Friday 02 September
Taking a break
Running out of space at this Geocities site, hence I'm taking a break while I move to another place.
Friday 24 June
Spurs pull away late for title; Duncan MVP
With the NBA title on the line, Tim Duncan and the San Antonio Spurs proved themselves worthy champions. In a matchup of the past two NBA champions, the Spurs came through in the clutch to win their third title in seven years and deny Detroit the chance to repeat.
Duncan came up huge in the second half and was chosen finals MVP after having the worst playoff series of his career, and Manu Ginobili had another breakthrough performance Thursday night to lead the Spurs past the Detroit Pistons 81-74 in a Game 7 that was as thrilling as it was rare.
Wednesday 23 June
Winner takes all on Thursday
Behind the scoring of their guards and several clutch plays from foul-plagued Rasheed Wallace down the stretch, the defending champions displayed the resiliency they've become known for as they defeated San Antonio 95-86 in Game 6 of the NBA Finals to send the championship series will to a winner-take-all game for the first time since 1994.
Monday 20 June
Horry's game-winning 3-pointer gives Spurs series edge
Horry knocked down a wide-open 3-pointer with 5.8 seconds remaining in overtime Sunday night to give San Antonio a 96-95 victory over Detroit in Game 5 of the NBA Finals.
Friday 17 June
Another home bashing by Pistons ties series
A lopsided victory came easily for the defending champion Detroit Pistons in Game 4 of the NBA Finals, almost too easily. Their 102-71 victory Thursday night over San Antonio evened the series at two games apiece and left the Spurs scratching their heads.
Wednesday 15 June
Spurs yield 90-plus for first time in 14 Finals games
Ben Wallace and Richard Hamilton led the way as the Pistons dominated the final 14 minutes and defeated the Spurs 96-79 in Game 3 Tuesday night. Ginobili got hurt in the game's first 30 seconds was a non-factor for the first time in the series, and Duncan could not match the energy or enthusiasm generated by Wallace, the NBA's defensive player of the year.
Monday 13 June
Spurned
The Pistons are in a two-game hole after falling to the Spurs 97-76 in Game 2.
Playing at a much higher level than their opponent, the San Antonio Spurs sped out to a big early lead and frustrated the Pistons the rest of the way in a 97-76 victory Sunday night to take a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven series.Friday 10 June
Manu, TD combine for 50; Pistons fade in the fourth
Manu Ginobili helped the San Antonio Spurs shake off the rust and leave the defending world champions in the dust. Ginobili scored 15 of his 26 points in the fourth quarter to complement a huge game by Tim Duncan as the Spurs got the jump in the NBA Finals with a methodical 84-69 victory over the sputtering Detroit Pistons.
Thursday 02 June
Eclipsed
Amare Stoudemire helped Phoenix avoid a sweep, but not the inevitable. He scored 42, but the Spurs won 101-95 in Game 5. They advance to their second Finals in three seasons.
Tuesday 31 May
Sunblock
The Western Conference finals are going back to Phoenix. With steely resolve and dramatic plays in the fourth quarter, the Suns avoided a sweep and defeated the Spurs 111-106 in Game 4 on Monday.
Monday 30 May
Juventus 4 - 2 Cagliari
Juventus celebrate their Scudetto and Adrian Mutu's debut, while Gianfranco Zola considers retirement with two splendid goals. It was party time at the Stadio Delle Alpi, as Juventus were presented with the new Scudetto trophy before driving through Turin in an open-topped bus.
Sunday 29 May
San Antonio denies Phoenix on many fronts
Their offense already was clicking. Now the San Antonio Spurs have their defense cranked up, too, and that might leave the Phoenix Suns out of ways to beat them.
Eliminating the fast break, denying the paint and running at 3-point shooters, Tim Duncan and the Spurs dismantled everything the Suns tried for most of Game 3 of the Western Conference finals, turning their superb defense into a 102-92 victory Saturday night that puts them on the brink of reaching the championship round.
Thursday 26 May
Liverpool triumph in Turkey
There will be a new incarnation of the European Champion Clubs' Cup next season as Liverpool FC became only the fifth team to win it outright after the most astonishing comeback in the 50-year history of these finals led to extra time and then a dreaded penalty shoot-out victory against AC Milan.
Wednesday 25 May
Another win for the Spurs, 111-108 for a 2-0 lead
With Robert Horry and Manu Ginobili making key baskets in the final 2:33, and Tim Duncan scoring 25 of his 30 points in the second half, the Spurs again caught the Suns at the end to win Game 2 of the Western Conference finals 111-108 Tuesday night and take a commanding 2-0 series lead.
Monday 23 May
Spurs storm back, outscore Suns by 11 in fourth
Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, Brent Barry and the Spurs proved that defense might be their best thing, but not their only thing. Beating the league's top offense at their own style, San Antonio used its inside-outside scoring practically to perfection in the final period to beat Phoenix 121-114.
Friday 20 May
Spurs Forge Ahead
Tim Duncan gave San Antonio its biggest lift so far in the Spurs' playoff run Thursday. His layin off a Manu Ginobili feed with 0.5 left was the difference in a 98-96 win in Seattle.
Thursday 19 May
Resilient CSKA sink Sporting
Sporting Clube de Portugal continued the unfortunate trend set by the Portuguese national team at UEFA EURO 2004™ as they were defeated at home in a major showpiece after being given a cruel lesson in finishing by PFC CSKA Moskva in the UEFA Cup final.
Monday 02 May
Juventus 2 - 1 Bologna
Football Italia
Two headers ensured Juve maintain Milan's pace, but they made hard work of beating Bologna.
Thursday 28 April
Spurs rout Denver, Bulls go 2-0 up
TD and San Antonio underwent a sea change from Game 1, roaring to a 31-point lead after one half, then cruising over the Nuggets 104-76 Wednesday to level the series.
Chicago trailed by 10 points after the first quarter, but exploded for 38 in the second to erase the deficit and take control of Game 2 in Wednesday’s 113-103 win over the visiting Wizards.
Tuesday 26 April
Spurs stumble against Nuggets, Bulls win Game 1
San Antonio led after three quarters, but managed just 12 fourth-quarter points in Sunday’s 93-87 Game 1 loss to the visiting Nuggets.
In a back-and-forth battle, Chicago outscored Washington 26-12 in the final period to take control of their opening-round playoff series with a 103-94 Game 1 win Sunday.
Monday 25 April
Lazio 0 - 1 Juventus
Pavel Nedved scored a late goal against his former club Lazio to ensure Juve hold on to the top of the table alongside Milan.
Friday 22 April
Parts of a PC
- Motherboard's Logic Chipset = router
- Chipset split into North-bridge and South-bridge
- North-bridge connects
- Processor via FSB
- GPU via AGP Bus
- Memory via Memory BUS
- South-bridge connects
- HDD via ATA Bus
- PCI cards via PCI Bus
Thursday 21 April
Juventus 0 - 1 Inter
Football Italia
Inter have done their rivals Milan a favour by beating Juventus at the Delle Alpi and restoring parity at the top of the table.
Monday 18 April
Juventus 5 - 2 Lecce
Football Italia
Zlatan Ibrahimovic bagged a hat-trick to demolish Lecce and give Juventus a three-point lead at the top thanks to Milan's shock defeat at Siena.
Thursday 14 April
Juventus 0 - 0 Liverpool (1-2 agg)
Football Italia
Juve are out of Europe after another dismal performance against Liverpool that failed to bring the goal they needed.
Sunday 10 April
Fiorentina 3 - 3 Juventus
Football Italia
Juve fought back three times to earn a draw in a six-goal thriller at Fiorentina's Stadio Artemio Franchi.
Wednesday 06 April
Liverpool 2 - 1 Juventus
Football Italia
Juve recovered from a dismal first half performance and were unlucky to emerge defeated 2-1 by Liverpool in tonight's quarter-final, as they had a perfectly good goal disallowed.
Sunday 20 March
Juventus 1 - 0 Reggina
Football Italia
A splendid Alessandro Del Piero strike proved enough to see off Reggina after a hard-fought game with more than a few scares for Juve.
Monday 14 March
Juventus beat Chievo 1-0
For the second consecutive match, the substitute that came on for Del Piero scores the winning goal. Fabio Capello must know something we don't.
Thursday 10 March
Juventus Progress!
Just finished watching Juventus beat Real Madrid in extra-time after David Trezeguet scored to level the aggregates 1-1 at full-time. It was another efficient performance from the bianconeri, though they wasted several chances as Real Madrid looked content to defend first.
Cannavaro gets my vote for best player for defending superbly, while Camoranesi and Ibrahimovic also had good games. The former's crosses led to both goals and the duo created most of the bianconeri's chances.
Zambrotta and Emerson would be disappointments of the night. Expected the former to go marauding down the left but didn't remember much of both player's performances.
Del Piero was substituted yet again, though if it were a computer game I'd substitute Zalayeta for Trezeguet. However Capello replaced Del Piero instead and both Trezeguet and Zalayeta scored to win the tie and vindicate his decision.
Juventus are now third favourites behind Chelsea and Milan to win the competition after their odds halved to 5.6 from 14.0.
Trezeguet replaced Del Piero in the 57th minute and scored an acrobatic reverse kick from a Ibrahimovic knock-down off a Camoranesi cross.
In extra-time Tacchinardi and Ronaldo got sent off. The Juventus midfielder was already booked and allegedly elbowed Ronaldo, who responded with a petulant kick. The referee consulted the linesman and sent both off.
Zalayeta intercepted a desperate Raul Bravo clearance and shot into the corner. Capello brought on Olivera for Zalayeta in the final minutes as Juventus held on to win.
Wednesday 09 March
Fantabulous Match!
Chelsea beat Barcelona 4-2 in a pulsating match last night. It's a real pity that one of them had to lose in a matchup that neutrals hoped to be in the Final. Barcelona played very well and the only thing they should blame is their lack in concentration resulting in Chelsea's three early goals.
Chelsea are now favourites to win it after their odds were halved from 9.8 previously to 4.0. Milan are second at 4.8 after repeating their 1-0 win against Manchester United at the San Siro stadium.
Regarding the controversy around Terry's goal, I certainly didn't see much of a protest by the Barcelona players, though if you read some of the news reports it seemed as though one of the world's top three referees missed the supposed "cheap trick" and were hounded by Barcelona players, disrupting play.
According to a particular reporter, a Chelsea defender supposedly "stood on the line to block the goalkeeper from reaching to the ball". I wonder how Carvalho managed to do that from the other direction where the ball was heading.
Carvalho could've tugged Valdez's jersey or held him back, but TV replays didn't show much and you'd think a referee like Collina would've spotted it. Even Barcelona manager Frank Rijkaard admitted as much when he said he didn't see much from the bench.
So enough already.
Tuesday 08 March
Redesign Practice Part 1
Spent the morning and half the afternoon redesigning the homepage of the Singapore Pools website to validate in xhtml and css. Though not pixel-perfect, the redesign looks similar when tested in Firefox 1.0.1 and Internet Explorer 6.0.26 on Windows XP.
Excluding images, the original webpage is 7.04KB while after redesign the html code shrunk to 4.86KB. That's a save in bandwidth of 2.18KB, about 30%. The styling is placed in an external css file which comes up to 1.18KB. Even if inline styling was used the homepage is still only 6.04KB, saving 1KB of bandwidth or 14.2%.
However, I re-aligned (joined and re-sliced) the images of the header portion to better accomodate the layout DIVs, resulting in an increase in size from 15.2KB to 17.6KB. That's 2.4KB, larger than the bandwidth gained previously. But I'm rather certain it's due more to my poor image manipulation skills (and possibly tools; I use freeware) than anything else.
In any case the original (header) images look fudged. Garbage in, garbage out.
But it's not done yet. There's no point in replacing Table layouts with DIV layouts if there is still no semantics advantage to be gained. Next up: To work on the semantics.
Sunday 06 March
CSS Image Slicing
Spent half the day digesting A List Apart's Image Slicing article and learnt how to create that nifty CSS Image "Slice" rollover trick like how Zeldman, Fortymedia and others do it. Used their images for practice as well.
Pity about the problems regarding Image Replacement.
Thursday 03 March
Alternate Stylesheets!
Added an alternative stylesheet in the new design for Firefox and other browsers capable of displaying them. In Firefox, select "View" then "Page Style" and you'd be able to select an alternative style if brown reminds you of sinful food like chocolate and coffee.
IExplorers will have to wait until I digest A List Apart's Body Switchers article. Or perhaps the new Internet Explorer will add functionalities such as Stylesheet switching. And Text Zoom. And Tabbed Browsing. And Pop-up Blocking.
By the way, foxers do remember to upgrade Firefox to version 1.0.1.
Tuesday 01 March
Deadline Missed
The new design was supposed to go live today but I guess sometime in March will have to suffice. I've still to finish the horizontal site navigation and perhaps a new logo.
Wednesday 23 February
New Layout
Working on a new layout while waiting for the UEFA Champions' League match between Real Madrid and Juventus. Pardon the fugly background color, it's supposed to be the color of the month, according to colorstrology.com. Will be adding more color later.
Forza Juve!
Tuesday 22 February
CSS Box Model
- Box Model is made up of Content area, Padding, Border then Margin from inside out.
- Specified width of box is width of content area only. IE4-5.5/Windows incorrectly sets width of box as content area including padding and border.
- Use Tantek's Box Model Hack and "Be Nice To Opera" (rule of greater specifity) hack to pass browsers correct values.
- IE and Netscape have "whitespace" bug. Remove whitespaces to compact block items.
- IE has "Float" bug, incorrectly applies floated content's height area. Use javascript-float workaround.
Friday 04 February
Dare Mo Shiranai
Recently watched Dare Mo Shiranai. Translated word-for-word, the title is "Who(-ever) Also Knows Not", but is better known as Nobody Knows. Lead actor 14-year-old Yagira Yuuya won the Best Actor award at the Festival de Cannes 2004.
Below is an excerpt from Kinocite, a UK web site which reviews movies. It explains the background story which was hinted at but never fully explained.
This film is based on actual events: A young woman, happily married with one child, was wondering why that notice to enroll her son at the local elementary school never arrived – after all other children in the neighbourhood had already started going to school she went to the local board of education to find out what was going on.
She found out that her child didn't exist, that she had never married in the first place (in Japan you are legally married when both partners have put their hanko-seal on the required documents and have handed those in at the local city hall). Her "husband" had never had their "marriage" registered and her son wasn't registered either – her son didn't exist for the city hall – which is why she never got that letter to enroll him in school.
Something went wrong – she should have asked for help but didn't and tried to hide all this. She made up lies "I graduated from Keio University", "My husband is a diplomat and works abroad", "My son attends a prestigious junior high school" – But her "husband" was long gone. Before long she had four other children, all from different fathers – in 1988, when the eldest boy was 15, she had three daughters aged 7, 3 and 2.
As for the ending, to me there wasn't any, much like the movie itself, which always seem to stop short of "milking the tears". Unlike shows like, say, "Pay It Forward". Watch it.
Wednesday 05 January
PSTwo Update
Went to Sim Lim Square to check out PSTwo prices. One shop is selling it for $480, while another (which sells it at $299) advises me to wait for a couple of months before getting it. I'll wait.
Tuesday 04 January
Kung Fu Hustle
Went shopping before watching Kung Fu Hustle. Specifically, checked out the prices of Sony's Playstation2 (PSTwo) and Playstation Portable (PSP).
Sony Gallery is retailing the PSTwo for $285 while shops at Lucky Plaza are selling them at $350 to $380, standard package. Think I'll be getting it from Sony Gallery within the month, after I decide which game is worth spending good money on. Like "GTA: San Andreas" or "MGS3: Snake Eater".
Sony Gallery doesn't carry stocks for PSP as it's officially out-of-stock, but shops at the basement of Lucky Plaza have them going for anywhere between $580 to $688. Way off my budget and it's over-priced since it's out of stock.
Saturday 01 January
Happy New Year
Happy new year indeed! Went shopping during the last week and saw some new stuff on sale. Finally.
Saw the new and slim Sony PlayStation2 at Sony Gallery (Junction 8). As well as the PSP at the Games store on fourth floor of Junction 8, beside the Cinema. And SingTel is retailing the Nokia 7280 for $828 with two-year contract ($1028 without). Damn steady.
Didn't manage to check out the price of the PSP, but it'll probably be about $340. In any case I'm getting the PS2 if it's only just $288, within my expected budget.
