Chatter Of The Squirrel

Real estate hunting on 2 wheels

Some joker wanted to check out some condos and deludedly thought that it’ld be cool to explore the area on bicycles.

Haven’t put on my biking shoes in half a year, so why the hell not…

From Pelangi Damansara, thru Kg Penchala, thru the Kiara tunnel, to Mont Kiara, thru Segambut Dalam, explored a bit, back to Kiara, back up Penchala Link, and home…

More than 30km. A lot of ups and downs… Going against the grade inside the Kiara tunnel was a claustrophobic experience, and it felt like it was never going to end. But managed to get through it without a break. Hey, at my level of fitness, that felt like an achievement.

Saw a lot of nice condos. Many likely going at exorbitant prices. But I anticipate that the prices around Kiara is going to tank soon, as expats are being shipped back home.

Total ride, 4.5hrs, inclusive of one mamak break.

Got back just in time too. The last slope up to my apartment, I felt my quads beginning to fail. Burnt close to 3000 kCal, according to my Polar.

My arse is sore as hell. Consumed 3 litres of fluids during the ride, but no pee. All the fluids were sweated out.

Next Saturday, another friend has a similarly insane plan to bike to Janda Baik…

Movie: Terminator Salvation

Edge of seat action! Lots and lots of action! Really amazing action sequences! 20x the action of T2, in terms of quantity and quality!

There’s also now more robots. Bigger robots. Robots that swim. Robots that flies. Robots on wheels. And thankfully, no robots with breasts.

But in spite of it all, it’s just not as memorable as T2.

Movies nowadays are just so saturated with action, that we’ve become more or less numb to it. CG technology is so advanced that they don’t impress anymore. It’s become more and more difficult to make / enjoy a sci-fi / action movie.

Star Wars. Just the scene of the Imperial Battleship rumbling lazily across the screen blew us away. (By us, I mean anyone born before the 90’s).

T2’s Harley vs Big-Ass Truck. T4 has tow-truck vs 2x super bikes.

T2 has a scene with a chain gun. T4 has at least 50 chain guns, and no ammo nor casualties spared.

T2 has a morphing T-1000 with a mantis-stare. T4 has giant airships and giant robots.

T2 has the Guvernor. T4 has the Guvernor too.

So by all empirical measures, T4 is the superior movie.

But it’s just not as memorable.

I enjoyed Terminator Salvation. No question there. But I’m just ranting about how movies and audience expectations have changed in the last 20 years.

Tech: Importing Dropdown Lists Into SugarCRM

Been configuring SugarCRM to suit the company’s needs.

Found a problem when generating a dropdown list for our range of products.

130 products. And the studio interface only lets you key in one item at a time. No way to import a whole list at a go.

Problem… I do not want to do so much copying and pasting for a whole hour >.>

I’ld rather spend 59minutes to find a way to do it in 1min.

Solution:

You want to look at the file: {SugarCRM directory}\custom\include\language\en_us.lang.php

You’ll find things like:

$GLOBALS['app_list_strings']['rating_list']=array (
  ’Hot’ => ‘Hot’,
  ’Warm’ => ‘Warm’,
  ’Cold’ => ‘Cold’,
);

Should be quite straight forward after knowing this.

Just copy paste the list into an editor, and format it accordingly, append it to the above file. Just to be sure, create the dropdown field first with an empty list. Then the parameters will be created for you, find where it is, and paste your formated list between the brackets.

My choice of editor is Crimson Editor. This makes such formating jobs very much easier. The secret is “column mode” editing. That and macros when you need them.

Special Flashlight

The special flashlight I bought at Jalan Pasar can do this:

Very interesting to see what China will make nowadays. But seriously, sale of such devices can’t be legal.

No idea if this thing really works. No test subjects even when I insist that I know CPR.

Even if it doesn’t really stun, the sheer intimidation value of the flashlight is incredible. It makes a loud crackling noise and you can smell just a hint of ozone.

But it’s not really recommended for self defence. A weapon you don’t know how to use, is a weapon of your enemy.

Still, it’s uber cool to have. Maybe I can even make a Jacob’s Ladder out of it. Also, buying one of this, means one less weapon out there in the hands of criminals

Photography: New Toys

Woke up at 5am.

Drove to KLIA to meet my sis who’ll be in transit for 1.5hrs.

Breakfast. Passed her some DVDs for her holiday back in Sibu. But also mainly to pick up the bacon she bought for me from Melbourne

On top of that, the last few weeks, I’ve been monitoring eBay Australia almost daily to look for deals. I found some great lenses, and had them sent to my sis.

First, there’s an unremarkable manual focus Tokina 70-210mm.

But the price was most remarkable. Like, AUD12.71 remarkable. It’s very new and clean. Sturdy metal construction. It works. Will have to make a conscious effort to put it through its paces to find out how the lens performs. But for that price, it’s a winner.

Next up, the lens that I won via eBay sniping. A Tokina 500mm MIRROR lens!

It uses two mirrors to reflect light into the camera instead of using glass to refract the light. It’s just cool. Like a mini reflector telescope. Looking forward to see how this thing performs on the skies. Meanwhile, I tried to take a picture of a car 300m away.

Not bad… It’s not a bazooka. But for this money, it’s great! No good for catching eagles in flight. But might be able to snap a resting pelican. I got this for AUD71. Amazing deal. That’s cos there’s a small patch of fungus in the inside mirror. It doesn’t look like it has taken root yet, and a good wipe will remove it… IF I can get inside the lens.

The lens is screwed on TIGHT. WD-40 and a home-made tool could not dislodge the thing. Should just send in for servicing before I damage the threads in my attempts.

Lastly, a Pentax DFA 50mm f/2.8 Macro.

Finally, a macro setup with autofocus! Bugs, BEWARE!

Some test shots with this…

My most expensive lens, thus far. But got it at a good 2nd hand price.