Thinking of dropping by the IT show tomorrow of over the weekend? Do check out this comprehensive list of scanned and photographed pricelists here.

Credit going out to coldfreeze from the HWZ forums

The site is currently undergoing some upgrades on the backend. You won’t exactly see any improvements out here as it namely optimizing queries, code and cutting down on functions queries on the pages in line of the of my upgrade to the latest version of MySQL and Wordpress as well, which comes with a whole new set of available queries and plugins which need updating as well.

I’ve noticed that when scrolling the pages on my slower computers, the pages move rather jerkily, maybe due to the slow loading of ads on my pages. I’ve removed some ads from my blog pages which accounts for more than 50% of the pages of the site as they are also seriously slowing down the loading of my pages in internet explorer (mozilla still loads the pages rather well) but considering about more than 60% of my visitors use IE, it’s an exception I have to take. I am still in the mist of trying out various advert placement and sizes so my pages won’t be so cluttered, so please don’t be alarmed if you see an ad placed where it isn’t normally is.

I will be also bumping up the cache and memory allocation of the pages to cater for the large number of visitors to the site. A pleasant site experience for my users is still my priority over my advertisers.

Will be monitoring the pages over the next few days for bugs, do report any if you see them!

Got this lying on my harddisk for sometime, but hey why not get this up as it simply beats those commercial photographers who simply can’t take anything for crap on our running events. This photo is sent by courtesy from my track and field junior captain who got few photos from few buddies in redsports.sg (you can visit their website here) as shot on a Nikon D300:

Photo credit going to Alvin and Redsports.sg

The 2008 National Vertical Marathon is on at the Republic Plaza, having just came back from the event, so here are the highlights and happenings of the event.

Race conduct
It’s quite understandable the organizers decided to take on the largest category head on first thing in the morning- the Mens open, which is the category I was registered for too, together with few of my classmates Andre and Danson, less this friend who broke his leg just a few days ago. The others in the track team are in for the competitive team event in the afternoon, wish them luck! Given the 6.30am reporting time, queues grew to a maximum of about 50 meters at it’s peak but was managed rather quickly by the 8-10 counter staff.

Participants are detailed based on a first come first served basis with the first detail firing off at about 7am and subsequent ones at 2 minute intervals. My detail, 23 was scheduled for a 7.42am run which gave me about 30 minutes, which is not too long to be annoyingly boring and not too short either to prepare ourselves and warm up adequately before being called into the holding tent for dispatch.

The start line

And the finish!

So… Timex sponsors the cardboard cover?

Route and Finish
The route is largely monotonous continuous anti-clockwise climb to the top, 2 flights per floor with one having an even number and the other flight with an odd number of steps. I noticed it myself, but confirmed it with other runners that the air is rather stuffy and unventilated from the 40th floors up, making some runners rather light and dizzy from the lack of fresh air, it won’t be a matter of time when someone throws up around there. I took about 12 minutes to clear the building, overtaking about a handful of 4-5 people from the previous detail. There is however, an adequate amount of water points and marshal stationed every 3-4 floors from what I recalled. The finish showered finishers with an even choice of ice cold water or Berocca effervescent drink. Strangely, there is no distinct water point on the ground floor at all. Though some Berocca staff where distributing them personally by the cup.

The A maze event
As misleading as it may read- Where is the maze? It’s supposed to be pronounced Amaze from the word Amazing and is part of the efforts made to improve the event and make it better than of last years. What it comprises are 5 events typical of that in a carnival, namely- 1) Holla-hoop for 15 rounds or chatek 5 times 2)Playing twister standing up 3) Navigate a zig zag after 15 head spins to make you dizzy 4) Memory game 5) Math toss game. The fastest one through all the stations will stand to win a digital camera. Otherwise you get to spin a wheel to win a prize allowing you to win accessory items such as clear files, coasters and notepads. I got a metallic tin coaster set called the “mystery prize”.

Quite an impressive goodie bag
Goodie bag items are quite generous this year and I thought Swissotel VM was generous. But for a $20 registration free, we have tons of little items, vouchers and coupons from skateline, apparel sponsor TYR, Eng wah cinemas, fitness first and some food vouchers just to name a few. There are quite alot of facial and toiletry items such as cleaners, sample deodorant and strangely even a lipstick just to name afew! Theres a Dec 07 Mens health magazine. The event shirt is a dry fit by TYR, not like FBT as last year, but the print quality is lower.

Instant Photos
Lastly, the “on the spot” shoot and print for the finishing certificate is very nice touch. And simply beats the heck out of the “fill in your own name- blank cheque style” A5 cardboard we got in last year’s event. Very commendable on that part, especially using instant photo printers to churn out all the photos taken, it takes less than 5 minutes to get your photo on the certificate, only that there is no official timing written like that of swissotel.

Ok thats all I have so far on the event feel free to share yours if you have any.

Shown during 1987 to 1988, those who grew up in the 80s definitely is no stranger to this cartoon. I was a great fan of this show and I remembered always taping down my favorite shows on the VCR and not missing every episode when I was a kid, this one is no exception. It’s a story of 3 space commanders and their mission to serve and protect the good against the evil. Looking back and remembering all thse old shows you’ve grown up with makes you wonder of the long way you had came.

The thing is that most of my cartoon VHS collection is mostly moldy (after like 20 years?) and very much unwatchable till I get my VCR and tape cleaner in place. Then I stumbled upon a stray link once on youtube recently online and to my amazement they have a whole archive of videos of the whole series online as well. Then it’s like hey let junk that and watch it here!

Here is the intro of the show, to those who want a memory recall of the show:

O’ the nostalgia! Though the series was a short 13 episodes, it definitely felt like years back then being shown once a week.

Somehow it seems that kids born in the newer “90s” generation have no clue about this show who grew up mostly in the laughingly “head shaking” Power Rangers and teletubbies era. Even with dumb no brainer shows such as cow and chicken, it makes you wonder about the essence lost in modern cartoon these days, especially on the storyline part. Too bad they don’t make cool cartoons like this anymore.

The quality of the art for this 80s cartoon is still largely incredible, even in the current age of vivid art or the age of ga-zillion polygon rendered 3D shows. I have compiled some links on youtube for the first episode of the series if may: Episode 1 Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 you can access following episodes by checking the related videos section.

The Toys
Moreover, the toys of the series are still one of the best I’ve ever seen since I was a kid- with motorised battery less parts and modular designs with magnets, man those toys really rock and were the best it’s time man- These are the next best toys I’ve owned from a cartoon besides MASK vehicles, let be Lego!
inline