NYE 2008

After a quick dinner of fried rice, grilled spatchcock, and pork adobo, GF and I headed down to the city for the NYE fireworks. As usual, this year's fireworks extravaganza is supposed to be the best ever. By 8:30pm we were already on the Pyrmont Bridge. I searched out my colleague and turned over the emergency pager to him. From here on, I'm a free man - till the second week of January.

This is the first time I watched the 9pm fireworks on the bridge. I must say it is spectacular. The firing barges are just in front of us and the fireworks display is really up close and personal. You can hear and feel the explosions, which makes it all the more exciting. With time to kill till the midnight fireworks, GF met up with some of her friends for some picture-taking before they headed for Circular Quay. Us, we just stayed around the Pyrmont Darling Island area till twelve. We had a pretty good view of the Harbour Bridge and the CBD skyscrapers participating in the fireworks display. From our vantage point, we can actually see three to four sets of the fireworks. It's not as good as the 9pm one though because they all seem so distant and the explosions a bit muffled. After 4 straight years of watching the NYE fireworks, the magic tends to wear off a bit. Anyway, it's still a pretty good show. Happy new year, everyone!

O Brother, Where Art Thy Vegetarian Lunch?

It was a long time coming, but my sister finally invited my vegetarian colleague and his family and friends over for lunch. It wasn't easy preparing for it because my colleague is a strict vegetarian - not any vegetarian food will do. We opted for steamed fish, stir-fried vegetables, veggie sausages, red-bean siopao, caesar salad, and DIY pizza. For dessert, we had fruit salad, some cakes, and a big box of cookies GF brought along as her contribution.

Spent the rest of the afternoon watching O Brother, Where Art Thou? with GF. Written and directed by the Cohen Brothers, it's supposed to be very good, but for the life of me, I can't see what's good about it. I know the story, I understand the dialogue, but I just don't "get" it. Maybe I should watch it again.

Embutido

Spent most of the afternoon making embutido with my sister. Takes a lot of time to prepare the ingredients, then about an hour to steam the embutido. Nothing tricky about it though.

First, the ingredients:

• 1.5 kilos of ground pork
• 1 pc. green bell pepper (a.k.a. capsicum), chopped
• 1 pc. red bell pepper, chopped
• 6 slices of ham, chopped
• 50 gms of sweet pickle relish (a.k.a. dill cucumber), chopped
• 200 gms. of raisins
• 200 gms of frankfurt or vienna sausage, cut into strips
• cheese, cut into strips
• 3 stalks of spring onion, chopped
• 3 whole eggs
• dash of liquid seasoning
• salt & pepper, to taste
• 1 tbsp. cornstarch
• hard-boiled eggs, sliced
• aluminum foil, 10" x 12" sizes

Cooking Procedures:

1. In a bowl, combine all the chopped ingredients and mix until well blended. Leave the slices and strips for now.
2. Spread and flatten the mixture onto the center of each foil. Divide the slices of hard cook eggs and strips of Vienna sausages and cheese. Place another layer of the mixture on top.
3. Roll the aluminum foil into a tightly packed log about 1" to 2" in diameter, sealing on both ends. Repeat with the remaining pork mixture.
4. Place the embutido in a steamer and steam for an hour.
5. Remove from steamer. Let it cool and slice into rings. Alternatively, you can also fry the embutido slices. Serve with your favorite catsup or sauces.
6. Refrigerate unused embutido.

Greater Union Movie Marathon

It was my first time to try a movie marathon (on terra firma), and frankly I'm surprised so many people are into this thing. I guess the main draw is the cheap ticket price ($16.50 for three movies), plus the chance to do something different with your friends. Most of the people inside the cinema are high school kiddies, who brought along food, blankets, pillows, and friends. Me, I was with my sister, GF, and her brother.

First movie was I Am Legend. This is actually the only movie I wanted to see. Set in post-apocalyptic 2012 New York, Robert Neville and his German shepherd Sam seem to be the only survivors of a lethal virus that broke out during 2009. The genetically-engineered virus was originally developed as a cure for cancer, which later mutated and wiped out 90% of the human population. Over 9% were infected by the strain, but didn't die - degenerating into the aggressive Infected. Less than 1% are totally immune from the virus, but are hunted down by the Infected for food.

I can see why the movie would appeal to the guys. (The girls only wanted to see Will Smith working out half-naked.) I mean, the main character had the whole of NYC as his personal playground. He takes any flash car he likes, go hunting around town all morning, and chat up the ladies (mannequins) all he wants. The rest of the day, he works at bit at the lab, searching for a cure. Absolutely no night life though because that's when the Infected comes out in search for fresh meat.

In a chance encounter, he meets up with two survivors - Anna and her son Ethan. They're on their way to Vermont where there's supposed to be a colony of survivors. Finally, after three years of trial and error, Robert finds a cure. Just in time, too because the Infected manages to track him down to his HQ and mounts an all-out attack. Robert gives Anna a vial of the cure and whisks them out of the house through a backdoor. After that, he blows everything to kingdom come. Anna and Ethan safely reaches the survivors' colony with the cure, and that's how the Legend of Robert Neville came to be.

Next on the line-up in Beowulf. Having watched Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within years and years ago, I'm surprised CGI animation still hasn't improved much at all. I mean, there were times when I struggled to identify the real Angelina Jolie from the CG one, but that's about it. And there's nothing special about the story, too. King Hrothgar and his men offends the monster Grendel, who prefers a quiet night, so he comes to the mead hall and kills off most of the merrymakers. King Hrothgar contracts Beowulf and his men to kill Grendel, which Beowulf did. In retaliation, Grendel's mummy kills Beowulf men in their sleep, and skins them, too. Beowulf goes to the flooded caves for payback. Instead of getting his revenge, Beowulf gets seduced by Grendel's mother (now in the form of luscious Angelina Jolie) with her promise of fame and fortune in exchange for a son. Beowulf willingly obliges.

Years later, Beowulf dreams of a golden man who threatens to kill his wife Wealtheow and consort Ursula. He knew then that his son is out to create trouble in Heorot. That same day, a great dragon attacks his castle. He manages to kill the dragon by ripping out its heart with his bare hands, but not before he was mortally wounded. He leaves the kingdom to his good friend Wiglaf and passes away. In the final scene, we see Wiglaf standing on the shore. Grendel's mother appears out of the water and stares alluringly at Wiglaf. We don't know if Wiglaf took the bait or not.

Last movie for the marathon is 1408. I've seen this one on the plane before. Wasn't scared then, wasn't scared now. It does help that during both times I was already half-asleep. There's really no story to this movie. Just a mishmash of scares strung together. This hack of a writer visits this haunted room to prove there's nothing paranormal about it. About an hour or so of strange happenings, he comes out an almost-dead believer.

Spent the rest of the day catching up on my sleep.

Steak Dianne

This is one recipe where you just can't go wrong. I mean, this is steak we're talking about. The accompanying photo is not the best, but that's only because I used a cameraphone.

Ingredients:

• 4 fillet steaks, about 150g each
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed and chopped
• freshly ground black pepper
• 50g butter
• 4 spring onions, finely chopped
• 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
• 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tablespoon brandy (Chinese cooking wine, if you're Chinese)
• 1/3 cup cream
• 2 tablespoons finely-chopped fresh parsley

Cooking Procedures:

1. Flatten and tenderize the steak pieces.
2. Spread the garlic over both sides of each steak and grind over the pepper.
3. Heat half the butter in a frying pan. Cook the steaks over high heat for 2 to 3 minutes to seal each side, turning only once. Remove the meat from the pan; cover and keep warm.
4. Heat the remaining butter in the pan; add the spring onion and cook for 1 minute. Add the mustard, Worcestershire sauce and brandy. Stir to dislodge any crusty bits from the base of the pan.
5. Stir in the cream; simmer for about 3-4 minutes, or until reduced slightly. Stir in the parsley. Return the steaks to the pan unitl just heated. Serve immediately with the sauce.

Young Organists' Day at Sydney Town Hall

Dropped by Town Hall for a free lunchtime organ concert. It's not everyday that the Town Hall is open to the public, so I took the opportunity to check it out on this Young Organists' Day. There were originally 10 pieces all in all, reduced by one because Nicholas Liney can't make it. All of the players were quite young - ranging from 11 to 16 years of age. And what's remarkable is that all of them are multi-talented. Most of them play more than one instrument. Others interest include composing, conduction, chorale, football, aviation, debating, etc.

Programme below:

• Chorale in A minor - Cesar Franck (1822-1890) - Gary Cheung

• Benedictus - Max Reger (1873-1916) - Samual Allchurch


• Scherzo - Eugene Gigout (1844-1925) - Jessica Lim


• Toccata from the 5th Symphony - Charles Marie Widor (1844-1937) - Jonathan Chan


• Toccata in 7 - John Rutter (b. 1945) - Adrian So


• Transports de joie - Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992) - Luke English


• Toccata in C minor - Johann Pachelbel (1653-1706) - Marianne Ching


• Toccata from "Captain Logon Variations" - Colin Brumby (b. 1933) - Nicholas Liney


• Duet: Marche Triomphale - Anon (1850-190?) - Jessica Lim and Edith Yam


• Prelude and Fuge on B.A.C.H - Franz Liszt (1811-1886) - Marko Server

After the concert, kids (and others) were invited to try out and play the Grand Organ. It is truly the "King of Instruments." The whole pipe structure occupied most of the stage, yet the organist's booth is just big enough for two people to sit side-by-side. There are panels of stops left and right to control the sound of the organ, and in the middle are rows and rows of keys and pedals. I quote from the programme: "The Grand Organ of the Sydney Town Hall was the largest organ in the world when it was opened in 1890 by the acclaimed British organist W T Best. Build by William Hill and Son of London, the organ have five keyboards for the hands and one for the feet. There are 126 speaking stops and nearly 9,000 pipes ranging in length from a few centimeters to almost 20 meters; the largest belonging to the famour pedal stop Contra Trombone 64'."

After the concert, I went to the lobby and joined a tour of the town hall organized by The Friends of the Sydney Town Hall. Apparently, Town Hall is being closed for all of 2008 till mid-2009 for major building renovations, so really happy I came along today. Unfortunately, I left my camera in the office. Such a pity because there's so many things to take pictures of. First is the Vestibule with the grand chandelier. The ceiling of the hall is repainted in its original colors. The dome in the middle of the room is decorated with twelve glass panels representing the 4 basic elements and the 8 virtues. The chandelier used to be raised and lowered, but now it's fixed in place. It comprises of 1,952 pieces of crystal. Next, we visit the Grand Staircase with its stenciled decorations. Beside it is a bird-cage lift installed in 1906. It is said to be the oldest and sole surviving example of its kind still operating in NSW. Too bad we didn't get to try it out for a ride. Up to the second level, we had a magnificent view of the Centennial Hall with the Grand Organ. Our guide tells us that the metal ceiling of the hall was specially designed to withstand the vibrations from the organ. Moving on, we visited the Council Chamber, where the city council meetings are held, and the Lady Mayoress' Rooms, where certain items from the Sydney Town Hall Collection are displayed: a chair from the Queen's inauguration, a large Sevres porcelain-covered vase, a lock of hair from Napoleon Bonaparte, etc. We then went down to the basement to check out some construction areas where bodies have been uncovered (and put back in). Not surprising as the site used to be the Old Sydney Burial Ground from 1792 to 1820. For our last stop, we visited the Town Hall House to look at its scale model of the Sydney CBD.

Movie 2007.12.27 - Grilled

Bought the DVD when I was in KL about a year ago. I've never heard of the movie before, but the tagline sure got my attention: "You can't beat their meat." And yes, the movie is about meat salesmen.

So these two guys Maurice and Dave (Ray Romano and Kevin James) go door-to-door selling high-quality steak meat in bulk. You tell them what kind of meat you want, how many, how thick, and they'll deliver a whole freezer-full of the stuff to your doorstep. Obviously, they don't get a lot of customers. In desperate need to make a sale, they help out their last remaining lead and her bimbo friend, who's the wife of mobster Tony, who's killed off by two hitmen.

To make a long story short, they managed to save the life of a rival mobster, and he buys lots and lots and lots of meat from them. I'm a bit disappointed because I was expecting the movie to be a bit more raunchy, instead of feel-good. Funniest comment? The hot transwoman saying, "I want to see your meat."

Movie 2007.12.26 - Being John Malkovich

Being John Malkovich was interesting enough that my sister (the one with the short attention span) actually finished the whole thing. The development of the story is kinda slow, but there's enough ambiguity to keep the audience hooked. John Cusack plays Craig, a struggling puppeteer and his wife Lotte (played by Cameron Diaz). Desperate for work, Craig applies for a job as a filer at an office located on the 7½ floor. The ceiling is so low, everyone walks around stooping. This is when things get interesting. Behind his filing cabinet, Craig discovers a portal into John Malkovich's mind. You enter the portal and you can sense whatever John Malkovich is experiencing. After 15 minutes, you get ejected at the Jersey turnpike.

So, Craig and his lady colleague Maxine (Catherine Keener) gets this idea of charging people to "experience" John Malkovich for $200 a pop. Things were all right until Lotte started "entering" John Malkovich, and Maxine would make passionate love to Lotte through Malkovich. Poor Malkovich! Craig got the hots for Maxine, but Maxine only has eyes for Lotte (only when she's inside Malkovich). Craig figures the only way he can make love to Maxine is if he becomes Malkovich, which he did. Eventually, he finds a way to take permanent control of Malkovich. So the puppeteer has found the ultimate puppet. Unknown to him, other people have the same idea. His boss is actually waiting for Malkovich's 44th birthday, then he and his friends are going to use Malkovich's body as their next vessel. With his (new) wife Maxine and their unborn baby kidnapped by his boss, Craig has no choice but to vacate the host. Turns out the baby wasn't even his. Maxine got impregnated when she was making love with Malkovich/Lotte, and the two of them eloped, leaving Craig all alone. Last scene of the movie shows Maxine and Lotte in the public swimming pools with their daughter Emily, and Craig watching them helplessly through their daughter's eyes.

Enchanted La Perouse

Brought GF to La Perouse for a relaxing Boxing Day walk. I'm surprised that after years for living in Sydney, she hasn't visited the Botany Bay National Park before. First place we visited is the nearby Congwong Beach. The beach is pretty small, not as well-maintained, but quite safe to swim in. Since we didn't bring any beach gear with us, we didn't stay long.

We saw a sign saying Henry Head Scenic Walk, and proceeded to follow it. The sign didn't say how long the trail is, so on and on we walked. Felt a bit sorry for GF because she wasn't dressed properly for hiking (nor was I), and was slipping from time to time. We eventually reached a fork in the trail: one continuing to Henry Head (700 meters more) and another leading to Browns Rock (280m). We decided to try the latter. Halfway down the pass, we sighted this middle-aged guy stark naked. Like a frightened bunny, he jumped into the bush and run away without so much as an "excuse me". Very strange. At the end of the trail is a narrow ledge where quite a few people were fishing. Seeing that there's no other way, we doubled back to the fork, and followed the main road to the golf club and back to the parking lot.

After a quick lunch of ham sandwiches and banana on the slopes, we checked out the Macquarie Watchtower. The sandstone structure was built in the 1820s to watch for smugglers and escaping convicts. Initially used as a customs house, it later became the first school in the area. Just behind it is the La Perouse Museum and La Perouse Monument. Across the bridge is the Bare Island Fortification. It was built in 1855 to protect Sydney from Russian invasion. If it looks familiar to you, that's because it was featured in the final scenes of Mission: Impossible 2 where Tom Cruise did battle with the bad guy on bikes.

Back at the house, we had a second barbecue lunch, then off to Westfield to watch Enchanted (at GF's request). It wasn't too bad actually. The animation was standard Disney, and the songs quite catchy. As expected, the movie had a happy ending, but with a few twists. Prince Edward's kiss fails to wake up Princess Giselle after she ate the poisoned apple. Giselle slays the monstrous dragon (actually Queen Narissa). The fairy-tale princess didn't end up with her prince charming. Instead of going back to the land of Andalusia, she married Robert and started a company making princess clothing for girls. As for Prince Edward, he hooks up with Robert's fiancee Nancy, and they all lived happily ever after.

12 Days Of Fotopic.net

Fotopic.net is celebrating 12 days of Christmas (from 25th December until 5th January) with offers ranging from quota and subscription bargains, to low cost prints and gifts from the Fotopic workshop.

Special offer for Christmas day is half-price quotas. The standard 250MB that Fotopic gives out for free accounts is definitely not enough, so this is quite welcome. Normally, I delete my older collections when I hit the quota. This time I decided to splurge a bit and bought 1GB of storage space for my photos. Sort of like a Christmas gift for myself. At £1 per 100MB, the price is quite reasonable. And it gets even cheaper if you purchase 2.5GB or more.

Christmas Eve Dinner

Normally, I would spend a quiet dinner with the family on Christmas eve. My having a GF changed all that. She and her colleague hijacked me into having a last-minute dinner with her boss at her house in Beecroft. There's a remote chance she'll be fired from work if I don't show up, so I agreed.

To be fair, the dinner was nice and the conversation enjoyable. The plan was to do an eat-and-run, but it didn't materialize. We arrived 30 minutes early, had the dinner an hour late, and finished around 10:30pm already. As is typical in Filipino dinners, we left with some baon and Christmas presents.

Helsinki in One Day

If you have only one winter day to explore Helsinki, here's how you should do it. Take the 4T tram and get off when you see the Uspenski Cathedral. It's the red-brick cathedral up on a hill. Hard to miss as it's the largest orthodox church in Western Europe. Admission to the Cathedral is free, though it's closed on Mondays during winter.

Walking towards the wharf, you'll pass by the Presidential Palace on your left. The wharf is where you can take the ferry to Suomenlinna Island. I didn't take the ferry anymore because I'm sure it'll be freezing cold and I'm short of time. Instead, I check out the stalls at the Market Square (Kauppatori). Items on sale are gloves, beanies, shawls, scarves, knives, crafts, keychains, fridge magnets, small toys and dolls, etc. Definitely more stuff to see during the summer.

Also in the Market Square is the Old Market Hall (Vanha Kauppahalli). Completed in 1888, the red-and-yellow brick single-story building is full of shops selling local food and delicacies, chocolates, fish, souvenirs, cheese, coffee, etc. There's also a few restaurants and cafes inside. West of Market Square is the Havis Amanda fountain. The bronze sculpture of a naked woman is supposed to symbolize Helsinki, daughter of the Baltic. Further on is a statue of Johan Ludvig Runeberg, Finland's national poet, at the Esplanade Park.

Going north, we see one of the hallmarks of Helsinki, known simply as the Cathedral, also sometimes known as St. Nicholas' Church. It's the white church with the green domes on top, and a statue of Alexander II in front of it. Facing the Cathedral, the building on the left is the Helsinki University Library. On the right is the Palace of the Council of State. Inside, the church is pretty bare - just the pews, the organ, the pulpit, and the altar.

From the Cathedral, you walk down Aleksanterinkatu, checking out the signature shops and boutiques until you hit Stockmann. Parts of the store is under renovation, but the Christmas windows displays are up, which explains the huge number of kiddies and parents milling about. In front of the Stockmann is the Three Smiths Square. Behind the sculpture of The Three Smiths is the Old Student House, built in 1870. It's currently open for the Christmas markets. Very nice architecture inside.

Crossing Mannerheimintie, I end up at the Forum shopping mall, where I had my lunch/dinner at the Manhattan Steakhouse in the food court. Walking along Mannerheimintie, I pass by the Kiasma museum, the statue of Mannerheim in front of it, the Finnish Parliament Building, the National Musuem and Finlandia Hall. I take a short stroll along the frozen banks of Toolo Bay until I reach the Finnish Opera House. Lots of parents and kids about. Apparently, there's a matinée for Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker. Would've loved to watch the ballet if only I had enough time. I continued on to the Olympic Stadium, then headed back to my hotel, where I rested for a while before catching the Finnair bus to the airport.

The Case of the Missing Dinners

Strangely enough, during the six days I've been in Helsinki so far, I never managed to have dinner - at least, a proper one. I blame it on the grueling 9-hour time difference between Helsinki and Sydney. I spend the better part of the day trying to keep awake, listening to the instructor in class. I get back to the hotel around 5:30pm. It's too cold to go out sightseeing. It's too early for dinner. I lie on the bed for a quick nap - something to pass the time before I go out at 7:30pm for a proper dinner this time around. And I wake up at 11pm - every day, without fail. I look out the heavily-draped windows, and I'm in no mood to go out, despite my grumbling stomach.

Thanks to the K-Time Twists and Milo bars and John West Tuna-to-Go packs my GF insisted I bring along, I managed to survive. (And Smith's Stax for dessert.)

Nybble 2007.12.14

N Y B B L E   M O N T H L Y   N E W S L E T T E R
A Free Ezine about Anything Tech and Everything Else
2007.12.14 Issue No. 195

Just the other day I was asking my Finnish instructor where the
nearest Nokia Shop is. He asked if I was shopping for a Vertu. Yeah,
right. I told him that when Vertu first came out, you could buy easily
Vertu fakes in the shops. Better yet, instead of buying a Vertu (real
or fake), just swipe that Vertu demo unit from the Nokia Shop. Install
a ringer and pretend to make calls on it. Anyway, my instructor tells
me that's exactly what happened in their town. It was many, many years
ago; Nokia wasn't even making mobiles yet. There's this guy in their
town who had a cellular phone. So he was inside the town shop chatting
away loudly. Suddenly an old lady had a heart attack, so everybody was
pleading with him to call 911 (or whatever emergency number they use).
He was stunned for a while, then admitted that his mobile was not
actually working. He was so embarrassed he didn't show up in any of
the public places for a year, and did all his groceries in the next town.

Ah, honest Finns. If I were him, I would've claimed that the mobile
ran out of battery, and rush home to charge it. :-)

Have an answer, comment, suggestion, or violent reaction? Send them my
way by clicking on Reply or join nybbletalk@yahoogroups.com to discuss
a topic. If you think Nybble is good enough, do tell the Finns about
it. Thanks.

_________TABLE OF CONTENTS_________
* MIT's Stackable Cars
* Single Carbon Nanotube Radio
* CSIRO's Electrical Shirt
* Kids Treat Robot as a Peer
* Hidden Music in Last Supper
* 3D Models from Vacation Photos
* Japan's Melody Roads
* Laser Link of 1.5 Million Kilometers
* Nybblets
* Likeable Links
* Questionable Question
* Quotable Quote
* Trivial Trivia
* Laughable Laugh

_________MIT'S STACKABLE CARS_________
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2007/110807-mit-reinvents-the-wheel-with.html

Researchers from MIT are working on a design project for the City Car
- a foldable, stackable two-seater vehicle. The frame of the car is
designed to fold in half so the cars can be stacked up eight deep in
one city parking space. In MIT's vision, people would find a stack of
electrical-powered City Cars on nearly every block in the city. When a
user would want to drive somewhere in town, he would swipe a smart
card or cell phone across an electronic reader and take a car out of
the stack. When he gets to a business meeting across town, a shopping
mall or their doctor's office, the driver simply leaves the car in a
stack at his destination. The drivers don't own the cars. They simply
rent them. It's fully self-service. The next person takes a car out of
the stack, and off he goes.
The two-seater is designed to weigh 1,000 to 1,500 pounds. It's
expected to cruise at average city speed limits and may even be
capable of topping 100 miles per hour. One of the more interesting
aspects of the design is that electric motors will be built into each
wheel, along with mechanisms for steering, braking and the suspension.
The car has four of these wheels, and that's what drives the vehicle
forward. The car doesn't have an engine. There are no gears. No
transmission. Having so much of the technology in the robotic wheels
frees up a lot of space throughout the rest of the vehicle, allowing
the team to make it collapsible. While the vehicles are in the stack,
waiting to be rented out, their lithium-ion batteries would be
charging off the city's power grid. But the project is designed to
give power back to the city, too. Solar panels erected on nearby
buildings would feed energy into the charging stations and when the
cars' batteries were full, the excess power would flow into the city's
grid.

The City Car team is in the process of having a prototype of the
vehicle built.

_________SINGLE CARBON NANOTUBE RADIO_________
http://nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=110566

A research team from the University of California at Berkeley has
crafted a working radio from a single fiber of carbon nanotube. Fixed
between two electrodes, the vibrating tube successfully performed the
four critical roles of a radio--antenna, tunable filter, amplifier and
demodulator--to tune in a radio signal generated in the room and play
it back through an attached speaker. Functional across a bandwidth
widely used for commercial radio, the tiny device could have
applications far beyond novelty, from radio-controlled devices that
could flow in the human bloodstream to highly efficient, miniscule,
cell phone devices.

The new device works in a manner more similar to the vacuum tubes from
the 1930s than the transistors found in modern radios. In the new
radio, a single carbon fiber a few hundred nanometers (billionths of a
meter) long, and only a few molecules thick, stands glued to a
negatively charged base of tungsten that acts as a cathode. Roughly
one millionth of a meter directly across from the base lies a
positively charged piece of copper that acts as an anode. Power in the
form of streaming electrons travels from an attached battery through
the cathode, into the nanotube, and across a vacuum to the anode via a
field-emission tunneling process. The stream of electrons along the
nanotube changes when a radio wave encoded with information--simply a
wave of photons that travels in a controlled manner--washes across the
tube and causes it to resonate. This mechanical action is what
amplifies and demodulates, or decodes, the radio signal. The
researchers fine-tune the nanoradio to a frequency, akin to a channel,
by using the electrostatic field between the cathode and anode to
tighten or loosen the nanotube.

_________CSIRO'S ELECTRICAL SHIRT________
http://snipurl.com/1v8qx

CSIRO is receiving $4.4 million worth of funding from the Australian
Defence Department for research into designing clothing which can be
used as a self-recharging electrical source on the battlefield.

Called Flexible Integrated Energy Device (FIED), the electrical shirt
will resemble ordinary garments, and will be used to store and provide
energy over a continuous period of time. It can be charged by either
vibration energy harvesting or through plugging into an electrical
power point. The technology would be unobtrusively incorporated into a
piece of clothing with three components: advanced conductive fabrics
that form the battery, a vibration energy harvesting device and a
rechargeable battery with low flammability and toxicity.

The Defence Department is hoping that once the technology is proven,
it will be used on the battlefield to eliminate the cumbersome and
wasteful batteries that soldiers must carry around to fuel a host of
devices including communications equipment, imaging devices and small
computing equipment. Aside from military applications, CSIRO is
looking to position the FIED as a consumer and sports product where it
could be integrated into garments and used to power heart-rate
monitors, iPods, and even mobile phones or PDAs.

_________KIDS TREAT ROBOT AS A PEER_________
http://snipurl.com/1v8r2

An experiment led by Javier Movellan at the University of California
San Diego, US shows that a giggling robot is sophisticated enough to
get toddlers to treat it as a peer.

In the first long-term study of interaction between toddlers and
robots, researchers stationed Sony's 2-foot-tall QRIO (pronounced
"curio") robot in a classroom of a dozen toddlers aged between 18
months and two years. QRIO stayed in the middle of the room using its
sensors to avoid bumping the kids or the walls. It was initially
programmed to giggle when the kids touched its head, to occasionally
sit down, and to lie down when its batteries died. A human operator
could also make the robot turn its gaze towards a child or wave as
they went away. The researchers then measured the bond between the
children and the robot. Firstly, as with other toddlers, they touched
QRIO mostly on the arms and hands, rather than on the face or legs.
The children also treated QRIO with more care and attention than a
similar-looking but inanimate robot that the researchers called Robby.
Eventually, the children seemed to care about the robot's well being.
They helped it up when it fell, and played "care-taking" games with it
– most commonly, when QRIO's batteries ran out of juice and it lay
down, a toddler would come up and cover it with a blanket and say
"night, night".

One of the problems with past robots was that people quickly got bored
of them. Since QRIO was able to hold children's interest, this study
opens the possibility of robots for classroom applications or for
helping autistic children.

_________HIDDEN MUSIC IN LAST SUPPER_________
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7088600.stm

Giovanni Maria Pala claimed to have cracked a real Da Vinci code, by
finding musical notes encoded in the masterpiece The Last Supper. The
15th century painting depicts Jesus' last meal with the 12 Apostles
before his arrest and crucifixion.

According to Mr. Pala's book La Musica Celata (The Hidden Music), each
loaf of bread in the picture represents a note. By drawing the five
lines of a musical staff across the painting, the loaves of bread on
the table and the hands of Jesus and the Apostles could each represent
a musical note. The notes make sense musically when the resulting
score is read from right to left, following Da Vinci's own writing
style. The result is a 40-second "hymn to God" which Mr. Pala
described as "like a soundtrack that emphasises the passion of Jesus".

Alessandro Vezzosi, director of Tuscany's Da Vinci museum, said the
theory was "plausible", though he warns about "a risk of seeing
something that is not there".

_________3D MODELS FROM VACATION PHOTOS_________
http://uwnews.washington.edu/ni/article.asp?articleID=37724

Researchers at the University of Washington are downloading thousands
of photos from Flickr and using them to recreate 3D models of world
landmarks. Their long-term goal is to be able to reconstruct the
detailed geometry of all the structures on the surface of the Earth.

But the freely available photos do present a challenge: these are
holiday snapshots and personal photos, not laboratory-quality research
images. While some may be postcard-perfect representations of a
setting, others may be dark, blurry or have people covering up most of
the scene. To make the 3D digital model, the researchers first
download photos of a landmark. For instance, they might download the
roughly 60,000 pictures on Flickr that are tagged with the words
"Statue of Liberty." The computer finds photos that it will be able to
use in the reconstruction and discards pictures that are of low
quality or have obstructions. Photo Tourism, a tool developed at the
UW, then calculates where each person was standing when he or she took
the photo. By comparing two photos of the same object that were taken
from slightly different perspectives, the software applies principles
of computer vision to figure out the distance to each point.

In tests, a computer took less than two hours to make a 3D
reconstruction of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, using 151 photos taken
by 50 different photographers. A reconstruction of Notre Dame
Cathedral used 206 images taken by 92 people. All the calculations and
image sorting were performed automatically.

_________JAPAN'S MELODY ROADS_________
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2209957,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=technology

A team from the Hokkaido Industrial Research Institute has built a
number of "melody roads", which use cars as tuning forks to play music
as they travel. The concept works by using grooves, which are cut at
very specific intervals in the road surface. Just as travelling over
small speed bumps or road markings can emit a rumbling tone throughout
a vehicle, the melody road uses the spaces between to create different
notes. According to reports, the system was the brainchild of Shizuo
Shinoda, who accidentally scraped some markings into a road with a
bulldozer before driving over them and realising that they helped to
produce a variety of tones.

There are three musical strips in central and northern Japan - one of
which plays the tune of a Japanese pop song. Notice of an impending
musical interlude, which lasts for about 30 seconds, is highlighted by
coloured musical notes painted on to the road. Based on motorist
feedback, the optimal speed for achieving melody road playback is
28mph. Driving too fast will sound like playing fast forward, while
driving around 12mph has a slow-motion effect, making you almost carsick.

_________LASER LINK OF 1.5 MILLION KILOMETERS_________
http://www.oerlikon.com/ecomaXL/index.php?site=SPACE_EN_press_releases_detail&udtx_id=5060

A team from Oerlikon Space demonstrated the feasibility of a laser
link across a distance of 1.5 million kilometres for the first time
ever. In the future, laser links like this one will be able to
transmit data across huge distances through the universe far more
rapidly and efficiently than is possible using conventional radio
links today.

To prove that data transmission across the vast distance of 1.5
million kilometres is really feasible, the Oerlikon engineers had
devised a special experiment in which they set up a laser link between
the islands of La Palma and Tenerife on the Canary Islands. The
transmission unit was modified in such a way that the conditions on
the 144-kilometre stretch between the islands exactly reflected those
that would prevail on a 1.5 million kilometre link through space. In
the course of the experiment, the engineers achieved transmission
rates of over 10 Mbit/sec. At this speed, it would take a mere two
seconds to transmit the entire text of the Bible. The data rate would
also be sufficient to transmit three digital television programmes
simultaneously.

Laser-based data transmission has several advantages over conventional
radio links. Because of the shorter wavelength, lasers can transmit
more data than radio signals in the same period of time. Lasers can
also be far more accurately aligned with the receiver than radio
waves, and therefore require less power for data transmission.

_________NYBBLETS_________
* South Korea to build two robot theme parks in Incheon and Masan for
$1.6 billion by 2013.
* Physicists from both the University of Surrey and Salford
University have devised a method to trap a multi-colored rainbow of
light inside a prism
* Research out of the California Pacific Medical Center Research
Institute suggesting that a compound found in cannabis may stop breast
cancer from metastasizing
* University of Melbourne research fellow Dr John Papandriopoulos
discovers an algorithm to make DSL broadband connections up to 100
times faster
* A team of University of Tokyo researchers genetically-engineers a
mouse that does not fear cats, simply by controlling its sense of smell

_________LIKEABLE LINKS_________
String Theory in 2 Minutes or Less
http://discovermagazine.com/twominutesorless

To-Do List Blog
http://www.todolistblog.com/
A blog of to-do lists

howjsay.com
http://www.howjsay.com/
An English Pronouncing Dictionary with Instant Sound

Zamzar
http://www.zamzar.com/
Free online file conversion

_________QUESTIONABLE QUESTION_________
How can we tell if sour cream has gone bad?

_________QUOTABLE QUOTE_________
Love at first sight is easy to understand; it's when two people have
been looking at each other for a lifetime that it becomes a miracle.
~ Amy Bloom ~

_________TRIVIAL TRIVIA_________
How can you tell male oysters from females?
The oyster is usually ambisexual. It begins life as a male, then
becomes a female, then changes back to being a male, then back to
being female. It may go back and forth many times.
Source: Arcamax Trivia

_________LAUGHABLE LAUGH_________
A man goes to his proctologist and says, "Doc, you gotta help me.
Every time I fart, it sounds like, "Honda."

The doctor says, "You mean you say, 'Honda?'"

"No," the man says. "My farts do."

"OK, open your mouth," says the doctor and looks inside.

After a minute the doctor says, "I'm sorry, I can't help you, you need
to go see a dentist."

The man asks, "Why a dentist?"

The doctor answers, "Because you have an absessed tooth."

"What the heck does that have to do with my condition?"

The doctor says, "Well, didn't you know? Absess makes the farts go Honda!"

_________DOWNLOADABLE DOWNLOAD_________
Free Linux eBooks
http://freebooks.homelinux.org/

The 20 Best iPod Utilities
http://www.lifehacker.com.au/tips/2007/12/05/the_20_best_ipod_utilities.html

Free Screensavers from 9301
http://www.9031.com/downloads/screensavers.html

That's all for this week. Nybble is and will always be a work in
progress. Please do send me your comments and suggestions on how to
improve Nybble. Just hit the reply button to you know, reply.

Book 2007.12.14 - The Girl Most Likely

Finished reading The Girl Most Likely by Rebecca Sparrow in three days. Should be possible to finish the whole thing in one sitting, but I was trying to kill time on the train.

Story of Rachel Hill who went from the girl most likely to succeed at 17 to a babysitting bum at 27. She had it all - primary school tunnel ball champion, St. Peters prefect, Honours degree graduate, and travel magazine Features Editor. All that's left is for her to find a partner, and life will be perfect and complete. Or so she thought. One drunken night at Las Vegas, she and her boyfriend of three years Troy was married by a minister in an Elvis costume. She quit her job at the magazine; getting ready for the big move to America. Months later, Troy got cold feet, left a message on her answering machine asked for a divorce. Everything went downhill from there.

With the help of some friends - Zoe, lesbian erotic fiction (pr0n) writer; Matt, the perfect boy-next-door; and Alex, her haughty Grade Two alaga - she realizes the importance of living the life you want to live, and slowly gets her life back on track. Even though it's bordering on chick lit, I quite like the book - if only for the Aussie and 80's references I don't quite get and the little nuggets of insights like these:

"Every time I won an award or notched up some great achievement I thought I was securing my place at the top of the line. Where the amazing people are ..... But now that I'm here, loitering around the finishing line, I wish someone had defined exactly what "all" was. A big salary? A good-looking spouse? A baby? Why does the definition of "having it all" revolve around things you acquire, rather than the way you feel about yourself?" Which reminds me of this line from Tyler Durden: "The things that you own, they end up owning you."

More: "I thought that marriage was the one piece I didn't have and that once I slotted it in with the others, had the box set, the champagne would pop and the bells would ring and happiness would arrive in the mail alongside my credit card bill. But it doesn't work that way. And in that scenario, there's no mention of the joy to be found in eating cupcakes with a six-year-old. Or tending to a garden and coaxing an orchid into bloom. Or writing truly bad erotic fiction that you think is a masterpiece."

And this: "People say that perfection doesn't exist. But it does. And achieving a perfect-looking life isn't that hard. Perfection breezes in on a whim for all of us and stays for a few hours, a day or two. Those moments when everything is just right. Perfect. The problem is that we convince ourselves that we can only be happy when perfection is around. And when it does show up, we expect it to stay. Unpack. Put up its feet and make itself at home. But it can't. Never does. And instead perfection drifts out when we are unpacking the groceries. Or reading the paper. And we haven't noticed that it's gone, until it's too late ..... So we wait. Wait for perfection to call and let us know when it will be back. In the meantime, we move the pictures and rugs around, covering up those foundational cracks when they begin to appear. And they always appear. Eventually."

Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra Classics Series

For tonight, we have Olli Mustonen as conductor and solo pianist. Programme consists of a piece by Rautavaara, Mozart's Piano Concerto no. 24 C minor KV491, and Prokofiev's Symphony no. 6.

I got to Finlandia Hall's ticket office around 6pm. The ticket lady tells me tickets are all sold out, and if wanted to be on the waiting list. I have no idea who Olli Mustonen is, but I figured he must be good, so yeah. Half an hour later I got my balcony ticket for €17.50. The lady offered me the student ticket for €5. Unfortunately, I'm way past being a student.

Wrong time to be attending a concert. For one, I'm exhausted from a full day of doing nothing inside the classroom. Second, I'm not really familiar with any of the pieces, which tends to make me drowsy. All in all, I probably slept through 85% of the concert - not counting the intermission. I reckon I must be nodding off pretty badly because I can sense the lady beside wasn't too happy.

Incidentally, it's St. Lucia's Day today. I should've just gone to the Senate Square instead for the coronation of St. Lucia. Every year, a young blond girl is crowned as St. Lucia at the Cathedral. With her crown of candles and dressed in white, she leads the parade from Senaatentori, along Aleksanterinkatu and Mannerheimintie to the city centre.

Malling at Leppavara

Usually, when I'm on training in a foreign land, I would've covered much of the city by the middle of the week. Not this time. There's no sign of snow, yet it's freezing cold. You get some light drizzle in the morning once in a while, but the ground is dry. The puddles turn to ice, so you have to careful where you tread. And it's dark and gloomy most of the day. If you're lucky, you get sunlight for about 6 hours - from 10am till 4pm. When you're out and about, you definitely need to have a beannie, a scarf, and gloves on, or you won't last long. Every time I take off my gloves to take some pictures, I need at least 15 minutes for my hands to recover.

Fortunately, there's a mega-mall right across the Leppavara train station. Instead of going straight back to Helsinki to hole up in my hotel room, today I decided to go window-shopping. Wasn't much fun because I'm not looking for anything in particular. Bought two Christmas postcards - one for my GF and another for my Bavarian penpal. The cashier informs me that for €0.50 more, I can actually get 10 postcards. Very tempting, but nah. Dinner is a Hesburger meal. I don't think it's reindeer meat, though.

Helsinki to Karaportti and Back

It's a bit of a hassle getting to Karaportti because I've never been there before. Most of our technical training courses used to be held at Kutojantie. Before, from my hotel along Mannerhaimintie, it's just one bus ride away, which is quite convenient for me as I usually wake up late and time my 15-minute breakfast just so I can rush out the hotel doors and hop on the bus.

First thing you wanna do is get yourself a regional tourist ticket. This one covers Helsinki, Espoo, Kauniainen, and Vanta, covering all transport services - tram, train, bus, metro and ferry. That's €33 for 5 days (120 hours). From Mannerheimintie, take trams 4, 7, or 10 to get to the city centre. From the post office, it's a short stroll to the central railway station. To get to Karaportti, take the train to Leppavara station, then the bus to the training centre. Trains Y,S,U,L,E,A all pass by Leppavara, though I prefer the A-train that terminates at this station. From here, you can take buses 28K, 29T, or 3 to Karaporrti. To return to Helsinki, just do the reverse.

Bangkok to Helsinki

After only 5 hours of sleep, it's time to have buffet breakfast with the champions - the SEA Games participants, specifically. With the shuttle bus leaving for the airport at 9:30am, there's not enough time for me to sneak into the city for a quick tour. Contented myself with walking around the hotel premises.

More airport woes. After queuing up at the check-in line for half an hour, the lady tells me that I have to pay THB700 airport tax. Well, it's not my fault that my flight was delayed and I have to check in again the next day. So off I go to the Qantas office and get them to pony up the 700 baht. By the time I sort everything out and get to the boarding gates, it's an hour before departure.

The Finnair plane is pretty cramped, and no personal video screens. If you're bored, you can rent a PSP. If you're still hungry after the meal, you can purchase instant noodles, Pringles, cookies, and chocolate bars from the stewardesses. Spent the 10-hour flight reading the newspapers and magazines. Since it came highly recommended, I also watched Disney's High School Musical 2. Call me old-fashioned, but I don't think it's natural for kids to suddenly break out into song and dance every time there's five of them around. I'm leaving this to the tweens.

Things got interesting when we touched down. I turn on my phone, and five minutes later I got an emergency page. Apparently, the hard disks of the Sunshine OSCs are acting up again. Strictly speaking, it's none of my business anymore, but they don't call me Mr. Nice Guy for nothing. Turns out the engineer is on-site to change the disk array controller, and wants to know how to turn off the boxes. On the other hand, our customer wants to know how to switch the traffic to Rosebery if the OSCs will be offline. Taking the €22 airport shuttle to the city, I quickly checked in to my room at Crown Plaza, and logged on to the Internet. A few emails later, I managed to quieten things down, so I can have a few hours sleep before I attend my training.

Sydney to Bangkok

Not a good way to start my vacation, I mean my business trip to Finland. It's a good thing we got to the airport early because there's a very long, snaking queue to the check-in counters. Not a good thing for my GF's parking ticket because she decided to hang around till boarding time. Half an hour after our supposed take-off time, the pilot informed us that one of the switches on some control panel is defective, and needs to be replaced. Everybody had to get off the plane and cool our heels at the Qantas lounge. About time too because I'm starting to feel hungry already. Some light refreshments and an hour later, we're on our way to Bangkok.

With nine hours of flight time to kill, I started my movie marathon with Stardust. The movie is based on the book by Neil Gaiman. I've read Gaiman's Coraline before. After watching the movie, I'm guessing the book version is probably better. Story is about this guy Tristan Thorn who is smitten with the town bimbo Victoria. Victoria is supposed to marry rich guy Humphrey on her birthday. On a whim, she says she'll marry Tristan instead if he can bring her this star that they saw fall down from the skies. Tristan goes off in search of the star, which turns out to be a beautiful girl by the name of Yvaine (played by Claire Daines). He's not the only one after the star though. A group of witch sisters plans to capture the girl and eat her heart, which is supposed to bring them back to youth. The princes of Stormhold are after the girl's necklace. Anyone who has the necklace can then lay claim to the throne of Stormhold, as decreed by the deceased king. During the epic battle at the witches' castle, the witches and the princes were killed off during the melee, leaving Lamia the witch (played by Michelle Pfieffer), Tristan, and Yvaine for the final showdown. In an inspired move, Yvaine tells Tristan to close his eyes, and she busts forth her blinding star power, incinerating Lamia in the heat blast. Tristan picks up the necklace and goes on to rule Stronghold. (I missed out a big chunk of the movie when the couple were aboard Captain Shakespeare's flying ship, but like most of the other subplots, it's not important in this kiddie movie.)

Next up is 1408. I've heard good things about Stephen King's earlier movies, but not the newer ones. This is no exception. Or maybe horror-suspense movies just don't work on people who are half-asleep. In the movie, John Cusack plays Mike Enslin, who goes around visiting haunted houses and writing summaries for horror tour guide books. For his latest adventure, he checks in Room 1408 of the Dolphin Hotel in NY. The room has a pretty gruesome reputation. No one has has ever survived an hour inside the room. The guests either commit horrible suicides or die of "natural" causes. For the next hour of so, we see scary flashbacks, ghosts and apparitions, eerie noises, hallucinations, sudden shifts in temperatures, clocks counting down, etc. Mike realizes the room is alive and is out to get him. In a desparate move, he decides to go down fighting and torches the room. The firemen breaks into the room and rescues him. End of story.

Disappointed with my choices, I go for a sure winner: Family Guy. Have seen some of the episodes before, but still darn funnee! I need all the good humour I can get because I missed my connecting flight from Bangkok to Helsinki. By the time the airport staff picked me up from the Qantas lounge, went through immigration, picked up my baggage, checked into the Rama Gardens Hotel, it's already 2:30am.