Author: Hafiz Noor Shams

For more about me, please read this.

Categories
Sports

[147] Of Ajax drew with Valencia

The important game in Amsterdam ended in another draw. Unlike Ajax’s first encounter of Valencia, this match was not controlled by any side. Both teams could have won the game. Ronald Koeman had pointed out before the game that Ajax was out for a win. A win for Ajax would have guaranteed Holland a berth in the quarterfinal since 1997.

The game started positively for both sides but the F-Side was later silenced by Valencia. Valencia won a penalty kick in the 27th minutes and the penalty was converted smartly by Kily Gonzalez . Ajax however equalized early in the second half, returning the ArenA to its noisy state. Petri Pesanen headed the ball passed Valencia goalie and thus putting Ajax’s future in their own hands.

After all that, there was something ironic about the game. Ajax was wearing their famous white-red jersey while Valencia was wearing their away jersey, which was orange in color. To put it bluntly, the impressive Amsterdam ArenA looked very much Dutch.
Furthermore, lately, Ajax’s European goals were not scored Zlatan, Van der Vaart or Mido but instead, some unlikely players. Maybe this is a sign that Ronald Koeman still believes in Ajax’s Total Football philosophy.

While hearts were pumping in the Amsterdam ArenA, Arsenal had to contain Roma in Highbury, London. Surprising enough, Roma could have robbed full point at Highbury and left Arsenal to die. From what I’ve heard from the commentary, Arsenal failed to secure Roma’s tactics. What’s more embarrassing, Arsenal failed to outrun a 10-men-Roma at their own homeground. Although Totti was sent off by the referee after a fight with Martin Keown but Roma continued to cause Arsenal trouble at the back.

As a result of Match Day 11, Group B is left very much as it was after Match Day 10. Ajax still holds the crown but the differences between teams are so small that Roma could steal Ajax’s throne if they managed to deny Ajax of point. So, unlike the other three groups, Match Day 12 will be the most important day ever for Ajax, Arsenal, Valencia and Roma.
For the next battle, Ajax has two good news. First of all, Ajax will again be playing with a full squad and number two, Roma will be without Francesco Totti. Despite that, knowing both the Dutch and the Italian, I predict another draw for Ajax. For the Spain match, I must say Valencia will win. I am suddenly losing confidence in the Gunners. I hope both Ajax and Arsenal will manage a draw.

Categories
Personal Photography

[146] Of sleepless till sunrise

I am sitting here, in front of my computer still trying to sleep. It is a curse to suffer insomnia (or pseudo-insomnia, depending on how you see it) but today, I saw one of the most beautiful things ever, thanks to insomnia.

While I was watching The Pianist in my room alone, I was rudely surprised but the ugly sound the alarm clock made. I had set it to go off sometimes around six in the morning. My first reaction was to shut the alarm off as quickly as possible. I do not know why but the sound of my alarm clock always gives me an adrenaline rush. Anyway, that is not the point. After I slammed the alarm clock with my fist, I saw a line of light far in the horizon.

Curious, I pulled the curtains out of my line of sight and opened up the windows. It didn’t take me long to realize that the light came from the Sun. And it was magnificent view.

A picture worth a thousand words and the phrase is no way untrue.

The sky was dark and the ground was cover with the bluish-white snow. The pavement looked wet and no doubt, it was cold outside. The clouds covered most parts of the sky save the far horizon. The Sun was not visible yet but its light was already brightened up the general east. The light was dully red, almost pink or nearly orange, the sort of colors that you see while twilight was giving way to the night and the formed a line from the south to the north.

I was rather puzzled by the line but soon I understood what caused it. It was the clouds, forming a carpet. It was as if a healthy bulb was lit up and a few feet under it, laid a sheet of thick cardboard. The line of light that I saw would be the light that that would hit the edge of the cardboard. The representation is somewhat way simplified because the spectrum of red light was prevalent around the line.

Slowly, as time passed slowly, the darkness succumbed to light but not without a fight. The deep dark blue was first changed to a softer navy blue. From blue, red took over. The red showed a spectacular array of lights. Farther, the Sun was rising and its shiny yellowish light shot to all areas. The Law School, which looks like a medieval European castle formed an impressive silhouette as the trees covered the modern building as if trying to hide the fact that we are living in the twenty-first century.

Red gave way to a lower level red and that red fell to carrot’s skin. The color conquered vast area of the sky but soon, the Sun was up high. Soon, the lovely cyan declared that it was time to wake up. Soon, the Sun’s brilliance overwhelmed my eyes and no longer could I look straight into the source of all living things.

It was beautiful. These words will no way describe the sunrise. So Batcha, I want my other camera back.

Categories
Science & technology

[145] Of I hate Apples but I might love it in the future

I do remember way back in the late eighties that I was an Apple freak. No, not that apple, I mean the Apple computer. For those of you that know me well, you might be surprised to know that I was a Macintosh lover.

Yeah, those were the days when Windows was nothing but a sperm searching the ovum and Lotus 123 was in the making. Back in those days, there was only Apple and Apple and IBM was competing against each other. (Whatever happened to IBM anyways?)

Back in the late eighties, my cousins and I were groups of the few people that had ever touched a computer and had the luxury of playing Karate-Ka on a Macintosh. A Mac. That Mac was the granddaddy of today’s ultra useless iMac with its own looked-cute-but-pathetic operating system.

Shortly, competitor named Commodore then was born but Apple somehow survived the wave that Commodore 64 made.

Then, came along the motto “Windows won’t win as long as Apple and Lotus 123 still run”. DOS was introduced by Microsoft for IBM computer and it quickly shoved off Apple out from the market. Later, Windows 3.1 hit the public and with that Microsoft managed to sideline the “Steves”. Bill Gates finally declared victory with the introduction of Windows 95.

From that moment on, I didn’t hear anything about Steve Job, Steve Wozniak, the Mac or Apple in the news nor in public conversation until the new millennium was around the corner.

While I was back in Shah Alam doing my useless preparatory classes, I must admit that I didn’t get the chance to get my hand on a so-called modern Mac although I did hear a lot of hype about it. My first modern Mac experience was in September 2001. I didn’t know how to use a Mac at that time but I tried to overcome my ignorance on Mac. Tries after tries, ignorance became knowledge and I found out that despite my disgust of Microsoft’s monopoly, I found IBM computers and especially a computer with Windows operating system is better than a cute Mac with a ghetto OS.

Beside the OS, the Mac keyboard failed to give the cool experience that a Logitech’s keyboard provides. Furthermore, the command for cut and paste are so different for what normal people are used to. And the mouse! How could I forget about the mouse? Imagine a mouse with only one button. Nowadays, the most advance mouse has more than 5 programmable buttons but Apple decided that one button is okay. Yeah, try that mouse while playing UT2K3!

And the ultimate reason is that you can’t upgrade a Mac with the normal hardware or software found in the market. For instance, if you want to play Civilization 3, you have to buy a game entitled Civilization 3 For Mac. Wtf? So, one can say that a Mac is never compatible with anything. Even its iPod doesn’t support any other platform other than Apple’s until recently.

Wait, there is another ultimate reason. Apple is always overpriced. As an example, you are short on money, its better to get a Creative Lab’s Nomad rather than reaching for an iPod. For proof, the following line was taken from apple-history.com:

The 15″ model, with a 60 GB hard drive, 256 MB of RAM, 32 MB of VRAM and a CD-RW/DVD-ROM drive, was $1299. The 17″ model, with an 80 GB hard drive, 256 MB of RAM, 64 MB of VRAM, and a CD-RW/DVD-R “SuperDrive” was $1799.

For USD1799, I could get a ultra powerful workstation with AMD Athlon XP 3000+ or the latest Intel Pentium, 120 GB of HD, 512 or even 1024 of DDR RAM, the fastest CD-RW/DVD-R, equipped with ATi Radeon 9700 Pro while enjoying the great graphics with detailed sound by SoundBlaster Audigy Platinum through Creative Inspire 6.1 6600, a Logitech keyboard and optical mouse and cool a 21” flat CRT.

However, Apple then introduced OS X, which really impressed me. Nevertheless, I still prefer Windows XP (or Linux but Linux is a pain in the ass). Also, Apple’s Firewire came out and beat the crap out of USB 1.1. The excitement didn’t end there. The ghetto iBook was phased out by the PowerBook and iMac was given a new look with an incredible slim design (the iMac still sucks though). And the curves, oo la la. It is like watching a Nissan Z or a Toyota Celica 2002 in front of you.

Earlier this year, Apple made another impact. They introduced the smallest ever laptop – ops PowerBook and the world first 17′ laptop – ops sorry again, I mean PowerBook. If that didn’t impress me, I don’t know what will.

And early last week, I visited an Apple Store up in Novi, Michigan with Wann, Izham and Epol. There, I saw a 23” screen for Mac. The largest, ever monitor I had ever seen. I’d always though 21” was the largest. The only word that I managed to muster was
“shhhhiiitttttteee”

While there, Wann showed me a Mac lovers’ motto, “My anti-Mac sentiment was based on ignorance”. (I bet they are also ignorant on technology too). My anti-Mac sentiment is certainly based on knowledge but with the development by Steve Job and company, I won’t be surprised if in ten or fifteen years or anytime in the future, I will love Apple again the way I had loved the machine that I played Karate-Ka on. In fact, I am already in love with the 12” PowerBook.

So now, I will stop harassing the Mac lovers since I don’t want to eat my own words back.

p/s – have you guys seen Ada Apa Dengan Cinta? Seriously, I think one of those girls look like Mahira (or however you spell it) from Vanderbilt. The next time I meet her, I am seriously going to ask for her autograph.

p/s 2 – I’ve finally been to the Vu =) (well, I was only at the door steps of the thing with some solar guys, searching for a good restaurant in Ypsilanti).

Categories
Humor Personal

[144] Of UMIMSA hacked

I think I know who the hacker is. However, I’m not so sure.

UMIMSA has been hacked by hackers who claimed to be trill, Ado and hax0r. The hacking series started a few months ago with a few successful attempts in obtaining administrative access to UMIMSA’s domain.

By the way, I browsed around the site and found out that the password for the restricted area is SO easy. It took me less than ten minutes to figure out the username and the password.

Well, lesson learned I guess, or not. Nevertheless, the password is not the main issue as the parent directory was also hacked. Later, I tried to get some help at #hackers on dalNet but nobody was willing to help out. Anyway, these are the things that the hackers left. Just something left on the not-so-restricted directories.

a) trill owns this site now Leave Noobies!
b) Fuckin Noobs
c) owned 2k3
d) Scoob cries blood
e) i love you gia.
f) FUCK YOU
g) Hacked By Ado
h) lol
i) hax0r

I found hax0r’s nick somewhere on the parent directory. I do remember hax0r from somewhere but my memory is failing. Nevertheless, if hax0r is really is somebody that I am thinking of, too bad for the owner of the site.

p/s – http://www.cekediz.net/umimsa/news/comments.php?id=1320131461, and try some combination and password. It’s really easy. I say, it is some reckless work on the settings.

Categories
Kitchen sink Politics & government Solar car

[143] Of Ypsilanti workshop and hypocrisy and honesty

Damn the snow. I was planning to go for a walk at the Arboretum today but God changed His mind. Behold, it must snow today. Sigh…

Anyway, I spent my whole evening at Ypsilanti, trying to help the race crew building the car. One thing worth noting; yesterday session was tense. Never in my life as a Solar Car member have I experienced what I had last night.

At first, the Power Electrical team had wanted to install the wiring on the car but the mechanical team needed to do something first. So, we disappointedly gave up our plan and instead, rescheduled our timetable and went out to Ypsilanti in order to help out the mech team. Once there, Mirai and Ivan needed to test the battery so they left me with our rival, which is the Mech team. While I had nothing to do for the Power Electrical team at that time, I decided to help out Mech. After all, although we’re rivals, our goal is still the car.

The rush of adrenaline started around 2100 hours, I at first stage was given the task of preparing some glue. Later, I had to go into the car to install some carbon stuffs on the car. The interesting thing was that the team had the operation timed. I, well we were racing against time and the Engineering Director even raised his voice, trying to keep people on track. At one time, we screwed up something and he was looking really mad
Nevertheless, we did finish up the work sometimes around midnight.

After the work session, I have decided to hate two thing, fiber glass and ethanol. Fiber glass makes the hand itchy while ethanol burns the hand. Therefore, the moral of the story is not to join the Mech team. Power Electrical rules.

Honesty is not necessarily the best policy and nothing is the best when it comes to ways of behaving. However, hypocrisy is better than honesty. That is for sure. First of all, I define hypocrisy as displaying two kind of behavior in two different situations. I see hypocrisy as a superset of honesty. In fact, the people whom first used the phrase “honesty is the best policy” are hypocrites themselves. Honesty on the other hand is simply the notion of being true to oneself i.e. following rigidly the principles (ideal, rules etc) that one has set on oneself.

The world around us constantly changing and this need us to adapt. Hypocrisy is a way to adapt to the ever changing world. One proof is China before the age of pre-pax Americana and during pax Americana. They were somewhat against the capitalist system and closed their system from world scrutiny. But now, we found that China is even in the WTO, the organization that they once looked in disgust. They only did this after they saw that it will benefit them to join the organization despite the fact that this is against their ideal.

Sometimes, two similar cases need us to deal with them differently. One case is the United States’ stance on North Korea and Iraq. They are applying double standard on those so-called members of Axis of Evil simply because it benefits them to do it. Surely, to fight on two fronts separated by the mountainous Asian terrain is folly. Also, using the same threat on North Korea will be a grave mistake since China is certainly more interested in the Korean Peninsula scenario than the Iraqis’ problem.

The affirmative action movement is classic case of hypocrisy. Yes a long time ago, there was discrimination of certain group of people against others. Discrimination no doubt is bad and the affirmative action was born from the notion that discrimination must be cleaned out from society’s mind. And now, the movement itself is discriminating certain sorts in favor of a few particular groups. Isn’t this hypocrisy?

But of course, when one reads this, one will wonder what the connection between hypocrisy and honesty is. The relationship is, as I said before, honesty is a subset of hypocrisy.

If you don’t agree with me then consider the following situation. You have an ability to do something that nobody else possesses. A friend of yours knows this and asked you to use your expertise to do something for him or her as a favor. His or her request was against your principle and thus, you presented your friend with a monotonous no as an answer. Later, a stranger approached you and asked you to do the same thing that your friend had asked you. As a return, the stranger promise to reward you with something that you need but can’t afford to buy it. So, will you be honest and fair towards your friend by saying no to the stranger or will you obey the stranger’s request and get the thing that you really want?

If you think the last scenario is not strong enough, then imagine that the reward was your life and the request was to murder someone else. Will you be true to yourself and your friend or will you be a hypocrite?