Tharman Shanmugaratnam speech at People's Action Party (PAP) rally, 5 Sep 2015

A speech full of facts and substance. We really need to keep Tharman as our Finance Minister.

Lim Ee Ping at Workers' Party (WP) rally, 4 Sep 2015 #GE2015

Watch Lim Ee Ping insulting Singapore's founding father Mr Lee Kuan Yew a liar and current Foreign & Law Minister K. Shanmugam a dog.

Chee Soon Juan at Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) rally, 3 Sep 2015 (Hokkein) #GE2015

You may also want to read Chee Soon Juan's rally in English.

Chen Jiaxi Bernard at Workers' Party (WP) rally, 3 Sep 2015 #GE2015

Chee Soon Juan at Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) rally, 3 Sep 2015

Powerful Speaker. Passionate, Composed, Sincere.

You may also want to read Chee Soon Juan's rally in Hokkein.

Sylvia Lim at Workers' Party (WP) rally, 3 Sep 2015

He Ting Ru at Workers' Party (WP) rally, 3 Sep 2015

Leon Perera at Workers' Party (WP) rally, 3 Sep 2015

Han Hui Hui heckled at her rally - Guy shouting 'No' to voting for her

A guy spotted shouting 'No' to voting for Independent Candidate for Radin Mas, Han Hui Hui. This just sums up her campaign.

Singapore GE 2015 - Party Political Broadcast 1

Pritam Singh speech at Workers' Party (WP) rally, 2 Sep 2015

Png Eng Huat speech at Workers' Party (WP) rally, 2 Sep 2015

Gerald Giam speech at Workers' Party (WP) rally, 2 Sep 2015

Chan Chun Sing speech at People's Action Party (PAP) rally, 2 Sep 2015

Rousing and impactful speech

Lee Hsien Loong speech at People's Action Party (PAP) rally, 2 Sep 2015

Sounds a bit like another National Day Rally or Budget speech.

Cheryl Loh speech at Workers' Party (WP) rally, 2 Sep 2015

Daniel Goh speech at Workers' Party (WP) rally, 2 Sep 2015

Koh Choong Yong speech at Workers' Party (WP) rally, 2 Sep 2015

Sylvia Lim speech at Workers' Party (WP) rally, 2 Sep 2015

Chen Show Mao speech at Workers' Party (WP) rally, 2 Sep 2015

Low Thia Khiang speech at Workers' Party (WP) rally, 2 Sep 2015

All About That Bass by Meghan Trainor Parody - "All About That HAZE"

A creative video parody done to highlight the environmental issues of haze in Singapore.

Rebuild all Indexes on a Microsoft SQL Server

As part of database maintenance, a DBA may wish to do periodical rebuild of all indexes. The below may come handy.

EXEC sp_MSForEachTable 'ALTER INDEX ALL ON ? REBUILD'

President Obama 'AMAZING GRACE' Eulogy For Clementa Pickney

President Obama delivered a 40-minute 'AMAZING GRACE' eulogy for Clementa Pickney who was murdered by a racist terrorist on June 17, 2015 at an evening Bible study at his church. This touching speech is a thoughtful meditation on the whites and blacks race in America.

Watch the video below:

NDP 2015 Theme Song: Our Singapore

The theme song, written by Dick Lee, for this year's National Day is released.

How do you feel about this song? For your pleasure, I have consolidated all NDP theme songs from 1998 to 2013.

Chen Tianwen's un-un-un-un-unbelievable song got a remix

The famous Mediacorp's 'Spouse For House' actor Chen Tianwen music video "Un. un. un. un. unbelievable!!!" now comes with a remix version.

If you are interested to listen to the original version, do check out this link!

MsSQL Split Function

The following demonstrates how to do a string Split using a character delimiter.

Edited: [dbo].[Split_PerformanceEnhanced] added - better performance results (31 July 2017).

--SQL function to do split (performance enhanced)
CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[Split_PerformanceEnhanced]
(
 @List NVARCHAR(MAX),
 @Delimiter VARCHAR(5)
)  
RETURNS @RtnValue TABLE
(
 ID INT IDENTITY(1,1),
 Data VARCHAR(MAX)
) 
AS
BEGIN
 INSERT INTO @RtnValue(Data)
  SELECT [Value] FROM 
    ( 
    SELECT 
     [Value] = LTRIM(RTRIM(SUBSTRING(@List, [Number],
     CHARINDEX(@Delimiter, @List + @Delimiter COLLATE Latin1_General_100_BIN2, [Number]) - [Number])))
    FROM (SELECT Number = ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY name)
     FROM sys.all_objects) AS x
     WHERE Number <= LEN(@List)
     AND SUBSTRING(@Delimiter + @List, [Number], LEN(@Delimiter)) = @Delimiter
    ) AS y

 RETURN;
END
GO
--Test out the SQL function
SELECT * FROM dbo.Split_PerformanceEnhanced('one|two|three|four', '|')
GO

Below SQL function still works but prefer the above new performance enhanced version.

--SQL function to do split
CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[Split]
(
 @RowData NVARCHAR(MAX),
 @SplitOn CHAR(1)
)  
RETURNS @RtnValue TABLE
(
 ID INT IDENTITY(1,1),
 Data VARCHAR(MAX)
) 
AS
BEGIN
 DECLARE @count INT
 SET @count = 1

 WHILE (CHARINDEX(@SplitOn COLLATE Latin1_General_100_BIN2, @RowData) > 0)
 BEGIN
  INSERT INTO @RtnValue (data)
  SELECT Data = LTRIM(RTRIM(SUBSTRING(@RowData, 1, CHARINDEX(@SplitOn COLLATE Latin1_General_100_BIN2, @RowData) - 1)))
  SET @RowData = SUBSTRING(@RowData, CHARINDEX(@SplitOn COLLATE Latin1_General_100_BIN2, @RowData) + 1, LEN(@RowData))
  SET @count = @count + 1
 END

 INSERT INTO @RtnValue (data)
 SELECT Data = LTRIM(RTRIM(@RowData))

 RETURN
END
GO
--Test out the SQL function
SELECT * FROM dbo.Split('one|two|three|four', '|')
GO

So stunned like a vegetable by Chen Tianwen's "Un. un. un. un. unbelievable!!!" music video

Mediacorp's 'Spouse For House' actor Chen Tianwen music video "Un. un. un. un. unbelievable!!!" is so unbelievably funny. What a multi-talented guy.

Spouse For House airs every Wednesday, 10pm on Channel 5.

Google Malaysia access disrupted and hacked

As of now, access to Google Malaysia (www.google.com.my) remains not possible and is showing 'Google Malaysia HackeD' message.

The disruption is reported to be due to DNS redirection as confirmed by a tweet from Google Malaysia.

Getting reports some users are experiencing http://t.co/uIvl6RbDzu DNS redirection. Please use http://t.co/AdkzwxVR4U in the meantime.
— Google Malaysia (@GoogleMsia) April 14, 2015

A WHOIS check on www.google.com.my domain confirmed the DNS redirection.

Introduction to Project Management

Greg Balestrero (Strategic Advisor on Corporate Consciousness, Leadership & Sustainability, IIL) provides a quick but thorough introduction to Project Management, how it is being used, and why it should matter to you, especially if you are into Project Management.

Charlie Munger in 2010: ‘Don’t ask Charlie Munger. Study the life and work of Lee Kuan Yew, you’re going to be flabbergasted’

In a Q&A at University of Michigan in 2010, Charlie Munger who is Vice-Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Corporation praised the Singapore system and Lee Kuan Yew. He said, ‘Don’t ask Charlie Munger. Study the life and work of Lee Kuan Yew, you’re going to be flabbergasted’.

Watch the segment in the video below.

Project Spartan: Beyond Browsing

Amazon newly revamped design - RETRO

As part of April Fool, Amazon has just launched their newly revamped retro design. See below if you like it!

My condolences to Lee Kuan Yew's family

Dear family members of Lee Kuan Yew's,

With the great loss of founder of modern Singapore, Mr Lee Kuan Yew, I would like to send my deepest condolences to PM Lee Hsien Loong and his family members. Without the late Lee Kuan Yew's courage and lifelong commitment, it would have been impossible to see what Singapore has achieved since independence day.

Lee's contribution will be remembered for generations to come. Let us continue building Singapore into a fine, gracious nation.

With deepest sympathies,
A Singaporean born and bred here

Remembering Lee Kuan Yew, 1923 - 2015

Restore wrong or unknown program icons in Windows 7 Start Menu

Should you see wrong or unknown program icons in your Windows 7 Start Menu, you may try the following steps to restore them.

1. Open Windows Explorer.
2. Copy and paste %userprofile%\AppData\Local onto the address bar.
3. Find and delete IconCache.db. This file is hidden by default.
4. Open Command Prompt.
5. Run taskkill /F /IM explorer.exe on Command Prompt.
6. Run start explorer on Command Prompt.

I hope this helps.

How do I remove the cached username and password from SQL Management Studio?

You may have your reasons to want to remove the cached username and password from the SQL Management Studio e.g. before handing your laptop to someone else.

The step to remove will require deleting a file but differs depending on the version of SQL Management Studio you are using.

SQL Server Management Studio 2014
Delete C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\SQL Server Management Studio\12.0\SqlStudio.bin

SQL Server Management Studio 2012
Delete C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\SQL Server Management Studio\11.0\SqlStudio.bin

SQL Server Management Studio 2008
Delete C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Tools\Shell\SqlStudio.bin

SQL Server Management Studio 2005
Delete C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\90\Tools\Shell\mru.dat

One good news is as of SQL Server Management Studio 2012, you may delete an entry by using the tool itself without the need to delete a file. To delete, you will need to click on the 'Server name' dropdown in the 'Connect to Server' dialog. Move your mouse or use your keyboard arrow key to highlight the server to remove followed by hitting on the 'Delete' key on your keyboard. This is so convenient!

Infographics: When should we use JPEG, GIF and PNG?

The side-effects of young children using mobile / handheld devices

In current generation where penetration rate of mobile devices is high, we see many including young children often using mobile devices while travelling, in school or even before bedtime. A fact sheet published on Zone'in advised infants aged 0-2 years should not have any exposure to technology, 3-5 years be restricted to one hour per day, and 6-18 years restricted to 2 hours per day.

The fact sheet researched on areas:

• Technology Use: usage statistics; technology addiction prevalence
• Physical Impairments: developmental delay; obesity, cardiovascular disorders and diabetes; movement deprivation, sensory overstimulation, elecrtromagnetic radiation, sleep disruption
• Mental Disorders: human detachment and mental illness; psychotropic medication, restraints, and seclusion rooms, touch deprivation, pornography and risky behavior
• Social Disorders: communication, aggression and declining empathy,
• Academic Decline: attention deficit; illiteracy, education technology;
• Implications and Solutions: costs, technology screening an management, playgrounds as epicenter for child development and learning

How to stop FortiClient from starting automatically?

Installed FortiClient recently but the challenge in disabling the application/service from running automatically on every start-up annoyed me. Attempt to stop 'FortiClient Service Scheduler' only return 'Parameter is incorrect' error message.

An article on Technet help solve my trouble. To stop FortiClient from starting automatically, try the following:

1. Shut down FortiClient from the system tray.
   
2. Run net stop fortishield on command prompt.
   
3. Run msconfig.
   
4. On msconfig, switch to the Services tab. Clear the FortiClient Service Scheduler check box and click Apply.
5. Run services.msc on command prompt to open up show all available services.
6. Look for FortiClient Service Scheduler. Switch Startup type to Manual.
7. Restart your computer.

FortiClient should not be running automatically the next time round. Hope it helps.

An interesting perspective on Responsive Web Design and getting it right

An article on the Smashing Magazine has an interesting perspective on what is responsive web design and how to actually get it right. Taking note on the performance is the right approach.

» You May Be Losing Users If Responsive Web Design Is Your Only Mobile Strategy | Smashing Magazine

How to Interpret Indian Head Shakes?

Talk about cross-cultural communication, a lot of people have been confusing themselves about what does it mean when an Indian shakes his head. Someone actually put up a video explaining the different types of head shakes are and their meaning.

I hope it helps in reducing miscommunication.

What are the differences between Visual Studio Community Edition (FREE) and the Express Editions?

If you are a developer working on Microsoft (or perhaps Linux since Microsoft is open-sourcing its .NET Core) platform, it is likely that you would have heard Microsoft releasing a rich featured edition of Visual Studio at absolutely ZERO cost. The new edition of the FREE Visual Studio is the Community Edition.

So what are the differences between the new Visual Studio Community Edition and the usual Express Editions? Before I begin, I would like to state that the Community Edition is in fact a Professional Edition but re-packaged and distributed at NO cost. The two main differences between Visual Studio Community Edition and the Express Editions are:

1. Visual Studio Express Editions do not allow users to use extensions (aka. plugins).
2. Visual Studio Express Editions are targeting specific platforms e.g. Web, Windows and Windows Desktop apps.

Download Microsoft Visual Studio now!

What is History and the Benefits of History?

Very often when we think of History, we will associate it with boring. But why schools are still offering History as a subject? What exactly is History and what are the benefits of knowing the past? The following short video perfectly address this.

Once Upon a Time - Story About Everybody, Somebody, Nobody and Anybody

Once upon a time there were four people named Everybody, Somebody, Nobody and Anybody.

When there was an important job to be done, Everybody was sure Somebody would do it.

Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did.

When Nobody did it, Everybody got angry because it was Somebody's job.

Everybody thought Anybody could do it, but Somebody realized that Nobody would do it.

So it ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody that Nobody did what Anybody could have done in the first place.

- Author unknown

Currency Act - the legal tender limit for coins of denomination

In light of multiple cases whereby payments were attempted with coins amounting in thousands, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has released a statement on the legal tender limit for coins of denomination.

According to the Currency Act, the legal tender limit for coins of denomination:

1. Below 50-cents is S$2 per denomination.
2. For 50-cent coins, the limit is S$10.
3. There are no limits for S$1 coins.

A payee has no obligation to accept coins beyond the legal tender limits set out in the Currency Act.

Happy Birthday from Google

Birthday doodle from Google for this year is exactly the same for the past 2 years (2013, 2012). Birthday doodle for 2010 was different.

How do I uninstall Chrome's new Bookmark Manager?

Google has been working on a new bookmark manager for Chrome. This upcoming bookmark manager is now on the Chrome Web Store as an extension before it is integrated into Chrome by default. This new bookmark manager extension looks beautiful but it does have its own shortfall for now e.g. inability to sort bookmarks by title.

So what if you wished to uninstall this new bookmark manager? As far as I know, you cannot remove this extension from chrome://extensionsbecause the extension is not listed at all! Do follow the below steps for the removal of this extension:

1. Type chrome://flags on the address bar.
2. Search for Enable Enhanced Bookmarks option.
3. Disable it.
4. Close and restart Chrome.
5. Type chrome://extensions on the address bar. You should see the bookmark manager extension now.
6. Remove the bookmark manager extension.

Hope it helps.

Handling 404 error page by showing set of suggested links

When a user attempts to follow a broken link or mistypes a url on a website, the user will often be redirected to a typical friendly "404 Not Found" web page so he knows what has happened, instead of throwing some ugly error message.

One way to enhance the experience would be to guess where the visitor intended to go and suggest that page or shows a list of possible pages. An article by the Smashing Magazine describes an approach that makes use of Google's Custom Search API for this purpose. Before embarking onto the implementing it on production, please do note that the free tier for this API has a limit of 100 calls per day.

» A Better 404 Page | Smashing Magazine

Video Ad: Samsung Galaxy Note 4 (Camera)

Video Ad: Samsung Galaxy Note 4 (S Pen)

Inbox by Gmail - Am waiting for an invite

Inbox by Gmail looks interesting and cool! Requested for an invitation yesterday and am still waiting for one. Do drop me an invitation!

Why switch to HTTPS?

The number of websites moving to the more secured HTTPS protocol is ever increasing especially after recent many web security compromises. But is there a need for HTTPS even if your website is purely only content? Engineers from the Google team feel YES.

Watch why YES from the following video:

How Technology Makes Us Lose Humanity?

Mobile: All-In-One App or Multi Apps?

I have heard and seen clients wanting to include just everything, say product catalogue, events registrations, etc., from their website onto a mobile app. Each of the features itself are with complicated logics and workflows.

Question we should be asking now is whether to bundle all features into one single app or to split them into multi apps so each serve its own purpose. Mobile users are very much different from desktop users.To deliver the best mobile app experience, we need to make sure mobile users can complete a single mission easily and quickly.

TheNextWeb has an article, Forget ‘unbundling': Why your multi-app strategy should start from day one, recommending the multi apps approach for mobile strategy.

Infographics: How to Perfectly Make 38 Types of Coffee

One can never have enough of coffee. The infographics below shows how perfectly make 38 types of coffee.

via [Stylist]

Periodic Table of Web Design Process

Preview all your installed fonts on your web browser

Ever wondered how your text will look like on all of your installed fonts? One handy way is using this free online tool wordmark.it. Simply type in the text to preview and hit on a button. It is just so easy.

Note: JavaScript is required for the online tool to work.

Mr & Mrs

HTML Tags Accepted by Gmail

When sending a HTML email out, we often used some common HTML tags e.g. <br>, <font> and so on. An article, Gmail's HTML Tag Whitelist, on Quip publish a list of HTML tags known to be supported as well as unsupported by Gmail.

Supported HTML Tags

<a>
<abbr>
<acronym>
<address>
<area>
<b>
<bdo>
<big>
<blockquote>
<br>
<button>
<caption>
<center>
<cite>
<code>
<col>
<colgroup>
<dd>
<del>
<dfn>
<dir>
<div>
<dl>
<dt>
<em>
<fieldset>
<font>
<form>
<h1>
<h2>
<h3>
<h4>
<h5>
<h6>
<hr>
<i>
<img>
<input>
<ins>
<kbd>
<label>
<legend>
<li>
<map>
<menu>
<ol>
<optgroup>
<option>
<p>
<pre>
<q>
<s>
<samp>
<select>
<small>
<span>
<strike>
<strong>
<sub>
<sup>
<table>
<tbody>
<td>
<textarea>
<tfoot>
<th>
<thead>
<u>
<tr>
<tt>
<u>
<ul>
<var>

Unsupported HTML tags

<applet>
<article>
<aside>
<audio>
<base>
<basefont>
<bdi>
<bgsound>
<blink>
<body>
<canvas>
<content>
<data>
<datalist>
<decorator>
<details>
<dialog>
<element>
<embed>
<figcaption>
<figure>
<footer>
<frame>
<frameset>
<head>
<header>
<hgroup>
<html>
<iframe>
<isindex>
<keygen>
<link>
<listing>
<main>
<mark>
<marquee>
<menuitem>
<meta>
<meter>
<nav>
<nobr>
<noframes>
<noscript>
<object>
<output>
<param>
<picture>
<progress>
<rp>
<rt>
<ruby>
<script>
<section>
<shadow>
<source>
<spacer>
<style>
<summary>
<template>
<time>
<title>
<track>
<video>
<wbr>
<xmp>

If you have a whitelist for Outlook.com and Yahoo, do make a comment below.

Infographics: HTML5 - Past, Present & Future

Get List of Installed Programs on Windows

If you ever need to do some reinstalling of Windows on your laptop but would like to backup the list of installed programs before formatting, the following will be useful.

1. Start Command Prompt.
2. Type wmic /output:"%userprofile%\Desktop\InstallList.txt" product get name,version on command prompt to run Windows Management Instrumentation Command-line tool.

This will generate a list of all installed programs and save it as a text file. Do note this may take some time depending on the number of installed programs you may have.

» Generate a List of Installed Programs in Windows | Help Desk Geek

Introduction to Xamarin

Online technical tutorial, tuts+, published a 3-parts introduction on Xamarin. Xamarin is a cross-platform software solution using C# codebase to develop one single implementation for Android, iOS and Windows apps.

• An Introduction to Xamarin: Part 1
• An Introduction to Xamarin: Part 2
• An Introduction to Xamarin: Part 3

Hopefully I have the time to try out this interesting software one day.

Difference Between Holland and The Netherlands

Many times, we always use Holland and The Netherlands interchangeably without knowing the two terms are in fact different. Do watch the following video below to understand more.

An Introduction To Node.js And MongoDB

A comprehensive article on Node.js and MongoDB.

Israel vs Palestine - So who is right?

Israel vs Palestine and so who is exactly right? Let's hear from each side of the story.

Israel's side of story

Palestine's side of story

John Oliver explains Net Neutrality in 13 minutes

Seven Pointers to Watch Out for Before Buying an IPO

An insightful article on the Seven Things You Should Know About IPOs.

1. Pre-IPO Placements
2. Vendor Shares
3. Deferred Shares and Share Options
4. The "Greenshoe"
5. Bookbuilding
6. Clawback
7. Lock-ups

Top 20 Most Preferred NS Vocations

20. Storeman
19. Clerk
18. Mess Boy
17. Area Cleaning IC
16. Night Snack Orderly
15. Safety van Drinks Server
14. Route March Song IC
13. White Horse
12. Attend C Bunk
11. Music & Dance Company Reserve Guitar Tuner
10. Canteen Tray Hygiene Officer
9. Mobilisation TV Flasher
8. Pioneer Magazine Writer
7. Reservist Outfield Tapao Coordinator
6. Excuse Uniform, Excuse Grass, Excuse Sunlight
5. E-mart Noticeboard IC
4. Reservist FHM Magazine Supplier
3. Out-Of-Course
2. Future Minister
1. Civilian

Many Are Into Responsive Design, So Should I?

Many websites are now moving into responsive design so that webpages load "nicely" on mobile devices. The technologies and frameworks are there but should you and I go into revamping websites and adopt responsive design?

Responsive Web Design Taking Pictures Into Consideration

Responsive web design with pages and images resized and aligned properly for mobile view will not be complete if the images downloaded are the full desktop version. For better design, do consider using element. Read more on the picture element here.

Improve Mobile Support With Server-Side-Enhanced Responsive Design

An article on the Smashing Magazine on how to improve mobile support with responsive design at server side. It also discusses on the balance to doing it on client and server side.

An interesting read.

Singaporean Jeremy Teng won a Japanese singing contest at Nodojiman The World

As a fellow Singaporean, I am so proud of compatriot Jeremy Teng for having won a Japanese singing contest at Nodojiman The World. You may watch him in action on YouTube.

Google Play Errors Explained (With Fixes)

Popular Android forum, XDA Developers, wrote a thread explaining some of the errors encountered on Google Play. Yes, they may get annoying and may caused one to be helpless. With the feedback from many fellow Android users, the forum thread serves to provide with an always updated knowledgebase.

Find out if you sleep deprived

Are you sleep deprived? Find out if you are from the following 1-minute video.

How to Schedule Gmail Emails to be Sent?

Amit Agarwal from the Digital Inspiration wrote a little Google script to schedule and send out Gmail emails later at a stipulated date and time.

Watch the video tutorial below to do just that.

Do read this Digital Inspiration article for the detailed steps in words and Google scripts too.

DynDNS Shutting Down Free Plans; So What Are The Alternatives?

DynDNS has shut down its free plans and so, if you need a hostname to be hosted, what are the other alternatives we have in the market right now?

The hundred over comments on The Best Free Alternatives to DynDNS offer some of the alternative services. Which of them have you used?

Cheat Sheet - Learn Basic Linux Commands

A cheat sheet on Linux commands, organised into 13 categories, should get you up to mark in using Linux operating system. The cheat sheet is available at LinOxide in PDF format and as one detailed reference guide all on a single long page. If you prefer visual, the following image may be helpful too.

Side Navigation Drawer or Tabbed Design?

The debate over whether to implement the now trendy side navigation drawer (a.k.a. hamburger menu) or stick to traditional tabbed design for a mobile website or app can go a long way. An article published on TheNextWeb summarised just when using side navigation is relevant.

My take-away from all of this is that if most of the user experience takes place in a single view, and it’s only things like user settings and options that need to be accessed in separate screens, then keeping the main UI nice and clean by burying those in a side menu is the way to go.
On the other hand, if your app has multiple views that users will engage with somewhat equally, then side navigation could be costing you a great deal of your potential user engagement, and interaction with those part of the app accessed via the side menu.

» UX designers: Side drawer navigation could be costing you half your user engagement | TheNextWeb

How to Make GIMP Work More Like Photoshop

Interesting tips on LifeHacker on how to make free GIMP to work more like Photoshop.

Official Samsung S5 Video Ad - Waterproof and Camera

Introducing the Windows 8.1 Update

Microsoft just unveiled Windows 8.1 Update 1. New features include an improved taskbar, better task switching, and Start Screen tweaks that focus on mouse and keyboard users. Opened applications will also come with title bar. This update certainly makes Windows 8 more "Windows".

The update will be made available via Windows Update on April 8.

Microsoft MS-DOS v1.1 and v2.0 Source Code

Microsoft released the source code for MS DOS 1.1 and 2.0 few days back. With the help of the Computer History Museum, the source codes are now made downloadable by the public.

On the same day, Microsoft also released source code for Word for Windows 1.1a.

» Microsoft MS-DOS early source code | Computer History Museum

Microsoft Word for Windows Version 1.1a Source Code

Microsoft released the source code for Word for Windows 1.1a few days back. With the help of the Computer History Museum, the source codes are now made downloadable by the public.

On the same day, Microsoft also released source code for MS-DOS v1.1 and v2.0.

» Microsoft Word for Windows Version 1.1a Source Code | Computer History Museum

Wireless@SG - SIM-based Connection Guide

From 1 Apr 2014 onwards, Singapore's FREE Wi-Fi initiative Wireless@SG will be enhanced to allow SIM-based authentication. This is on top of the existing non SIM-based authentication, one that requires connecting to a SSID through Wi-Fi and then doing a web-based authentication.

From the list of supported devices that support EAP-SIM, it appears many today's iOS, Android and BlackBerry devices are supported. Windows devices are not in the list.

Tips to convert all ebook format and make them readable across all devices

An article published on the LifeHacker - How to Buy Ebooks From Anywhere and Still Read Them All in One Place detailed just how to make sure eBooks purchased or downloaded across multiple sources can be made readable on any other eBook reader/devices. One key point to note is the step required to strip away DRM.

Hope it helps.

Image Resize in C#

The below code snippet (adapted from Stackoverflow) will do a image resize to a desired width in pixels. I hope it helps.

/// <summary>
/// Resize image to desired dimension based on width
/// </summary>
/// <param name="strSrcPath">Full absolute path of image source</param>
/// <param name="strDestPath">Full absolute path for resized image to be saved to</param>
/// <param name="iNewWidth">New desired width in pixels</param>
/// <param name="blnIgnoreIfNewWidthLarger">Do not resize image should new desired width is larger than width of original image if set to true</param>
public void Resize(string strSrcPath, string strDestPath, int iNewWidth, bool blnIgnoreIfNewWidthLarger)
{
 bool blnDoNotResize = false;
 System.Drawing.Image objSrcImage;
 System.Drawing.Bitmap objDestImage;
 System.Drawing.Graphics objGrapics;

 try
 {
  objSrcImage = System.Drawing.Image.FromFile(strSrcPath);

  int iSrcWidth = objSrcImage.Width;
  int iSrcHeight = objSrcImage.Height;

  blnDoNotResize = ((iSrcWidth == iNewWidth) || (blnIgnoreIfNewWidthLarger && iNewWidth > iSrcWidth));

  if (!blnDoNotResize)
  {
   int iNewHeight = iSrcHeight * iNewWidth / iSrcWidth;

   int iSrcX = 0, iSrcY = 0, iDestX = 0, iDestY = 0;
   float fPercent = 0, fPercentW = 0, fPercentH = 0;

   fPercentW = ((float)iNewWidth / (float)iSrcWidth);
   fPercentH = ((float)iNewHeight / (float)iSrcHeight);
   if (fPercentH < fPercentW)
   {
    fPercent = fPercentH;
    iDestX = System.Convert.ToInt16((iNewWidth - (iSrcWidth * fPercent)) / 2);
   }
   else
   {
    fPercent = fPercentW;
    iDestY = System.Convert.ToInt16((iNewHeight - (iSrcHeight * fPercent)) / 2);
   }

   int iDestWidth = (int)(iSrcWidth * fPercent);
   int iDestHeight = (int)(iSrcHeight * fPercent);

   objDestImage = new System.Drawing.Bitmap(iNewWidth, iNewHeight, System.Drawing.Imaging.PixelFormat.Format24bppRgb);
   objDestImage.SetResolution(objSrcImage.HorizontalResolution, objSrcImage.VerticalResolution);

   objGrapics = System.Drawing.Graphics.FromImage(objDestImage);
   objGrapics.Clear(System.Drawing.Color.Black);
   objGrapics.InterpolationMode = System.Drawing.Drawing2D.InterpolationMode.HighQualityBicubic;

   objGrapics.DrawImage(objSrcImage,
    new System.Drawing.Rectangle(iDestX, iDestY, iDestWidth, iDestHeight),
    new System.Drawing.Rectangle(iSrcX, iSrcY, iSrcWidth, iSrcHeight),
    System.Drawing.GraphicsUnit.Pixel);

   objGrapics.Dispose();

   objSrcImage.Dispose();

   objDestImage.Save(strDestPath);
   objDestImage.Dispose();
  }
  else
  {
   objSrcImage.Dispose();
   System.IO.File.Copy(strSrcPath, strDestPath, true);
  }
 }
 catch (Exception ex)
 {
  throw ex;
 }
 finally
 {
  objSrcImage = null;
  objDestImage = null;
  objGrapics = null;
 }
}

Edward Snowden Speaks at TED 2014

Infamous Edward Snowden, former contractor for the National Security Agency (NSA) and whistleblower who leaked thousands and thousands of classified American National Agency documents that had led to global outrage over U.S. privacy pry on all other countries. Of course, this had also led to Snowden having to base himself in Russia to avoid being detained by the U.S.

Snowden appeared in the form of a robot at TED.com and spoke about surveillance and Internet freedom.

Google Docs and Sheets Launches Add-Ons

Google launches add-ons to its Docs and Sheets apps. With add-ons written by developers, users would now be able to add in even more features in their documents and spreadsheets e.g. easily send documents as emails to contacts, create Avery address labels and name badges from Google spreadsheet data, adding track changes and approval workflow, etc.

This is really many steps ahead for Google.

Gift - A Singapore Drama Short Film by Viddsee

An inspiring short 8 minute short drama titled "Gift" by Singaporean Viddsee.

Being rich is not about what you have, but how much you can give.

How to Speed Tie a Necktie?

How to Fold a T-Shirt In 5 Seconds?

How to Seed a Pomegranate?

How to Coil Cables?

How to Debone And Eat a Chicken Wing?

How to Peel a Banana Like a Monkey?

How to Pack Your Luggage Like a Pro?

How to Fold a Fitted Sheet?

MergeFil.es - Merge multiple files (PDF, Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Images) into one consolidated PDF, Word, Excel or PowerPoint

MergeFil.es is a 100% FREE online tool that can combine/merge multiple files of varying formats (PDF, MS Word, MS PowerPoint, MS Excel, images, html, and/or .txt files) into one consolidated PDF, MS Word, MS Excel, or MS PowerPoint document. The tool also allows reordering of the selected files before finalising for merging.

Ellen Selfie at the Oscars 2014 - Most Retweets Of All Time

Ellen DeGeneres took a selfie together with several stars at the Oscars 2014 and tweet it online right away with a Samsung sponsored Note 3 phone. The tweet garnered the most number of retweets Of all time beating Obama's 2012 record.

Ellen DeGeneres 2,471,533 retweets (as of now)

If only Bradley's arm was longer. Best photo ever. #oscars pic.twitter.com/C9U5NOtGap

— Ellen DeGeneres (@TheEllenShow) March 3, 2014

Barack Obama 781,578 retweets (as of now)

Four more years. pic.twitter.com/bAJE6Vom

— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) November 7, 2012