Dispatches - Undercover Mosque

Last Saturday (5 May 2007) at a reunion lunch gathering with some ex-Conner (FIS) colleagues, I mentioned to my friends that I was very perturbed by the hijacking of religion to promote hatred and intolerance. I was referring to the fundamentalist Islam as practised by militant and radical Muslims in the Middle East, but which is gradually making in-roads into South East Asia, and even influencing moderate Islam here. Personally, I feel that the problem has been severely amplified since 9/11 as moderate Muslims everywhere are not aggressively confronting the theology of hate that is sprouted by the radicals, allowing children and impressionable youths to be indoctrinated with this dangerous form of their religion that threatens life and society for everyone. By allowing these teachings of hate to grow, the intolerant form of Islam becomes the "norm" instead of the extremist variant they were supposed to be!

I had developed a certain impression of such radical Muslims from my reading of internet articles and newspaper reports. However, I was actually quite unprepared for the level of hatred that is being espoused by the religious teachers (imams) against non-Muslims until I watched this British documentary, "Dispatches - Undercover Mosque" from UK's Channel 4 TV station. The 1-hour documentary shows how although some British mosques publicly profess to promote an Islam of love and understanding and tolerance of other faiths (they belong to a government inter-faith group that works with other religious organisations), internally, the imams go about propagating their teachings of hatred for all "kuffaars" (non-Muslims), and for their ultimate aim to bring down governments and establishments and to install their militant brand of Islam for everyone.

The documentary is quite an eye-opener. It was aired in the UK on 15 January this year.

Part 1 : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peFQWuk4nuo

Part 2 : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuCLC8kjWCI

Part 3 : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5t5EqWX92k

Part 4 : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMztM0Z7BYE

Part 5 : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4Zv3BUmwqs

Part 6 : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvjvNScmTQA

DVD43

Last Sunday (15 Apr 2007), I visited the new megastores at Tampines (Ikea, Courts, and Giant) for the first time. I learned 2 lessons from this outing:

1. Never visit 3 megastores at one go. It is tiring to walk around just one megastore, never mind three!
2. Never shop at Giant Tampines on Sunday, or at any peak period. The queues are horrendous!

I had not intended to buy anything at Giant. However, I was pleasantly surprised to see that Giant was selling the original DVD for "Superman Returns" for only $12. Now, that is even cheaper than the VCD version, which retails at $15! The DVD version even includes a second DVD containing a bonus documentary about the making of "Superman Returns", which was not available on the VCD.

There was a catch. This original $12 DVD is actually a Region 6 DVD, meant for the China market. Singapore is designated Region 3, as is most of South East Asia. However, the Region 3 DVD for "Superman Returns" retails for $30, which is significantly higher than $12 for the Region 6 DVD.

Theoretically, all DVD players sold in Singapore should only play Region 3 DVDs. However, most standalone DVD players have been tweaked at the factory to be "Region Free" - otherwise, consumers will not buy them. As such, playing the Region 6 DVD was not a problem on my standalone DVD player.

However, when it came to the DVD drive on my Dell notebook, this was not so simple. Region coding has not been disabled on the DVD drive on my notebook, which has been configured as Region 3. And all the DVD playing software provided by Dell (Dell MediaDirect as well as Microsoft Windows Media Player) "respected" the region code setting on the drive, and therefore refused to play the Region 6 DVD!

Although I could change the DVD Region setting on the DVD drive to play the disc, I am limited to only changing the region setting 5 times. This was not a permanent solution:

I did a Google search, and found the following freeware gem:

http://www.dvd43.com/

DVD43 installs on your Windows XP system and performs real-time decrypting of Region protected DVDs. When it is running, it displays a green smiley face on your system tray, and will auto-strip all Region protection from a protected DVD when the DVD is played.

And indeed, once installed, the Region 6 "Superman Returns" DVD played beautifully in both Microsoft Windows Media Player as well as Dell MediaDirect on my notebook.

Hope you find this tip useful.

Downloading YouTube videos and converting Multimedia files

I recently upgraded my Singtel account to the Singtel MIO bundle (broadband + mobile phone + fixed line phone for $68 per month). Making this switch netted me physical savings of $4 per month (compared to the $72 total I paid previously for the services separately). Besides being cheaper, I am also getting:

• faster broadband speed (3000 kbps compared to 1500 kbps previously)
• free SMS, free caller ID, and more mobile minutes for outgoing calls (100 minutes compared to 80 minutes)
• - free outgoing fixed line calls (I used to pay 1.4 cents per minute for outgoing calls on my fixed line)

This is truly one of those "no brainer" deals.

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When I upgraded to the MIO plan, Singtel said it was mandatory that I get a new mobile phone. After evaluating the offerings available, I finally opted for a $0 phone. For a free phone, I found the Samsung Ultra Edition 8.4 to be feature-packed! You can read a review of the phone and its features at this site:

http://asia.cnet.com/reviews/mobilephones/0,39051199,39271322p,00.htm

As you can see from the CNET magazine review, this phone can play MP3 music and MP4 video files. As I have never owned such multimedia phones before (yup, I am that behind the times in terms of handphone ownership), I got all caught up trying all kinds of MP3 songs from my personal music collection for my ring tone. In the end, I settled on "Sara" (from the Jefferson Starship album "Knee Deep in the Hoopla"), which is one of my favorite songs from the 1980s.

However, I then found the "Sara" music video on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqRTtkEHrA4

Not content with having "Sara" as my ring tone, I now wanted to also load the "Sara" music video on my Ultra Edition phone.

If you have tried to download YouTube's videos before, you know that you can't actually save YouTube videos on to your hard disk as easily as you can with regular files.

A little investigation told me that all YouTube videos are actually stored in FLV (Flash Video) format. I also found many techniques and utilities for saving YouTube videos as FLV files on the hard disk. However, the method that I am recommending is also the easiest to remember: Just put the word "Kiss" before "YouTube" to get "KissYouTube".

To download a copy of a YouTube video, simply prefix "kiss" before the word "youtube" in the URL. Using the above URL as an example, to download the "Sara" video, all I needed was to type this URL instead in my web browser:

http://www.kissyoutube.com/watch?v=ZqRTtkEHrA4

On the KissYouTube page that is opened, click the link "Download Now" to begin the download. As per the instructions given, you must remember to add the extension ".FLV" to the file name when you save the file on your hard disk.

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If you want to play FLV files from your PC, I strongly recommend the freeware (and open sourced) media player VLC, which can be downloaded from this site:

http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

A few years ago, I obtained a video in WMV format from a Microsoft CDROM. However, the WMV file on the CDROM was partially corrupted, and Microsoft's Windows Media Player refused to play the corrupted WMV file - complaining that it was bad and not playable etc. The corrupted WMV file will not play on other players like RealPlayer or Quicktime either. As I wanted to watch the video, I discovered references to the VLC program from a Google search. To my astonishment and delight, VLC played the corrupted WMV file without any problems whatsoever. I was sold on the VLC player ever since.

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However, the Ultra Edition phone cannot play videos in FLV format. To play the "Sara" music video, I need to first convert the FLV file to MP4 format.

I have found a fantastic web site that will convert a file in any media format to any other media format. And yes, the conversion service is free!

http://media-convert.com/

In the Media-Convert site, simply specify the source file from your hard disk and its media type. Then, specify the destination type you wish to convert the file to. Click the "Convert" button, and viola! The conversion is done for you. There is no software to be installed, so you can perform these conversions from a Windows, Mac, or even Linux computer!

I converted the "Sara.FLV" file to "Sara.MP4", and uploaded the MP4 file into my phone. I now have the "Sara" music video playing beautifully on my new phone.

Wickedly, the Media-Convert site is also able to convert the FLV video file to an MP3 music file too. Thus, this is also a good way to extract just the audio portion of a video file in to an MP3 file for use as a ring tone!

Hope you find these tips fun and useful. As a bonus, here is another YouTube music video that you might want to "rip" and "collect":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhAjrIAFiJ0

Enjoy! NJ

Samsung Ultra Edition 8.4 Phone

The ear-piece connects to the USB port on the phone.

The phone's USB port serves as:

1. USB data port
2. Charging port
3. Ear-piece port

Note that this photo is taken from the phone's 2 megapixel camera. As you can see, the camera quality is not so bad.

The USB/charging/ear-piece port is on the phone's right edge.

Note the large buttons on the keypad. I like large buttons as they are easier for me to press. They are definitely nicer than the buttons on the Nokia 6288 that I was previously considering.

All photos of the phone are taken from my Fujifilm FinePix A345 (4-megapixel) camera.

The USB/charging/ear-piece port exposed.

The Samsung Ultra Edition 8.4 with the Samsung X100A phone.

The Ultra Edition 8.4 is almost half the thickness of the X100A phone. They are about the same height and width.

Personally, the Ultra Edition 8.4 phone is TOO SLIM for me. I actually prefer a thicker phone (like my old X100A). But I have no complaints for a $0 phone with so much functionality.



Links:

• Samsung Ultra Edition 8.4 Specifications

• CNET Review of the Ultra Edition 8.4

AXIS Gathering with Koon Chee - Friday 03 Nov 2006

So when was the last AXIS gathering? That would be back in 2005 when Monica gave birth to Clara. But at that time, Koon Chee was in Hong Kong. If I am not wrong, the last gathering with Koon Chee was probably the one back in May 2004 at Danny and Monica's house.

However, everyone was plenty busy, so only Danny, Monica and myself could make it for this one. Koon Chee is in Singapore for a whole week to oversee a new project at Fedex (he was here since 28 October, and will tentatively be leaving Singapore on 7 November).


So what is new? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.

Photo 1

Photo 2


Oh right. Monica is having a second child soon. And I think Koon Chee's glasses are too outlandish (but then, who am I to comment on fashion?).

Koon Chee is staying at the Hotel Phoenix (next to Somerset MRT station on Orchard Road), so he suggested meeting at Kinokuniya Bookstore at Ngee Ann City at 7pm. After meeting up, we decided to dine at the Crystal Jade Kitchen (Cantonese cuisine) restaurant in Basement 2. Although the restaurant has been hyped to the hip on its exquisite food, I personally didn't find the dishes we tried particularly outstanding (and the dishes we chose were all "Chef Recommendations"). I have definitely eaten tastier Cantonese cooking in other restaurants

Restaurant review from the Sunday Times

The restaurant was very packed! With some reluctance, we decided to give up our table at 9 pm to the horde of customers queuing outside the restaurant (waiting for stragglers like us to leave) and made our way to the McDonalds one level up in Basement 1 where we continued our chit chat until 10:15pm. We left because the shopping centre was closing, and security guards everywhere were bringing down the shutters. Otherwise, I think we probably would have stayed longer.

Since we are all in the IT line, talk naturally drifted to Microsoft's Windows Vista. Danny mentioned that Ai Khim is working in a firm that do product packaging for Microsoft. I joked that we should ask Ai Khim to sneak out some of the new Vista packaging as they look very shiny and desirable.

Vista Shiny's Case


Anyway, I did a fun mockup for a software package. Too bad the software cannot duplicate Microsoft's "shiny" look:

VersaTrack Box

VersaTrack Box (Details)


If you wish to try Vista, you can get the Vista download from this site:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/getready/preview.mspx

Despite what it says on the website, it is my understanding that anyone and everyone can download and try the Vista RC1 (Release Candidate 1) for free. This evaluation version will expire at the end of May 2007 (you have only 7 months to try it).


I have tried Vista RC1 off and on over the past 2 weeks. Personally, Vista feels like a Windows update that is completely focused on "eye candy". It doesn't feel like a compelling upgrade from Windows XP, unlike the update from Windows 98 to Windows XP. When Windows XP was introduced, the rock solid stability of the XP version of Windows was astonishing! (As compared to the multitude of "blue screens of death" I got everyday when I was running Windows 98.)

My recommendation is: don't bother upgrading an existing copy of XP to Vista.
You should only get Vista when you buy your new PC (with Vista preinstalled).

I also told Danny that I am using a free program from Microsoft called Microsoft Virtual PC 2004. Virtual PC allows me to run multiple virtual sessions - with each session running a completely different Windows operating system - on my Windows XP notebook.

My Windows XP notebook running with a Window 2003 Server virtual session.


If you think Virtual PC is useful, you can download it for free from this Microsoft site:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtualpc/default.mspx

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Anyway, enough of the IT talk. Hopefully, more of us will be able to make it for the next AXIS gathering.

Happy weekend!
NJ