Seize the moment: a FIAT ad with chess players.

A very funny FIAT ad, with Chess as a main subject. The ad slogan "Seize the moment" is applied by a chess player about to be checkmated, in a very surprising and funny way. Anuncio de FIAT con el ajedrez de tema. El eslogan publicitario "Agarra la oportunidad" es aplicado por nu jugador de ajedrez que está apuntito de recibir jaque mate. Muy gracioso y sorprendente.

A short video for my ADCS Students

I've been giving Java tuition for a long time.

Here's one of the common past year paper on Link List that I usually explain to my students:-

Click here to listen

cheng beng

cheng beng
Originally uploaded by andrewooi.

Reached puduraya 8.30pm in time to catch the teluk intan bus back to hometown.

GilaChess Migrated to WordPress

My chess blog was migrated from Blogger to WordPress platform. WordPress is a blogging software which has much richer features than Blogger. I liked Google BlogSpot but I needed to use my own webspace instead of relying on Google free blogging space.

It was a very easy process as WordPress already had the necessary tools for the migration. It took only 10 minutes to setup WordPress and migrate my old post from Blogger to my website.

The new URL is http://chess.maribelajar.com.

I've also changed the title from GilaChess to Chess Improvement.

My old Chess Blog:



My new Chess Blog:


http://chess.maribelajar.com.

Malaysia vs Singapore Friendly Chess MAtch 2005

Malaysia vs Singapore Friendly Chess MAtch 2005
Originally uploaded by andrewooi.

17th Singapore vs Malaysia

First Round detail results

Category	Age	MAS	SIN

B	8	0	4

B	10	2	2

B	12	1.5	2.5

B	14	0.5	3.5

B	16	2	3

B	18	1	2

B	20	2	2

G	8	0	4

G	10	2	2

G	12	2.5	1.5

G	14	1	3

G	16	2	2

G	18	1	3

G	20	0	4

M	-	2.5	3.5

V	-	2.5	1.5

W	-	2.5	1.5



Malaysia  : 25

Singapore : 45



Second  Round

Malaysia  : 25.5

Singapore : 44.5



Overall



Malaysia: 50.5

Singapore: 89.5

Pictures and other details to be posted later.

Curretly posting this from a train!!

First day in Indonesia

Indonesia Day 1

3.10pm leave for Sentral station

3.30pm bought tickets for the express

3.45pm took the KLIA express from Sentral station reached KLIA in 28minutes.

Air Asia arrived without incident at Hatta airport at 7.10pm.

Got 'hassled' by taxi runners who wanted us to take their taxi. Wanted to take the Blue Bird because it uses the meter so it would not cost a bomb.

The last time I was here at Hatta Airport, Blue Bird cost 100,000 Rp plus 16,000 surcharge. We finally found the counter outside the Airport near the Mc Donalds. Seeing this the runners reduced their taxi charge from 100,000 to 200,000 Rp without surcharge. So we took the runner Taxi which was a Volvo cab. Well it was a big mistake as when we reached the Hotel he changed the fare to 150,000 Rp. So it was a good lesson for me. Take the Blue Bird cab from the proper Blue Bird rep counter. Avoid the 'independant' people who walk around looking for suckers like me.

The counter is just outside of Mc D. (note to self so that I won't forget this next time if I ever come to Indonesia again)

---

9.05 checked in.

9.15 got into our deluxe room (upgraded)

9.30 tried to walk to nearest food court at Sarina from Hotel.

10.00 Too far so we settled for Mamak style food. Had Soto Ayam with Taufu. Drinks 'teh botol'. Total cost: 27,000Rp.

10.30 back in Hotel room.

watched TV while preparing this blog

1am sleep.

Off to Indonesia Again

Last minute work emergency requires me to go to Indonesia for the 2nd time this year.

This time I'll go prepared.I still remember how Digi does not support SMS roaming. I couldn't even receive an SMS from home.

I bought a cheap 017 Maxis starter pack for RM8.80. I only have RM4 for this month but that's all I need to receive SMS.

Pretty complicated as sending SMS FROM Indonesia is RM2. So in order to save I'll get an Indonesian prepaid card from Telkomsel. It's about RM 20 there. So sending out an SMS from there to Malaysia is cheaper. This would mean lots of SIM card switching as I only have one handphone :(.

Also bringing over my bluetooth enabled PDA there so all the pictures I take from my handphone can be transferred to PDA and uploaded to this blog easily.

Anyway, looking forward for the trip as well as feeling a bit nervous as the workload is pretty high. I only have 4 working days to complete my work there.

Benefits of Lecithin

Benefits of Lecithin:

* Breaks up fats and cholesterol, Excellent for a healthy heart
* Highest Phosphatide concentration available (98% or more!)
* Rich source of GLA (Gamma Linoleic Acid)
* Helps the body utilize Vitamins A,D,E and K
* Excellent for memory, concentration and recall
* Cleanses liver and kidneys
* Helps the body absorb nutrients

Why am I posting this here. Well just as a reminder to myself.

I've been taking Lecithin in capsule form consistently for months and have noticed profound improvements in my mental stamina.
Particularly in gruelling one day chess tournament where I'm usuall mentally exhausted near the end of the tournament.

However lately from my own chess results, I've seen a marked improvement.

I've finished 11th place 3 times !!! Previously I'd be usually hovering around 30th position.

Imagine or not, I'm a firm believer of letcithin. Anyway, not to turn this into a commercial sounding blog, I won't even mention the brand I'm taking :)
It'll remain a secret in case my would be chess competitors are out there reading this...

Chess in Singapore Schools

Chess is being offered as part of a curriculum early to Singaporean kids.

Neighbourhood schools these days are producing not just academically capable students but talented ones too.

One activity some schools are offering to nurture talents is chess.

For instance, chess is part of the curriculum for all Primary One students at Gongshang Primary.

The principal of Gongshang Primary School, Daisie Yip, said: "It's really to train them through a game, through a fun way, to be analytical. The best take-away would be when I plan the next move, I'm actually thinking 2-3 moves ahead.

read rest of article here (Channel News Asia)

Joined Malaysian Blog Directory

I added my blog into the Malaysian Blog Directory.
Great!! As the title of my blog starts with 'A' I'm right at the top can be seen without scrolling the page :)

Sunday Chess at Wilayah

Can't wait to enter the href=http://gilachess.blogspot.com tournament at Wilayah Persekutuan this coming Sunday. It's been 3 months since I've played any serious (or friendly) chess games.

Pictured above is two of my chess friends Vicky and Francis at the same venue some time back.

Going to PC Fair 2005

PC Fair 2005 will be in an hour's time.

I'll be going this time to get
Screen protector for my PDA
CD-Rs
Mic and Headphones for podcasting
Optical Mouse

I just hope it will not be too cramped like the previous PC Fairs.
Will be going just after it opens to avoid the crowd (hopefully)

Andreessen: PHP succeeding where Java isn't | CNET News.com

The simplicity of scripting language PHP means it will be more popular than Java for building Web-based applications, Internet browser pioneer Marc Andreessen predicted Wednesday in a speech here at the Zend/PHP Conference.

That article warms my heart as PHP is my favourite language of choice for web programming.

Don't get me wrong as I don't have anything against Java. In fact, I have been teaching Java for several years and it's been my bread and butter for all that time.

However I've never used Java in work. PHP is still no. 1 in my books.

Java is just too slow and unwieldly for many things that I want to do.

In Brief: Zend Core for Oracle available | InfoWorld | News | 2005-10-12 | By InfoWorld staff

In Brief: Zend Core for Oracle available | InfoWorld | News | 2005-10-12 | By InfoWorld staff:

"Zend Core for Oracle accelerates the building and deployment of mission-critical, PHP-based Web applications. Zend Core for Oracle also offers an updated PHP 'OCI8' driver to connect with the Oracle Database, providing enhanced reliability, stability, and performance for Oracle Database-driven Web applications.

Oracle offers free downloads of the products from

http://www.oracle.com/technology/tech/php/index.html.

Zend Core for Oracle is also available at http://www.zend.com/core/oracle. "

This is very timely as I was looking for a way of using PHP+ORACLE on AIX 64 bit platform.

It was a big headace doing this "by hand" on Linux and finally a friend of mine, Yan, solved it by installing the RPM version.

Then, at work they wanted it to work on AIX and since we have the Linux step-by-step, the AIX installation "should be easy" as AIX is similiar to Linux (so they say).

How wrong we were!! The installation steps were full of problems. Compiling PHP + OCI8 libraries just couldn't give an error-free result. After weeks of wasted time on failed installation, Zend package is a saviour. Just had to run install and voila! We had what we needed.

Thank you Zend!!

PS: Zend COre is FREE!

Birthday Today

It's my birthday today. The year in review.


The bad:

I lost two of my grandmothers this year. My paternal grandmother passed away in April and my maternal grandmother passed away in August. I will miss them both dearly.

The good:

Doing PHP programming again.

My chess website is successful hosting news of 2 of the biggest chess events in Malaysia at here, here and here

Met top chess players like GM Utut Adianto, 16 year old GM Wang Hao, World Junior Champ GM Koneru Humpy etc

I spent the whole day with my wife at home. A luxury we rarely share nowadays with work and other commitment. We watched "Lost" episodes on DVD the whole day.

After that, a nice dinner together. It was perfect!!

You going PC Fair this weekend?

It's that time of the year again. PC Fair is here!!

This coming weekend (5^th to the 7^th August) Pikom is holding the largest IT flea market in the country. PC Fair is held 3 times annually.


The event used to be held at the Putra World Trade Center. However this time, Pikom’s PC Fair will be held at the all new Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre which is beside the Petronas Twin Towers

I went last year and it was a mess! It was so jam-packed I couldn't really see all the new stuff on display. Bought a cheap 256Mb thumb drive after comparing prices for hours.

The funny thing was, a week later, the same thumbdrive was sold RM5 cheaper at Low Yat Plaza.

Man, what a waste of my time. So I'm thinking twice about going this time. What about you ??

Radio Australia - News - Malaysian haze expected to worsen

According to : Radio Australia - News - Malaysian haze expected to worsen: "Last Updated 04/08/2005, 03:42:10

Malaysian officials says an acrid haze hanging over western Malaysia, including the capital Kuala Lumpur, could worsen in the next few days.

The haze has been blamed on the fires in the Indonesian provinces in Riau and northern Sumatra, as well as blazes in Indonesia's Kalimantan and Malaysia's eastern state of Sarawak.

States in central-western Malaysia, including Perak, Selangor, Malacca and Negri Sembilan were worst hit. "

Chess players in the movies

Chess players in the movies: "Chess shows up a lot in the movies, often for no other reason than to make the protagonist seem smart or sophisticated. It's frequently used in advertisements for the same reason.

But it's obvious - at least to chess players - that most ad designers don't play chess. The tip-off is in the way the board is set up. More often than not you'll see a dark square at each player's right, but that square is always light in chess. Check it out the next time you see a chessboard in an ad. "


So far the only chess related movie I've watched is The Luzhin Defence which is okay I guess but potrays chess grandmasters as truly eccentric people. I think that's not entirely true. They are human too.

Highest hits since Nov 7 2004

One of my website had a sudden surge of hits yesterday. It usually gets around 50-100 hits a day. But yesterday it hit 4000+. Unbelievable.

The website is a fan club on the strongest female chess player ever - Judit Polgar.

Just last week I 'improved' the website look by changing the theme to use one of the more popular Kubrick theme.

Here's how it looks :



Someone calling himself dumb web programmer accused me of stealing the theme from LiewCF.Com.




That's totally bull sh*t. I modified the theme from Xoops Kubrick offered free by someone. I know LiewCF also has a 3 column kubrick thingy but it's in WordPress a totally different type of software. I'm using XOOPS-a content management software (CMS) and not a blogging software for that website.

Anyway, I'm happy with the high one day traffic. Don't know it's because of the news that I posted (nothing special) or the new theme I used. (maybe a combination??)

Every second one blog

BBC NEWS | Technology | One blog created 'every second'

Can you believe that? Somewhere in the the world, someone is posting a blog. And it's done every second.

Ha ha... I can't even find time to blog once every week.