Lester Chan's Website » Blog http://lesterchan.net Lester Chan's Website | lesterchan.net Wed, 17 Mar 2010 16:00:28 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight http://lesterchan.net/blog/2010/03/17/command-conquer-4-tiberian-twilight/ http://lesterchan.net/blog/2010/03/17/command-conquer-4-tiberian-twilight/#comments Wed, 17 Mar 2010 00:10:41 +0000 Lester Chan http://lesterchan.net/?p=1664 Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight was officially launch in Singapore yesterday. Pre-ordered my copy of it last week at Funan’s challenger. Showed them my copy of Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars and got straight SGD$15 off the retail price of SGD$69.90, end up paying only SGD$54.90.

I love those goodies that come with the pre-order. In this case, it is 2x free t-shirts, 1x Tote bag and 1x 3D cover art. The full soundtrack and bonus mission are all digital download.


Box – Front


Box – Back


3D Cover Art


Inner Box – Front


Inner Box – Back


DVD


Manuals


Free T-Shirts


Free Tote Bag

]]> http://lesterchan.net/blog/2010/03/17/command-conquer-4-tiberian-twilight/feed/ 1 Blogger Name Card http://lesterchan.net/blog/2010/03/15/blogger-name-card/ http://lesterchan.net/blog/2010/03/15/blogger-name-card/#comments Mon, 15 Mar 2010 12:50:20 +0000 Lester Chan http://lesterchan.net/?p=1661 I finally got a blogger name card to give away during blogger events, thanks to Li Xiang who designed it for me. Printed it at Tommy Print. SGD$60 for 200 pieces. The price is pretty steep because the material used is translucent plastic card. It took a month before I am able to collect it. Guess not much people print those.

]]> http://lesterchan.net/blog/2010/03/15/blogger-name-card/feed/ 12 Web Development On Mac http://lesterchan.net/blog/2010/03/11/web-development-on-mac/ http://lesterchan.net/blog/2010/03/11/web-development-on-mac/#comments Thu, 11 Mar 2010 12:17:34 +0000 Lester Chan http://lesterchan.net/?p=1659 I am all along a Window user and have been doing web development on Windows for years. When I started work, all the guys in the engineering team are using Mac, so I thought I go with the flow and begin doing web development on a Mac. The experience was excellent, just need some time to get used to. After intensively using Mac for more than a month, I am proud to say, I am not going back to a Windows PC. My next computer shall be a Mac. I am hoping the 27″ iMac gets refreshed next year and it I am going to get that. Even Valve is bringing Steam to Mac. With Blizzard games able to run on Mac and Razer supporting it mice with Mac drivers. There is no reason for me to use a Windows PC anymore. If there is really a need (like testing website in IE), I will just use VMWare to run Windows 7.

Here are some software I use to do web development on Mac:

IDE: Coda (USD$99) by Panic
SVN: Versions (EURO€39) by Sofa & Pico
MYSQL: Sequel Pro (Free)
FTP: Flow (USD$25) by Extend Mac
localhost: MAMP (Free)

]]> http://lesterchan.net/blog/2010/03/11/web-development-on-mac/feed/ 7 Crumpler Photo Neck Strap (The Industry Disgrace) http://lesterchan.net/blog/2010/02/27/crumpler-photo-neck-strap-the-industry-disgrace/ http://lesterchan.net/blog/2010/02/27/crumpler-photo-neck-strap-the-industry-disgrace/#comments Sat, 27 Feb 2010 15:01:45 +0000 Lester Chan http://lesterchan.net/?p=1653 Bought Crumpler’s Photo Neck Strap, The Industry Disgrace, at Raffles City’s Crumpler Store for SGD$25. I have no idea why the website put SGD$34.24, I think must be an error or the price was reduced.

Conclusion, it is definitely worth the money as you will feel the difference between the stock neck strap and this one. The latter is much more comfortable because of the design and the cushion padding at the back.


Front


Back


Crumpler Word At The Back


Crumpler Logo At The Front


Cushion At The Back


On My Canon 50D

]]> http://lesterchan.net/blog/2010/02/27/crumpler-photo-neck-strap-the-industry-disgrace/feed/ 0 Happy Lunar New Year 2010 http://lesterchan.net/blog/2010/02/13/happy-lunar-new-year-2010/ http://lesterchan.net/blog/2010/02/13/happy-lunar-new-year-2010/#comments Sat, 13 Feb 2010 14:07:31 +0000 Lester Chan http://lesterchan.net/?p=1648 This week marks the end of my second week of work at mig33. Work for me has been smooth. I like my job because it is what I like to do and what I used to do previously. Instead of coding WordPress plugins for the WordPress community, I am coding mig33 software for the mig33 community.

Today is the eve of Lunar New Year, I hereby wishes all Chinese a Happy Lunar New Year! And hope that they DO NOT take advantage of lunar new year to increase your food prices! It is ridiculous!

]]> http://lesterchan.net/blog/2010/02/13/happy-lunar-new-year-2010/feed/ 3 Web Engineer at mig33 http://lesterchan.net/blog/2010/02/01/web-engineer-at-mig33/ http://lesterchan.net/blog/2010/02/01/web-engineer-at-mig33/#comments Mon, 01 Feb 2010 13:56:55 +0000 Lester Chan http://lesterchan.net/?p=1643 I have spent the first quarter of my life studying! 6 years in primary school, 4 years in secondary school, 3 years in Singapore Polytechnic (SP), 2 years and 2 months serving my nation, 3 years 6 months in National University of Singapore (NUS). Finally, it is time for me to step out to the working world and complete the other half of my life.

My last paper ended back on 3rd December 2009, went to Taiwan for my graduate trip from 7th to 13th December 2009 and went to Hong Kong with Li Xiang from 19th to 27th December 2009. Sent out my resumes to OCBC, UOB, SingTel, Matador, CSIT and Crimson Logic for the last 3 months but did not get a reply.

I was recommended by David to Andy who said his company, mig33 Pte Ltd, is looking for a web developer and David asked me to contact Andy personally. So I thought why not give it a try, so I sent my resume to Andy and Andy forwarded it to his bosses. Thanks to Andy for endorsing and putting good words for me, I manage to get an interview last Thursday, 28th January 2010 at 3pm. The interview was pretty technical which I like because it really tests your skills and experience in that area rather than just looking at your CAP or grades and judge everything based on that.

Came back at 4pm and at 5.49pm, I got an email saying that I got the job as a Web Engineer at mig33! I was really over the moon! It is my first full-time job! The feeling is definitely better than striking 4D or ToTo!

It is such a coincidence that mig33 is located at The Central Office 1 building which is just beside my internship company, Sedgwick Richardson, which is located in Office 2 building (they both share the same lobby)

mig33 is the largest mobile chat community, connecting millions of mobile friends all around the world! You can find out more about mig33 at http://mig33.com/.

On the day that I got the job, I posted a blog post entitled All Good Things Must Come To An End on my WordPress blog.

Just in case you miss it, let me paste it down here:

As you all know, I have been doing WordPress plugins and supporting it for the past 6 years. These 6 years of my life, I have been through my polytechnic education, my national service as well as my university education.

I just graduated from university in December 2009 and have been jobless for 2 months. However, things change for the better. I was offered a full-time job and will be starting work this coming Monday on the 1st February 2010.

I regret to say that I am not able to provide support for my plugins anymore due to my full-time job commitment. I will leave my WordPress plugins support forums open and let the community help one another.

However, I will still update my plugins when I can and you still can report bugs to me via email and I will try to fix it.

The comments I have gotten are very positive and I would like to thank everyone for their support and encouragement! You rock WordPress community!

]]> http://lesterchan.net/blog/2010/02/01/web-engineer-at-mig33/feed/ 16 Recommended 2-Bay NAS http://lesterchan.net/blog/2010/01/19/recommended-2-bay-nas/ http://lesterchan.net/blog/2010/01/19/recommended-2-bay-nas/#comments Mon, 18 Jan 2010 16:00:01 +0000 Lester Chan http://lesterchan.net/?p=1632 I purchased my D-Link DNS-323 on the 1st September 2008 during Comex 2008.

3 days ago, my DNS-323 decided to give up on me, just after 1 year and 3 months! The warranty for the DNS-323 is only 1 year so my warranty had just ended! Argh!

I thought I might try my luck, I wrote in to D-Link saying I am a blogger blah blah blah and a huge fan of D-Link, spending SGD$519 worth of D-Link products during IT Show 2009 and to see if out of goodwill, they can RMA for me. But if it fails, at lest I tried and time to hoot a new NAS.

Here is what happen:

  • I found my DNS-323 switched off and immediately power it back on.
  • Works normally after powering it on, but after an hour, the DNS-323 disconnect itself from the network.
  • I tried powering it off and on again by pressing on the power button but to no avail.
  • I have to manually plug out the power cable and plug in back in again and press the power button to power it on.
  • Works normally again, but as usual, after an hour, it disconnect itself from the network again.
  • Power button still does not work, have to manually plug out and in the power cable to reboot it.
  • This time round, the power LED light blinks non-stop after booting up
  • I tried hard reset, swapping the harddisks, removing the harddisks, all could not work, the power light continue to blink.
  • I seek help from my friend, Andy, who is an expert with D-Link products, tried some of his method but still could not get the DNS-323 to hard reset

While waiting for D-Link to reply me, I did some research on 2-Bay NAS and have narrowed down to the following 4 choices which is within my budget.

SYNOLOGY Disk Station DS210j

Price: SGD$408
Official Link: SYNOLOGY Disk Station DS210j
Memory World Link: SYNOLOGY Disk Station DS210j

QNAP TS-210

Price: SGD$514
Official Link: QNAP TS-210
Memory World Link: QNAP TS-210

NetGear ReadyNAS Duo (Diskless)

Price: SGD$429
Official Link: NetGear ReadyNAS Duo (Diskless)

Thecus N3200 Pro

Price: SGD$499
Official Link: Thecus N3200 Pro
Note: This is 3-Bay NAS, but I included it because it is within my budget.

The purpose of me using a NAS is to share files within my home network and to use it as a BitTorrent machine. I also backed up my files on it, so I will definitely run RAID1 with it. Any recommendations on which one I should settle for eventually? Please leave a comment. Thanks a lot!

]]> http://lesterchan.net/blog/2010/01/19/recommended-2-bay-nas/feed/ 5 Looking Back 2009 http://lesterchan.net/blog/2009/12/31/looking-back-2009/ http://lesterchan.net/blog/2009/12/31/looking-back-2009/#comments Thu, 31 Dec 2009 09:17:12 +0000 Lester Chan http://lesterchan.net/?p=1610 Today is the last day of the year 2009. 10 years ago today, everyone was frantic about the Y2K bug. I will be watching Alvin & The Chipmunks 2: The Squeakquel at 10:50pm at GV VivoCity, so I will be spending the countdown inside the cinema watching the movie, first time experiencing this. Last year I was in Taiwan for the countdown, kinda miss that, that countdown was the best countdown I have ever been to so far. Singapore’s countdown is a total joke, who the heck want to watch Mediacorp’s artists perform? They are seriously overworked and underpaid.

2010

  • 2010 will be the year I actually start finding a job and continue working for the rest of my life.
  • 2010 will marked my 26th birthday, I am halfway through to being 30.
  • 2010 will marked my 6th year together with Li Xiang.
  • 2010 will marked the 8th year of lesterchan.net.
  • 2010 FIFA World Cup is scheduled to take place between 11th June 2010 to 11th July 2010 in South Africa.

Wishing all my readers and visitors a Happy New Year 2010!

I created this monthly/yearly archive using WordPress shortcode so that it allows me to embed either a yearly archive or a monthly archive specified by me into a post.

Looking Back 2009

December 2009

November 2009

October 2009

September 2009

August 2009

July 2009

June 2009

May 2009

April 2009

March 2009

February 2009

January 2009

]]> http://lesterchan.net/blog/2009/12/31/looking-back-2009/feed/ 0 Merry Christmas 2009 http://lesterchan.net/blog/2009/12/25/merry-christmas-2009/ http://lesterchan.net/blog/2009/12/25/merry-christmas-2009/#comments Fri, 25 Dec 2009 05:49:19 +0000 Lester Chan http://lesterchan.net/?p=1608 This is the second Christmas I spend outside of Singapore, the first was in Taiwan last year, and currently I am in Hong Kong!

I wish all my visitors and readers a very merry Christmas!

]]> http://lesterchan.net/blog/2009/12/25/merry-christmas-2009/feed/ 1 2009/2010 Semester 1 Modules Grades http://lesterchan.net/blog/2009/12/22/20092010-semester-1-modules-grades/ http://lesterchan.net/blog/2009/12/22/20092010-semester-1-modules-grades/#comments Tue, 22 Dec 2009 02:27:11 +0000 Lester Chan http://lesterchan.net/?p=1606 2009/2010 Sem 1 Examination for COMPUTING 4

» CS1280 Java to C++ S
» CS4259 Legal Aspects of Information Technology A
» CS4266 IT and Customer Relationship Management A-
» GEK1001 Place, Environment and Society B+
» SSA2211 The Evolution of a Global City-State B-
» CAP: 3.79

I will SU my SSA2211. Nevertheless graduated with 2nd Class Honours (Lower) in BComp (Information Sys). Woot!

*UPDATE* After SUed my SSA2211, my CAP rise to 0.02 and my final CAP is 3.81.

]]> http://lesterchan.net/blog/2009/12/22/20092010-semester-1-modules-grades/feed/ 5 Taiwan Graduate Trip 2009 http://lesterchan.net/blog/2009/12/17/taiwan-graduate-trip-2009/ http://lesterchan.net/blog/2009/12/17/taiwan-graduate-trip-2009/#comments Thu, 17 Dec 2009 05:03:47 +0000 Lester Chan http://lesterchan.net/?p=1602 After 2 years in Kindergarten, 6 years in Primary school, 4 years in Secondary school, 3 years in Polytechnic and 3 1/2 years in University, I have finally completed my course of study after 18 1/2 years! Went to Taiwan with Weiquan (knew him since Polytechnic), Kelvin and Hong Jun for our graduate trip for 7 days 6 nights.

Day 01 (Monday, 7th December 2009)

  • China Airlines flight CI0752 departed at 10:30am. There was a delay of about 45 minutes because one of the runway in Changi Airport was closed to allow another airplane to do emergency landing.
  • Reached Tao Yuan International Airport Terminal One at about 3.30pm and took the Free Go bus to our Nei Jiang Hotel (內江商旅).
  • Free Go bus cost NT$240 for a round trip and hotel cost NT$2380 per night.
  • Reached our hotel at about 5.30pm and spend about 1 hour to get the Wireless Router up and running but unfortunately it could not work because the voltage in Taiwan is only 110 volts and we need 230 volts. End up using Windows 7 Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) which is a pain in the ass to set up.
  • Dinner was at Modern Toilet (便所主题餐厅) located in Ximending (西門町).
  • After dinner, we walked almost the whole of Ximending (西門町)!
  • Facebook Gallery: Taiwan Graduate Trip 2009 Day 01
  • Hong Jun’s Blog: Day 1

Day 02 (Tuesday, 8th December 2009)

  • Breakfast was at Ay Chung Mian Xian (阿宗面线) also located in Ximending (西門町).
  • Went to Guang Hua Digital Plaza (光華數位新天地) which is like the Sim Lim Square of Singapore.
  • Lunch was at Mr.J Restaurant (Mr.J義法廚房).
  • Went to Taipei 101 and went up the Sky Observatory.
  • After Taipei 101, went to walk around New York New York (纽约纽约) and Shin Kong Mitsukoshi (星光三越).
  • Dinner was at Ding Tai Fung (鼎泰丰).
  • After dinner went to Shida Night Market (师大夜市).
  • Facebook Gallery: Taiwan Graduate Trip 2009 Day 02
  • Hong Jun’s Blog: Day 2

Day 03 (Wednesday, 9th December 2009)

  • Went to Xin Beitou (新北投)’s 水都温泉馆.
  • Had lunch at 满来温泉拉面.
  • Went to Dan Shui Old Street (淡水老街) to buy some metal eggs (鐵蛋).
  • Had dinner at Shilin Night Market (士林夜市).
  • Facebook Gallery: Taiwan Graduate Trip 2009 Day 03
  • Hong Jun’s Blog: Day 3

Day 04 (Thursday, 10th December 2009)

  • Had breakfast at McDonald’s. The McDonald’s breakfast there is half the price of Singapore!
  • Took the Taiwan High Speed Rail (台灣高鐵) to Taichung (台中).
  • Went to our Minsu (民宿) called Tomato Rooms which is located near Feng Jia (逢甲).
  • After depositing our bags there, we went to Yi Zhong Street (一中街) to do some shopping as Feng Chia Night Market (逢甲夜市) only open after 6pm.
  • Had dinner at Feng Chia Night Market (逢甲夜市).
  • Facebook Gallery: Taiwan Graduate Trip 2009 Day 04
  • Hong Jun’s Blog: Day 4

Day 05 (Friday,11th December 2009)

  • Had breakfast at 小品屋 which is provided by the Minsu (民宿), we top-up some money for a better meal.
  • Took the Taiwan High Speed Rail (台灣高鐵) back to Taipei (台北).
  • Had lunch at Fei Tian Mala Huo Guo (飞天麻辣火锅). The buffet includes free-flow Haagen Dazs Ice Cream!
  • Went to Wufenpu (五分埔) to take a look at clothes.
  • Went to Rao He Street Night Market (饶河夜市) after that.
  • Facebook Gallery: Taiwan Graduate Trip 2009 Day 05
  • Hong Jun’s Blog: Day 5

Day 06 (Saturday, 12th December 2009)

  • Took the Taiwan Railway (台鐵) to Ruifang Station (瑞芳).
  • Went to Jiufen (九份) to get some snacks to bring back to Singapore.
  • Went to Carrefour to get 满汉大餐 – 麻辣锅牛肉面 to bring back to Singapore as well. Love the instant noodles there!
  • Went to Luxy but unfortunately there is some private event there and we ended back up in Ximending (西門町) and we caught a movie, Law Bidding Citizen.
  • Law Bidding Citizen is good! Quite similar style to Prison Break.
  • Facebook Gallery: Taiwan Graduate Trip 2009 Day 06
  • Hong Jun’s Blog: Day 6

Day 07 (Sunday, 13th December 2009)

  • Last breakfast in Taiwan at Ay Chung Mian Xian (阿宗面线).
  • Had some drinks at Cafe 85 °C (85度C).
  • Took the Free Go bus back to Tao Yuan International Airport Terminal One.
  • China Airlines flight CI0751 reached Singapore at about 8:45pm.
  • Facebook Gallery: Taiwan Graduate Trip 2009 Day 07
  • Hong Jun’s Blog: Day 7
]]> http://lesterchan.net/blog/2009/12/17/taiwan-graduate-trip-2009/feed/ 0 Off To Taiwan For My Graduate Trip http://lesterchan.net/blog/2009/12/07/off-to-taiwan-for-my-graduate-trip/ http://lesterchan.net/blog/2009/12/07/off-to-taiwan-for-my-graduate-trip/#comments Sun, 06 Dec 2009 16:11:55 +0000 Lester Chan http://lesterchan.net/?p=1601 Took my last exams paper in NUS last Thursday on 3rd December 2009. It was an evening paper so it lasted from 5pm till 7pm. So technically I have graduated, but I can only double confirm it when my results are out on the 22nd December 2009.

Looking back last year on the 14th December 2008, I was also going to Taiwan.

This will be my second visit to Taiwan, this trip should be focusing a lot on food. I will be going with my NUS classmates whom I knew since year 1, shout out to Weiquan (knew him since Polytechnic), Kelvin and Hong Jun.

My flight, CI0752, will depart on the 7th December 2009 at 10:30am and I will be coming back via the flight, CI0751, on the 13th December 2009, reaching Singapore at 8:45pm.

I will be going with Li Xiang on a seperate trip to Hong Kong on the 19th to 27th December 2009.

]]> http://lesterchan.net/blog/2009/12/07/off-to-taiwan-for-my-graduate-trip/feed/ 0 Last Day of School http://lesterchan.net/blog/2009/11/13/last-day-of-school/ http://lesterchan.net/blog/2009/11/13/last-day-of-school/#comments Fri, 13 Nov 2009 14:07:13 +0000 Lester Chan http://lesterchan.net/?p=1585 Today marks the last lecture which is CS4266 of my studies in NUS. It is also my last day of school. Next week will be my reading week and following that 2 weeks of exams. Similar to previous semesters, I have 4 examinable modules.

  • 24th November 2009 (Evening Paper) – SSA2211
  • 30th November 2009 (Morning Paper) – GEK1101
  • 1st December 2009 (Evening Paper) – CS4266
  • 3rd December 2009 (Evening Paper) – CS4259

Once I have finished my exams, I will be going to Taiwan for my graduate trip and after that Hong Kong with Li Xiang!

  • 7th to 13th December 2009 – Taiwan
  • 19th to 27th December 2009 – Hong Kong

Wish my luck for my last exams!

]]> http://lesterchan.net/blog/2009/11/13/last-day-of-school/feed/ 5 Happy 25th Birthday Li Xiang! http://lesterchan.net/blog/2009/11/12/happy-25th-birthday-li-xiang/ http://lesterchan.net/blog/2009/11/12/happy-25th-birthday-li-xiang/#comments Thu, 12 Nov 2009 14:50:43 +0000 Lester Chan http://lesterchan.net/?p=1583 Today is Li Xiang 25th birthday! This year is a little bit more relax for us as we manage to have the whole day to ourselves.

We had dinner at TWG Tea at Ion Orchard as Li Xiang always wanted to try the dessert and tea there.

The main courses there are a little on the pricey side. It ranges from SGD$27 to SGD$32 and there are like like 5 choices of main course available. Not forgetting the portion is kinda little. I would not recommend having any full meal there.


Shrip Beignets (SGD$27)


Pike Perch Fillet (SGD$28)

On the other hand, the tea and dessert there are pretty good. There are like hundreds of tea selection available which I really do not know how to start choosing. The price starts at SGD$10 per pot, a pot is enough for 2 persons. We ordered the Happy Birthday tea which fits today’s occasion. The Happy Birthday tea is a little fruity!


Happy Birthday Tea (SGD$10.50)

There are some cakes available but we did not order them. Instead we ordered a Carrousel which is basically a very large Macarons filled with Strawberries and their homemade cream. We also did ordered two ala carte Macarons at SGD$2 each. The Macarons at TWG is nice, it is not too sweet.


Carrousel (SGD$10)


Macaron (SGD$2 each)

Total bill amounted to SGD$93.55 after 7% GST and 10% service charge!

We donated SGD$10 to the We Are One charity project at Ion and we are entitled to placed 5 Lego bricks!


Donated To We Are One

Did not watch any movie today because Li Xiang will be having her end-semester FYP presentation tomorrow. Instead we will be watching 2012 this Saturday at midnight at GV Max!

Happy 25th Birthday Penguin! All the best for your studies! Going to graduate soon! Jia You!!!

Facebook Gallery: Li Xiang’s 25th Birthday

Looking Back

]]> http://lesterchan.net/blog/2009/11/12/happy-25th-birthday-li-xiang/feed/ 0 How To Get Your First Tweet If You Have More Than 3,200 Tweets? http://lesterchan.net/blog/2009/11/12/how-to-get-your-first-tweet-if-you-have-more-than-3200-tweets/ http://lesterchan.net/blog/2009/11/12/how-to-get-your-first-tweet-if-you-have-more-than-3200-tweets/#comments Wed, 11 Nov 2009 16:31:55 +0000 Lester Chan http://lesterchan.net/?p=1582 Inspired by DK’s blog post on Been using Twitter for 3 years and still loving it!, I am determined to get my first tweet. But there is a problem! The 3,200 tweet limit imposed by Twitter.

According to Twitter’s FAQ, it states:

Why can’t I see all my tweets? My tweet count is _,___. Are they lost?
The good news is they’re not lost or gone! We have all your tweets. The bad news is that we currently only allow you to see the 3200 most recent tweets (this could also be construed as good news, as that number could be lower than 3200). The other good news is that we are eventually going to build something that will allow you to see ALL your tweets. Among the gazillion things we want to do to make Twitter better, this hasn’t yet reached the top of our list, which is largely based on what we hear from people like you. At some point, you’ll be able to get on a twime machine, visit your twistory, and tweminisce. That will be a fun day!

That means if you got more than 3,200 tweets, you are pretty much screwed if you want to get your first tweet. There are services like My First Tweet and My Tweet 16 which allows you to get your first tweet.

My Tweet 16 did not have a gracious way of telling user, “hey you got more than 3,200 tweets and hence we can’t obtain your first tweet”. Instead it still displays the so called “your first tweet” which is totally fake if you got more than 3,200 tweets. It is basically listing your (YOUR_CURRENT_TWEET_COUNT – 3200)th tweet.

My First Tweet on the other hand is much better, if you got more than 3,200 tweets it will just prompt you “Sorry, something went wrong. This is what I have recorded as your error: Too Many Tweets.”.

I tried Googling, Binging and Yahooing but still could not get any answers. Suddenly Internet Archive came to my mind! Just enter your Twitter URL which is http://twitter.com/YOUR_USERNAME. For mine, it is http://twitter.com/gamerz.

It should be able to list the archives of your Twitter page, click on the earliest archive and it should bring your to a cache page of your Twitter page during that period. Here is an example http://web.archive.org/web/20080118191247/http://twitter.com/gamerz.

As you can see, it list down all the tweets that you have during that period. That page listed 4 tweets for me which matches the Updates count on that page. And hence the last tweet on that page should technically be your first tweet. There is no way to confirm that till Twitter have a twime machine or something in the future.

Here is my first tweet according to the Internet Archive:

After midterm exams, now comes exams

]]> http://lesterchan.net/blog/2009/11/12/how-to-get-your-first-tweet-if-you-have-more-than-3200-tweets/feed/ 1 5th Anniversary http://lesterchan.net/blog/2009/10/24/5th-anniversary/ http://lesterchan.net/blog/2009/10/24/5th-anniversary/#comments Sat, 24 Oct 2009 13:27:40 +0000 Lester Chan http://lesterchan.net/?p=1571 Today marks our 5th anniversary. This year is a little unique. We did not buy each other gifts nor write each other a card. Instead we bought a card together and both of us will write in the same card.

We had a buffet lunch at Carosel at Royal Plaza. It is SGD$45 per pax during a weekend lunch and we get to redeem SGD$10 worth of carpark fees which is equivalent to about 3 hours of parking at Royal Plaza.

The reason we chose Carousel is because Li Xiang and I saw all the nicely displayed Macrons when we walked past Carousel quite sometime back. Another reason is because I was reading a review on it at HungryGoWhere and there are plenty of reviews on it (I sorted by number of reviews). But after trying it out, it is pretty average. The food and dessert variety is alright but the taste is not there. I kinda like the coffee there though. The thing I hate the most is the ice cream, I can tell that they are using some cheap ice cream like Walls because I am very sensitive to ice cream taste. I expect better quality ice cream like Mövenpick at least. Nevertheless the service was pretty good, my iced water was topped up almost instantly once it is goes below half.

I think Straits Kitchen at Hyatt will be better choice if you ask me.

After lunch, we went to Singapore Flyer. It is our first time there after so much procrastination from Li Xiang. We wanted to use the 15% voucher because it was sent to Li Xiang because of her upcoming birthday but didn’t know if you use OCBC or DBS credit card you are entitled to 20% discount. The usual adult price ticket is SGD$29.50 and after the discount, we paid SGD$23.60 for each ticket.

The experience we have on board the Singapore Flyer is pretty good. The service staff are all well mannered and friendly. The Singapore Flyer really gives you a 350° view of the landscape of Marina area and I didn’t know the Marina Bay Sands IR is so big till I am on board the Flyer. The ride lasted exactly 30 minutes because I was subtracting the time I took from the last photo with the first photo.

We bought the sovereign photo at SGD$18 because I don’t think we will be sitting the Singapore Flyer anytime soon and even we did, we will not be buying the photograph again. Most importantly the photography have a date stamp on it which marks today’s date. Li Xiang said the typography of the date could be smaller.

Came back home about 4pm and we played Wii Sports Resort!

Facebook Gallery: 5th Anniversary

Looking Back

]]> http://lesterchan.net/blog/2009/10/24/5th-anniversary/feed/ 0 Are You Being Served? Mission Outcome http://lesterchan.net/blog/2009/10/22/are-you-being-served-mission-outcome/ http://lesterchan.net/blog/2009/10/22/are-you-being-served-mission-outcome/#comments Thu, 22 Oct 2009 10:40:44 +0000 Lester Chan http://lesterchan.net/?p=1559 The outcome of my Are You Being Served? Mission has been posted on the Are You Being Served? website, check out Lester & Li Xiang: Sound service!

Here is a snippet of the post:

We approached one of the staff, nearer to us, and ask him to take the product down for us. He is wearing an orange color t-shirt which is significantly different from the rest of the staff there (they wore black) and he do not bear a name tag but just the word “Promoter” so we assumed he might be a part time staff working on the weekends.

Judging from his reply stated on top, he is not very sure of the product himself either. To make matter worst, he has problem communicating with us. He seems to have problem understanding our English and his replies in English to us are often very short.

Check out Lester & Li Xiang: Sound service for the full glory details!

]]> http://lesterchan.net/blog/2009/10/22/are-you-being-served-mission-outcome/feed/ 2 Are You Being Served? Mission http://lesterchan.net/blog/2009/10/02/are-you-being-served-mission/ http://lesterchan.net/blog/2009/10/02/are-you-being-served-mission/#comments Thu, 01 Oct 2009 16:00:22 +0000 Lester Chan http://lesterchan.net/?p=1557 I always complain that the service level in Singapore is lousy and now with the Are You Being Served? platform, I will see whether what I complain holds true.

Things I hate the most:

  • When you ask “Do you have this product in store”, they will answer, “all the things are displayed on the shelves”.
  • When you ask “Do you have the other model”, they will answer, “No”.
  • Tai-Chi-ing you around. When you ask Person A, Person A ask you to ask Person B, when you ask Person B, Person B ask you to ask back Person A.
  • With the influx of FT in Singapore, it is not uncommon to find sales personnel from China. Some of them do not even understand basic English which makes communication difficult and that begs the question, are we suppose to blend into them by speaking Mandarin or are they suppose to blend into us by learning English. This is really getting out of control.

Technically they did not answer wrongly but it is their attitude that pisses you off. For example, instead of answering “No”, they answer “Sorry, we do not have it”. Wouldn’t it make you feel better than saying a no and brushes you off after that?

Anyway, back to topic, following up on my Are You Being Served?’s blog post 3 weeks ago, my mission is suppose to commence on the 28th September 2009 and here are my mission details:

  • I will be targeting the retail industry, in particularly the electronics portion.
  • I am intending to get the Sony iPod Dock Clock Radio ICF-C1IPMK2 to replace my analog alarm clock while it charges my iPhone 3GS.
  • I will be getting it from a local electronics store in VivoCity because it is the cheapest with member’s discount.
  • I will be going together with Li Xiang and let her ask all the questions, while I observed the sales personnel.
  • I will be observing his/her patience, attitude, product knowledge and most importantly will he go the extra mile to serve us.

PS: I can’t explicitly named the store to prevent unnecessary lawsuit.

]]> http://lesterchan.net/blog/2009/10/02/are-you-being-served-mission/feed/ 6 Apple’s Push Notification Is Godsend http://lesterchan.net/blog/2009/08/28/apples-push-notification-is-godsend/ http://lesterchan.net/blog/2009/08/28/apples-push-notification-is-godsend/#comments Fri, 28 Aug 2009 03:37:16 +0000 Lester Chan http://lesterchan.net/?p=1534 I have been addicted to Apple’s Push Notification Service ever since I bought Prowl. There are endless possibilities on what you can do with Push Notifications.



Apple’s Push Notification Announcement

The Apple Push Notification Service is a mobile service created by Apple Inc. that was released with iPhone OS 3.0 on the 17th June 2009. It uses push technology through a constantly-open IP connection to forward notifications from the servers of third party applications to the iPhone or iPod Touch; such notifications may include badges, sounds or custom text alerts.

Apple first announced the service on 9 June 2008 with a slated release for that September; however, as stated by Scott Forstall at the iPhone 3.0 preview event on 17th March 2009, the rollout was rolled back in September after a decision to restructure the APNS for scalability purposes due to the allegedly “overwhelming” response to the announcement of the APNS. At both events, Forstall stated that push notifications were a better means to maintain battery life than background processes (which are used for pull technology) as far as receiving notifications are concerned.

APNS is using XMPP/Jabber, particularly the PubSub extension.

Wikipedia: Apple Push Notification Service

For email, there are PushMail and GPush to ensure you get a notification seconds after you received an email.

For twitter, there are SimplyTweet and Boxcar to notify you when you get a mention or a direct message in Twitter.

For instant messaging, there are BeejiveIM and IM+ to ensure you never miss an instant message.

For reminders, there is NotifyMe to notify you of things to do

For bills payment, there is BillMinder to ensure you will not miss your bill payment.

The list is not comprehensive, there are much more iPhone apps that make use of Push Notification. Mashable also has a post on it, 14 iPhone Apps With Push Notification for Productivity.

For web developers like me, I love Prowl, because there is an API for you to use and ready made classes for
Perl, PHP, Python, Ruby, Java and Lasso. Do note that the IP addresses are limited to 1000 API calls per hour which is better than Twitter’s 150 API calls.

With Prowl, you can customized your own Push Notifications. For me, I have my this web server’s cron setup to check my Twitter account for new mentions and direct messages every 5 minutes and if there are any, it will notify Prowl using the API and Prowl will sent a Push Notification to my iPhone.

If anybody post a comment in this blog, Prowl will also notify me as I have hooked it into WordPress. Next I am thinking of using my backup server’s cron to ping this site every 1 hour, and if there is any downtime, it will also sent a Push Notification to my iPhone. As mentioned earlier, there are endless possibilities on what you can do with Push Notifications using Prowl + Webserver + Cron.

]]> http://lesterchan.net/blog/2009/08/28/apples-push-notification-is-godsend/feed/ 0 Hong Kong Here I Come http://lesterchan.net/blog/2009/08/14/hong-kong-here-i-come/ http://lesterchan.net/blog/2009/08/14/hong-kong-here-i-come/#comments Fri, 14 Aug 2009 15:24:58 +0000 Lester Chan http://lesterchan.net/?p=1526 Singapore Airlines is having promotion right now! SGD$464 (nett) per pax for a round trip to Hong Kong. The sales period is from 31st July 2009 to 30th September 2009. The outbound travel period for the tickets is from 31st July 2009 to 30 September 2010.

We have booked our tickets. We will be leaving on Saturday, 19th December 2009 at 8:30am via SQ860 and coming back on the Sunday, 27th December 2009 at 5:20pm via SQ863.

Woot can’t wait! The last time I been to Hong Kong like more than 10 years ago!

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