 weeks since I’d last touched it. I’m guessing that my mailbox would have been full by now.

Love this song by Chris Tomlin – Sing, Sing, Sing

Remember, remember, the 4th of June; the day which is still denied.

This June 4, 1989 photograph shows a girl, wounded during the clash between the army and students near Tiananmen Square in Beijing being carried out by a cart. (MANUEL CENETA/AFP/Getty Images)

For the the big picture.

This has to be one of the most exciting test I’ve ever encountered in my life. It was short beyond measure, commonly indicative of a failure, fraught with fright, and God must have simply intervened.

Basically, I’ve just completed the circuit with no issues and am on the public road. At this T-junction without traffic lights, I was to turn right into a smaller road. The coast, with slight visual obstruction (due to cars turning to their right in-front of me), was clear. I looked right to check for pedestrians, while preparing to move off. The car was about to inch forward when I looked forward and saw a lorry dashing towards the junction.

“Oooh,” I exclaimed, while I instinctively stomped on the brakes hard. From the corner of my eye, I saw the examiner’s hand moved towards the handbrake column – I was faster. He made no remark, neither did I.

I completed the turn and he told me to turn right, and then back into the driving centre, which is on the left. This was immediately disappointing as I’ve only just completed 3 right turns on the road without any U-turns. Most routes have at least a U-turn, I recalled. It must have been over, I thought to myself.

He motioned for me to park at the shade in-front of the centre; I was the second car to arrive. The first being called for the test a full 5 minutes before me. I was after all, one of the last few to start the test. It was certainly a foreboding sight.

Silently, we moved to the desk and I sat there awaiting my results. I had expected the worst. I mean, what more can go wrong? Ending the test way earlier than others, dead silence, and one huge mistake which I’m almost sure was an immediate failure.

He came with a slip of paper in his hands, the revelation on the price which I was to pay – S$200 (re-test) or S$50 (driving license application fee).

His words were sharp, “check your mirrors more.”

He moved the paper towards me. I strained to read the tiny words and what they had all meant. He pulled back and flipped over.

“You’ve passed... congratulations and please proceed to watch the safety video”.

With that, I mumbled many thank yous and promptly left the room. Was I dreaming? I dropped my mother a quick phone call, and realised that she couldn’t read my mind (and thus it isn’t a dream). I scanned the mistakes list and didn’t see what I thought I’ll see.

Praise the Lord!

Having been in my appointment for more than a year, I’ve finally been schedule to go for a course this week to become more “intelligent”. This course will last for four weeks, conducted somewhere near the Discovery Centre, with very poor accessibility from my house.

Long hours and weekend homework, feels much like school with tight deadlines.

My apologies for lagging updates and responses as I’ve been staying in to take advantage of 7 am reveille.

Somedays back, one of my co-workers popped this mathematical question for us to think about. It is fairly simple but complex for our minds. Anyway, here’s the question:-

5 . 5 . 5 . 5 . 5 = 24
Replace the . with any of the following operators: +, -, *, /. You may add brackets anywhere in-between the numbers or operators.

There are many solutions, have fun!

Looking at the Palm Pre concept demonstration videos, I can’t help but smile – the Palm that I’d known in my primary school days.

A simple, unified and consistent interface, efficient access, flawless synchronisation and a huge 3rd party application eco-system.

Assuming that it delivers as advertised, its potential is vast and unhindered. Probably a renaissance for Palm, finally.

I look forward to its launch on the 6th of June, 2009.

In my work place, there’s this phrase which is very commonly used: “小事不要烦我，大事老板不在。” Translated in English, it basically means not to consult me with small matters; as for big matters, my boss is not around and I can’t make decisions.

These are the middle managers that my organisation trains people to be. Fine by me, but good luck to the future of this organisation.

Here’s a nice song, Hallelujah performed by Jeff Buckley.

Yesterday, we had some free gifts in the form of brand new uniforms that are of a lighter shade of green.

We spent quite some time looking at each other exclaiming, “hey, you look different!”.