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Lovers and Strangers Revisited - 2008 Edition

Posted On Aug 04, 2008 // Review Shack//1 Comment

Sorry for not updating my blog for quite some time. The main reason is yet again the increasing work load that i’m facing especially when my research project has now entered its 8th month. Despite that, i’ve managed to get hold of some interesting books and filled up my limited free time with some leisure reading. One of those books is Lovers and Strangers Revisited by none other than Robert Raymer, who is now living in Sarawak and teaches creative writings at Centre for Language Studies, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak. It’s basically a complilation of his 17 best short stories, that has been published both locally and internationally. Having lived in Malaysia for more than 20 years (largely in Penang, where he previously taught at Universiti Sains Malaysia), i have to admit that Robert’s potrayal of Malaysian live (both traditional and modern) is amazingy vivid. My personal favourites are of course "On Fridays" and "Neigbours". Robert’s style of writing is plain simple but packed with essential essence of Malaysian aroma. The latest version of the book as shown above is published by MPH and can be purchased from the bookstore chain nationwide or via MPHOnline

If you want a personal autograph of Robert Raymer, well, visit UNIMAS! By the way, check out Robert Raymer’s website at www.borneoexpatwriter.com

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Firefox 3 Super Firing Tricks

Posted On Jun 25, 2008 // Review Shack, Tech & Web//No Comment

Ok, now that you’ve know most of the improved features in Firefox 3 as well as the embedded robots that accompany it, it’s time to check back on some of the tricks that it offers.

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Simple CSS - Makes CSS Super Simple

Posted On Jun 23, 2008 // Review Shack, Tech & Web//No Comment

SimpleCSS

For beginning web designers, dealing with CSS can create headaches that more often than not resulted in "cutting-and-pasting" others’ CSS nto theirs. While learning it may take a while who those who have little clue of what Cascading Style Sheet is and how it works, several useful software can be used to reduce the difficulty. One that I frequently depend on is the SimpleCSS, and what’s more it’s FREE.

As the name suggest, using SimpleCSS is relatively easy for newbie and can save a lot of time for advanced users who just want to do rapid changes to their website look and feel. Simply create new ones from scratch using its user friendly interface or modify existing ones using a familiar point-and-click interface. Well, try out Simple CSS now.

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How Much Time GOOGLE Saves Me!

Posted On Jun 09, 2008 // Lost Paradise, Review Shack//7 Comments

Normally, we won’t be bother to think how much time search engine like Google saves us precious time in completing our daily routine (net-based routines of course) until the internet connection is interrupted or perhaps when Google is down. So, out of boredom, I set out to conduct a mini research with an aim to answer the following research question: “What life would be without Google and how much time we’d be spending solving our problems?”. To answer these, I chose three key tasks to be examined:

A) Finding the definition of Exabytes

With Google: I entered “Define Exabytes” and the pages immediately list all available definitions, which include: “A unit of information equal to 1000 petabytes”

Time spent: 1 minute

Without Google: I quickly grab my Oxford dictionary on my desk and was surprised to note that the word didn’t exist and I ran up the stairs asking for another dictionary from my housemates. I managed to get a Longman dictionary and found the definition with a quick flip.

Time spent: 7 minutes

Time saved using Google: 6 minutes.

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Xunlei English - Thunder 5 Translation Pack

Posted On May 22, 2008 // Review Shack, Tech & Web//9 Comments

I notice that a lot of people have been visiting my blog searching for Xunlei or Thunder 5’s English language pack. Well, thanks to the efforts by HeHeHunter, he has made available the language pack. Since he has retired from blogging, i’m worried that his hard-edited language pack will be gone, so i took the liberty to post it here again. Of course, all credits goes to him! If you have not have XUNLEI or Thunder 5, please download it from here first.

So click the button below to Download Xunlei 5 English Translation pack. While it is not 100%, you get to use the common features in English and feel free to edit it from time to time and share it.