My pictures V

Synchronizing photo albums between two computers is a problem a lot of us experience. You dock your camera and receive emails both at your desktop and laptop and after a while, some pictures is in one computer and some pictures the other. I recently have been spending a lot of time organizing my digital photos so that I can be sure I back up everything; but synchronizing all the directories I have in different machines has become a problem.

My brother had a even stranger problem. He recently tried to copy all his digital pictures from his desktop to his new fruity laptop (via his switch). The copy, for whatever reason, stopped in the middle. He didn't want to start from the beginning (cause it was a long process) but couldn't be sure what didn't get copied over either. As tedious a task as examining the number of files in all subdirectories it is, that wouldn't be enough, because some files could have been half copied.

This is when WinMerge comes in. The new WinMerge has a function to compare file size only, so even when you are using mounted drives, finding the difference between two directories is speedy and easy.

You first select the two directories you want to examine, instruct it to include subfolders in its examination as well.



In the Option dialog, configure it to compare file size only; otherwise the entire file will be fetched across wire and that may be a slow depends on the number of files.



Then sort the output by Comparison result.



Thanks to the folks at WinMerge. It is a fabulous piece of software.

Firefox 3 features I - Full zoom

In my previous post I talked about how even though many reviews rated Firefox 2 above Internet Explorer 7 (based largely on anti-Microsoft sentiment), I believed Internet Explorer 7 did a better job. One of the factors considered was IE7's page zoom feature.

The newly released Firefox 3 comes with a similar full zoom feature which by large has replaced the old font resize feature. This is a move in the right direction and an apparent acknowledgement of the value of the feature. Being able to resize the entire page means web pages can be scaled up without messing up layout or fiddling with the monitor's resolution. This is clearly essentially because for alot of LCD monitors, only max resolution is viable.

But I still think the folks at Mozilla haven't got it right. Full zoom in Firefox 3 is a per site feature, meaning it will remember which site to zoom, while default zoom level remains 100%. Even though on Windows, Firefox correctly (and nicely) honors system level font size, this invariable default zoom is not enough as an accessibility feature. Luckily I found an add-on called No Squint that solves this problem. No Squint lets you set the default zoom level of web pages. It works.

My pictures IV

I took this picture on the 10^th of December 2005 at Golden Gate Fields, a horse racing track north of Berkeley.


It was a brisk day. Dad loved the tracks so we decided to spend a day there. Mom, who apparently had mistaken the occasion, made me dress up despite my stern opposition. Between the gallops and the number yelling dad had a great time and would eventually become a regular himself. Mom on the other hand sat on some dusty benches all afternoon checking her watch every 5 minutes. I was busy enough fiddling with the blue iPod in an iPod sock my brother had given me just a week ago.

We hurried home after the last race because we were supposed to meet up with uncle for dinner and we had to pick up something from home first. When we got home I found a package at the door step, it was a Christmas present from my buddy Victor (I don't get a lot of presents in Christmas).

We got to uncle's house on time and had dinner at a resturant nearby. Dinner was good, my cousin Xavier showed up too. It wasn't a special kind of day when I've done something extraordinary, but it was very memorable. It was a good day.

My pictures III

This is one of the pictures I like the most of myself. It was new year 1994, my mother and I drove from Austin, Texas to Orlando, Florida, and spent 3 days in Disney and Universal Studio. 12 years before that mom had taken me and my brother there once. Then more than 13 years after in 2007 my brother and I would visit Disney Orlando again, watching parents spend obscene amount of money on accommodations, meals, entrance and apparels so their kids can fall asleep on the strollers in a theme park, much like our mother did.

I couldn't remember where I took this picture, I think it was a rest stop on I-10 somewhere between Orlando to New Orleans. We didn't see much of the French quarters because it was raining cats and dogs, and the poboy we had, I don't have the slightest recollection of what it tasted like.

Seen behind me was the 91' Toyota Corolla I spent my college years with. Numerous late nights it would shuttle me between my apartment and the Sparc labs at campus. It was rear ended in 2000 and subsequently donated to the Salvation Army in Oakland. I would like to think it was adopted by someone responsible and is still living happily.

My pictures II

These two pictures're kind of cute. The first I was just a few months old then. My brother and I decided to recreate it (I think in 2003), we've certainly outgrown the post.




"Two idiots." My brother commented after film was developed.

My pictures I

Flipping through old albums can be scary business, especially when a picture reminds you of better times, the kind of better times that'll never be again. You took the photo to capture the joy of the moment, but could'ves would'ves should'ves can turn out quite emotionally paralysing.

And then there're videos, high resolution good sound quality those little digital cameras they produce nowadays. It's almost like the subject is right in front of you...

The Last Goodnight's Pictures of You talks about how we all hang our pictures for the world to see

The night before Thanksgiving

This Thanksgivng Tom has alot to be thankful for, even though the worst had happened just 7 months ago. He won't be mentioning any of these during tomorrow's dinner with his parents and sisters, no, it won't be appropriate. But he will tonight, because tonight is reserved for Jane and himself.

He is thankful for the camera he got a few years ago as a graduation present, it takes great videos in addition to nice crisp pictures.

He is thankful for the Chili's at main street, it's right between his office and Jane's shop, so they could meet up for lunch almost everyday.

He is thankful for the numerous videos he had taken of Jane during lunch in the past few years. From shying away to sauce dripping off her mouth, for whatever reasons he got gigabytes of them.

The plate is set and the napkins are stacked. Tom puts on ESPN and mutes it. He takes the ribs out of the oven, unwraps the foil and places them on the dining table between his plate and his laptop, which has those lunch videos playing in a loop. Jane died of a renal failure 7 months ago. But Tom is thankful for the chance to share with her their favorite baby back ribs once again, this night before Thanksgiving.

My days after

I bought a photo frame yesterday, a brush steel 4x6, to hold dad's picture. That was a passport picture which turned out unexpectedly good. We had the negative but the photo shop refused to develope it - the frame is too small for the machine, too much has been cut off - so they claimed. So we had to scan the picture itself and blow it up, 4x6 ended up looking ok.

Dad had had a lot of pictures taken in his life time. There was this duffle he brought home from work when he retried that he told mom to throw out, which she never did. In it was his tax papers, paycheck stubs, (even) cash and many pictures scattered all over. I found a picture of granddad (the only one I have) standing in front of a school where he was supposedly the principal; and another picture curiously enough featuring dad in front of the same school, must have been more than 60 years after.

We shredded most of what's in the duffle. Dad didn't have a lot of stuff (he wasn't the materialistic kind) at home but we still couldn't keep everything. So when it came to stuff to save, I picked those that I could use, including a few neck ties. The green one can be seen on his book cover. The red and the other green one, mom and I had picked out for him. I couldn't remember where, or even when, but I remember them. I wore the red one to work today. I can't use his pants or shirts, they're too big, but I am carrying his wallet - a maroon leather Coach with a coin compartment, practical and pretty nice - mom and I picked that out for him too. I am now 7000 miles from where he rests, perhaps all these can bring me closer to him.

Upon my dresser is a black and white family picture. I was three months old sitting on dad's lap. It must have been an exiciting time for him, a brand new home and a brand new baby; a brand new life, the future was unwritten but surely full of hope. It shows on dad and mom's smiles.

We all expect life to get better everyday, at least in general. And the last few years have been good to the family. Financially my brother and I have been well off enough. So having us off his back, even though dad had retired he could afford to whatever. Dad went to a few places with his friends, New Zeland, England to watch ball games, etc. Mom and dad boarded their beloved cruise ship as much as they could. They won't admit it but I've always thought they enjoyed it. So it shouldn't be surprising that it has been hard on mom. She breaks down everytime she calls.

It's human nature that we all make plans for the future, we expect there'd be a next time, a better time. In my closet I have a paper hat I saved from new year 1998 that we got from casinos in Reno. We spent new year's eve of 2007 in a casino too. It was less than 2 hours drive from where we lived. Dad liked the blackjack table and mom liked the buffet, and there was the midnight celebration. We were going to go again the next year. But that was the last time dad came to stay with me. We had no idea that would be the last time we'd visit these Indian casinos, the last time we'd celebrate new year together.

It was 2005 the Monday after Thanksgiving. We were on our way back from a trip to Vancouver when we stopped by this outlet in Oregon. I saw this Christmas tree and I thought it was going to be an awesome Christmas. It was.

I know many people have gone through the same process, some of my friends have too. It's the myriad of experiences in life that enrich us and make the journey worthwhile. I get it. But I will always hate this part.

My blog

Blog is supposed to be short for weblog, I know that, everybody does. But what are you supposed to write in a blog? Professional stuff, personal stuff, or a pile of who-gives-a-shit's?

I started mildly hurtful sarcasm realistically enough not to expect myself churning out tunably hurtful comments, no, not even sarcastic remarks; that's hard. It was 2004 and that was the trendy thing of the time (the start of web2.0) and I was supposed to be the computer guy.

I wrote 2 pieces, ran out of material and gave up.

My buddy in Canada Victor Wong on the other hand has since been talking about his collectibles and artsy possessions on magicketchup, interesting reads, I subscribed and checked daily... after a while, I thought, I could do that, so I restarted my blog. "I'll put my short stories there" I resolved. mildly hurtful sarcasm was supposed to be a collection of my short stories.

The thing is, most of my short stories don't get written. Because writing, just like everything else in my life, is hard; much less preferable than an afternoon nap. These stories then get stuck my head, rent past due, evicted by my memory cells in lure of numerous mundane mental reminders. Marvelous ideas disappear forever, sigh an awful waste.

Some stories do get translated into words, well, half of them; no, not half of them stories, them stories mostly got half MS Word'ed before moving into the electronic trash can - can't blame my affection for naps, my bed is comfy.

So I fill in a few things to draw traffic, Mac bashing (which I passionately do) aside, I have professional coding stuff. I don't copycat, I really don't, I only put down what I can't find on Google. The draw traffic part works, well, a little bit, takes time. But what works best is current affairs - put on someone's picture and tag it Obama, readership spikes the next day. Mr. President, I didn't vote for you, but thanks to your supporters anyway.

But why shouldn't there be more entries about myself. Me me me me me. The I's don't have to be characters from my nonsenses imaginations, or indices from for loops (i++ is probably the most used expression in the C programming language). Let Blogger/Google/Wayback Machine archive them, then perhaps some day some archaeologist will yell "Gold, this is gold!" waving the 3.5 hard disk that holds this blog.