Starcraft Hitler Parody

30 June 2010

If you played Starcraft, you must see this.



This is by far the funniest hilter (The Downfall) parody ever made if you played Starcraft! Must see.


WNxH: Ohmchii the Lolcat

27 June 2010

This week's WNx Homestay comic strip is out! And it's about Lolcat!



Thanks to Evo who gave me this brilliant idea of turning Ohmchii into a Lolcat. So this is how the strip goes...



WNx Homestay: Ohmchii the Lolcat






Love,
Nicholas.

How to Get Attention?

26 June 2010

Desperate? Pfft.


Here are a few general steps to get the attention of anyone...I guess. If these methods don't seem to work or sound stupid, don't try it then!




Methods
1. By Sound
One of the ways to get attention is by a loud noise or sound that will force everyone else to stop what they're doing and focus their attention on you. If you make them feel interested, they will then continue to give more attention to you. Kids love to use this against parents, they shout, scream, weep and cry.









2. Eye Contack
Eye Contact + Attack = Eye Contack
Just maintain a short moment of eye contact to the person you want and the person is bound to focus on you. The power of eye contacks are that you engrave a meaning in the way you look, so you make the other person think. You can make people shut up and think of you when you do this good enough.









3. Confident Feel
Walk with your disco shoes with the song Stayin' Alive on your Walkman. People will look at you! Nah...this is basically to show confidence, maybe in the way you walk, talk or feel. People tend to have more attention towards charismatic and confident people. Make sure you talk, and say something charming that people will like. It makes you stand out.









4. Smile / Be Cute!
Obvious. Yes, people like it.






5. Amazement
Do something amazing, or at least "unintentionally" let them know. If you can draw, you can dance, let people know. People like to see talent and something different, so if you can do something, at least talk about it! People will then seek you if they need to know more about what you do.









6. Be Relaxing
You can crack some nice jokes, and be humorous to others. When people feel relaxed with you, they generally like you more. Comedians get a lot of attention from crowds.






Love,
Nicholas.

How to Know What You Really Want?

23 June 2010

Yeah, soul-searchin' post? You gotta know what you really want in life.



There might be a time when people ask you this...


What do you really want in your life?


Then another question. Question after question...


What do you really want to achieve?
What are you doing now to achieve that?
Why are you here?
How do you get there?
When are you getting there?




Passion. Dance.






Hey, we can't answer all of these and it may seem to be out of our control to determine our own future. But other than the changing environment with unforseen events, people, capital, assets, and missed opportunities, there's nothing else that stops us from doing so.




Being Aware
See, now you have the Internet and you could surf it online. If you're very poor, you wouldn't have the time to be looking at my blog just yet and you should be very busy.


However, if you are able to see this post, it means that you've got that time to search some stuff and gain knowledge. So if you have the time, or some people call it "Hidden Time", you might as well use it to move one step closer to what you want. Or if you don't know, use the time to find out!


Now that you're aware you can use some of your time, you can begin on how to determine what you want.










Determining What You Want (SURVEYING)
People will not suddenly get to know what they really want unless they try it out and feel that they like it. Some people just get the chance to try it out and some people don't. The problem with teenagers nowadays is that they don't even bother to try or take the initiative to go search for it.


MAIN IDEA:
Take a look at how the world is changing for now. You do not anticipate the change and think how successful you'd be when you work in future. Instead, think of what you would really like, and then through your passion, you CREATE something that CHANGES the world how YOU would like it to be.


If you had been thinking of being a doctor or a lawyer just because you want to get rich and have a higher status, you're making the world worse. You don't even like your job, you're not going to help people with sincerity. Let those who really want to save lives and fight cases to prevail justice to do it.







Now that you've grasped the main idea of determining what you like, which is not based on any factors, you take a look at what people do and search for it through the Internet. For example, if you feel that you like to learn something in the medical field, search it up on Google or something.



ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS THIS:
Go to http://www.google.com , type in any of the following...

how magnetic resonance imagery works
what are the most common diseases in the world
list of remedies for colds
psychological manipulation
sleepwalking
process of cancer treatment


Whatever...just do a random search on what you don't know. Then, you put focus into the articles you found online, and comprehend them. You will gain knowledge and get an idea how it is done, theoretically. With this knowledge, you analyze whether you like learning it or not.








Analysis - Like or Dislike? (QUESTION)
As most of you might have known, what you have learned online may be only one small part of a huge topic. The thing is, you only liked that part. So what now?




QUESTION EVERYTHING.





Firstly, you ask yourself a couple of questions.

Does learning and practicing this knowledge make me happy?
Do I like being with people who are good at this?
Is it fun to do everyday or at least every week?
Would it be enjoyable to do other related tasks?
Do I want more?



If your answer to all is YES then you've got it. If you're on the fence then you gotta do more surveying, or more research on what you are actually going into. If you answered NO for most of it, then it would be a good time to start another survey on a different thing.



To analyze is also to weigh pros and cons.









Conclusion
Alright, that's all for knowing what you really want. If your goals are not actually applicable to the examples I gave, just read the two big topics, which are SURVEYING and QUESTIONING. These are the two simple steps to find out your passion. Eventually, you will need time to analyze before you come to an end result.

WNxH: Sniping Warfare

20 June 2010

WNx Homestay is back! Visit every Sunday for the comic strips!


Alright, WNx Homestay has been stopped at around December last year, but now it's back. So with the usual old characters, it's still the same, and there will be more coming. I still don't plan to put the newer characters any sooner, but just enjoy it for now.



WNx Homestay: Sniping Warfare




As the name suggest, it has something to do with sniping, and also Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2! Recently I have been addicted to it, and so I just wanted to include a scene of RailKill being owned by someone... yeah.


For MW2 players, you probably might have noticed...Rail is holding a Dragunov and Evo is holding the Intervention. =)

What is Pseudocode?

18 June 2010

A few things about pseudocode.




What is It?
Pseudocode is just the simplification of a programming codes into English sentences where humans can understand without any knowledge of the programming language itself.





What is the Use?
Due to simplicity and how it could give a more general understanding of the program, programmers use pseudocode to do a draft or layout of their algorithms and lengthy logical functions before writing it in the programming language desired. As it is basically a draft, there is no specific format of writing pseudocodes and is completely up to the programmer on how he/she wants to write the pseudocode.





Example
Let's say that we would like something to happen based on a condition. Therefore, we will be using IF-ELSE statements (If the condition is true, do this... else, do that).

For this example, let's say we want to check if a girl named Nico is married or not. So if she is married (TRUE) then we show a message that says "I am married." or else (FALSE) we'll show a message that says "I'm single!"



So a simple draft is done using pseudocode:

If NicoIsMarried Equals To True
Then
Show Message "I am married."
Else
Show Message "I am single!"




But if we want to write this in Python, it would be as such:

if NicoIsMarried == True:
print("I am married.")
else:
print("I am single!")

How to Play CODMW2 Multiplayer Online?

16 June 2010

Garena doesn't work. How?


Been trying too hard for so long just to get Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 to go online on multiplayer but couldn't? Well there's one way that Unnamezz showed and he got it working successfully. Here's the steps on how he did it. Also, thanks to Leon who pointed out the post by Unnamezz.




Steps
1. Go to this link.

2. Then, download 'FreshInstall' if you have downloaded MW2 from Internet.

3. Else, if you downloaded MW2 from Steam / Original Copy, download 'Update'.

4. After your download is complete, extract all the files into your MW2 folder.

5. Replace and overwrite all.

6. Then, run alterIWnet_configure.exe and type your IGN.

7. Click on the MW2 Multiplayer icon and click Play, then click on Find Game.

8. Choose the gamemode you want to play and wait.

9. You may need to wait for quite some time, do not rush.

10. Just wait...

11. Be patience, the games will appear... continue waiting.

12. Wait just a little while more.

13. Volia! Games appear and you can play MW2 Multiplayer online. Enjoy!!




Please use this guide at your own risk, nobody is responsible for what you're doing to your MW2 if you tried it and it does not work. This guide is only for the desparate and people who bought the game but could not find any other ways of playing their game online.

How to Use Power?

15 June 2010

What the hell is this power and how do people use it?



Power is the exertion of influence and the ability to modify or change another person's way or behaviour. In life, it is crucial to have power, especially in business organizations, in order to achieve certain goals. This is under psychology, and power should be used only for good, not bad. As a start, there are 5 types of power.









Types of Power
1.
Legitimate Power
This is the formal and legitimate rights by law, that a person can exercise power on. It is also known as authority. This power exists in working environments, superiors possess this power.


2. Coercive Power
This a negative type of power, where a person exercises power by threatening, psychological manipulation, or in any other ways that forces another person to obey due to fear or uncertainty.


3. Expert Power
Knowledge is power. For this type, the person has higher knowledge about a specific field, and others will tend to listen to every word the person tells them to do.


4. Referent Power
Referent power is based on the charismatic attributes of a person, whereby others may look up and take that person as a role model. In doing so, this charismatic person can exercise power.


5. Reward Power
This power is exercised by simply offering a reward.




By using these powers, you can influence others to do things you want them to do. As such, tasks can be completed in a correct manner, in a way you want them to be. Leaders who do not have the power cannot lead their people properly!









How To Use It?
The types of power already explained themselves on how to use them, but take a look at the Weapons of Influence, which I must say is really good.

To use power, you have to first separate emotions from everyday life. Then, you develop plans or strategies to draft out your ways of converting what you want to do (idealism) into realism through actions. Your actions will consist of talking, socializing and building networks. By picking out the best words to use, you can exert the most power with carefully chosen words that other people may have a liking towards it. Words are really sensitive, and even if you say it with one word different, people may approach it differently.




Weapons of Influence
According to Robert Cialdini, there are 6 weapons of influence.


1. Reciprocity
This means to return a favour. By helping others, people tend to return a favour by helping you back. For example, half the people attending an art appreciation session were offered a soft drink. Afterwards, all were asked if they would buy 25-cent raffle tickets. Guess what? The people who had been offered the soft drinks purchased twice as many raffle tickets, whether or not they had accepted the drinks!


2. Commitment and Consistency
When someone else is really committed in doing something, he will do so even though there are some problems with it. Also, if a person is consistent in their life by doing certain tasks every day, they will be so used to doing it until it is like a MUST for them. For example, in car sales, suddenly raising the price at the last moment works because the buyer has already decided to buy.


3. Social Proof
This is where people follow other people's actions. If so many people recommend a can of Pringles and say that it's so good, you'll want to try it too. Another example would be, if one person stops in the streets to look in the sky, other people would stop to look as well because they're uncertain of what it is there. It would even be so powerful that it would stop traffic!


4. Authority
People will obey authoritative figures and loyal people would basically do whatever they are asked to do, even though they object.


5. Liking
This is quite common, and people who like a particular person will be easily influenced by that person. Similarly, this is what happens when boys do whatever a pretty girl asks them to do.


6. Scarcity
Limited edition? People will be rushing to want it. This basically creates an idea among people's minds that they're given an opportunity to do something now or else they will lose that opportunity forever. Perceived scarcity will generate demand!









Why Use Power?
There are many things that won't go your way, and you'll have to find your way around it. If you really have to get things done through or with other people, you will need the power.

Influence -> Power -> Control -> Your Way


Power should only be used when necessary. Using too little power will get you trashed and people will not follow you. Using too much power will also backfire and people rebel against you. Timing is also important, and this will vary for so many different situations in reality. Theories rarely apply in reality due to dynamic environment. Try to learn these weapons of influence and study them to fit you. Do you know how to use your power?

Streamyx VS Maxis Broadband

14 June 2010

Simple opinion on Maxis Broadband and Streamyx as a Malaysian user.



Some of you might search about Streamyx VS Maxis Broadband and I just wanted to notify you earlier that Streamyx is wired and Maxis is wireless. They have their own pros and cons and should actually not be compared because they are a different technology. So, this comparison is actually based on wired VS wireless technology in Malaysia. But anyhow, we Malaysians just want value for money! So let's take a look...







As of 2010, Maxis provides wireless internet through the use of a USB Modem in competition with other phone companies like Digi and Celcom. I've been using Streamyx for a very long time, but I am currently using Maxis Broadband. They will have a little comparison for each category stated below.









Speed
Maxis has great speed for low price (3Mbps for about RM68?) while Streamyx has moderate speed for a higher price (1Mbps for RM88). When Maxis is stable and has good coverage, the speed is definitely excellent. But that is not the case with most users, even me.

Living in Putra Heights, Maxis had a moderate coverage on this area. However, it was worse for Digi, with no coverage at all. Some people experience very good speeds with Maxis, but for me, it was terrible. Speeds do not go more than 1KB per second at times, and I could not even check my mail. To get decent or nice speed was very seldom. Chances are NONE when my quota is reached.


Judging by the awful speed I get with Maxis, I do not think the rest with the same technology (Celcom and Digi) would be any faster. As so, Streamyx would be more stable and "faster" compared to these wireless broadband services.






Stability
Wireless can never beat wired technology when it comes to stability, and I'm sure you know why. Wireless is susceptible to natural phenomena such as rain and haze which can slow down transfer. The instability gets greater especially when your area is of low coverage. For stability, go with Streamyx.









Installation & Ease-of-Usage
Maxis is very simple to install indeed, simply by plugging in your USB Modem and install their program and volia, you got yourself an internet connection. For Streamyx, there's slightly more to it, but it's all done by the people who set it up for you.

Maxis is better in terms of installation and ease-of-usage as you can just plug in the modem, drivers will install and you get connection right away. No other configuration is required. It would be the same on any computer. Thus, it does not require any knowledge about any network devices.






Bandwidth
As you all may have know, Maxis has limits your bandwidth for the home user packages and for people who download a lot, it would be quite useless. Once the quota has reached, Maxis slows your speed drastically. For me, it's less than 1KBps, and that's just insane. Get Streamyx.









Price
For Maxis, it is relatively cheap compared to Streamyx and it would be a very good value over Streamyx if you really get what you were intended to get. Else, like most users, you might face stinking speeds (you call this broadband?) and instability that will make you feel frustrated.



Maxis also has a 7-day trial, and in case you are not happy with the product, you just need to return your modem and you get back all your deposit. This is true, but within that 7 days they will make sure you get good speeds, and after that is a different story. Your deposit is also a rebate (RM30) to your monthly payment, so I guess its basically free, you only need to pay for monthly fees. Contract? No contract, but you forfeit your deposit if you terminate after the 7-day trial. Digi however, has a contract and I don't recommend getting it because you will most probably experience the same problem as Maxis.

(Some damn girl at Lowyat told me that Digi has no contract and no quota, what kind of a friggin' lie is that?)



Anyhow, Maxis is certainly cheaper and if you get good speeds with it, then that's a very good thing.






Customer Service
Service? When did any of these Malaysian ISPs ever cared about service?







Overall
Overall! For stable, good speed and everlasting connection, get Streamyx. Streamyx allows you to play games, download stuff and do everything you need with a nice speed and guaranteed stability. Even if your speed is slow at the time, you won't go as low as 1KBps (maybe at least a few KBps? :D). You only get Maxis if you want to surf the net just for the sake of getting some information or send emails because it's cheap but slow. But trust me, you would LOVE Streamyx if you actually tried Maxis. Not to mention Streamyx sucks as well...but it's the best among the suckers. Malaysia's development in this field is underinvested and uncompetitive. There's nothing we can do.




Love,
Nicholas.

What is Database?

12 June 2010

Simple stuff about database and how it is used.


First off, database is like a base for data. It is like a box that can contain stuff inside. It is basically a collection of data or information stored for future use. The data stored in a database are usually called records. Data can be created, edited or deleted through the use of a Database Management System.




An example of a simple database.






What are Database Management Systems? (DBMS)
A DBMS basically manages a database by providing functions to edit, create or delete records or data from a database. A good and popular example would be Microsoft Access or Oracle. If you use Microsoft Access, you can see that data is stored in a grid or table (relational database model). It is commonly known as DataGrid in some programming languages.



An example of DBMS.






How Does Data Flow?
In reality, users perform certain tasks through computers to obtain or insert data into a system. As such, there is a flow of data and it can be represented through Data Flow Diagrams (DFD) which contains of External Entity, Process and Database.

As such, DFDs show the Inputs and Outputs of data in a system or program. Data flows as input, to a process and becomes output. For example...


INPUT
A user (External Entity) requests data (Process).


OUTPUT
Data is requested from a place where data is stored (Database) to be shown to the user (External Entity).



Another example of DFD.






Database Programming
Well, database is just one big collection of data, like how you would store files in cabinets in everyday life. So what if a user needs to know only certain data in a database? Does the user need to look through each and every record in it to find what he or she wants? Nah, that's why we have programming.

Data can be managed through the use of programming languages such as Structured Query Language (SQL) for relational database models (those tables with rows and columns) which are so commonly used nowadays. By doing a query, the programmer can select and display certain data for the user, and this is how a search function can be done. SQL is also used to change values in the data and so on. With programming, databases are managed very well and gives the user many options to use the data in the database. For web databases, a common language would be MySQL with PHP.



An example of a form created through programming for users to key in data into a database.






Data Structures
This is not really database, but it does involve grouping of data so I thought I'd include this. In high-level programming languages, they have the use of Data Structures as a way of organizing or storing data for efficient use later on. This is mostly to make a mini-database concept mainly for temporary use or for varying quantities. The mini-database created is actually a variable (which will contain a group of other variables) where you can just create it out of nowhere and remove it later on if you don't use it. There are many data structures, but these are just a few simple ones.


1. List
List is basically like a real-life list. You list out some stuff and they have an order or sequence.


2. Set
A set is a group of data that has no order or sequence. The data inside the set does not duplicate and no two are the same as well.


3. Stack
A stack is just like a stack of books, where you would only start from the top of the stack. If you add in data, called Push, it will be added onto the stack. When you delete data, called Pop, the highest data or the one most recently entered will be removed. This also has an order and is also categorized as a List.








4. Queue
A queue is like how you queue up in life. When you add in a data, it will be at the back of the queue. When you remove data, the one at the front of the queue will be removed. This works like a first-come-first-serve concept.









5. Array
An array is used such as it is like rows and columns. In one row, there can be many columns. The variable acts as one row, and data can be put into many different columns from there by specifying an index. It's like different dimensions for one thing. They appear like this...

Variable[0] = "Blah"
Variable[1] = "Worst"
Variable[2] = "Hooo!"
... and so on.


For simplicity, it looks like this.


012
VariableBlahWorstHooo!








Love,
Nicholas.

How to Animate in Maya?

11 June 2010

An extremely simple guide on how to animate 3D rigged models on Maya.



Due note that this is only a guide for animating, not for modelling. So what we are going to look into is just the basics and simple steps on how to start animating any rigged character in Maya.








For this example, we'll be using the Andy rig. You can use any rig you want.


What You Need
- Any rigged character. You can find one in http://www.creativecrash.com/
- Autodesk Maya




An Extra Note to Know Beforehand...
If you use the Andy rig like in this example, you might want to adjust some settings before opening as you will see a very poor quality of the model (no eyebrows, badly textured clothes) when you open the scene. So do this first.

Go to Window -> Settings/Preferences -> Preferences.

Click on the Display section at the left hand box. Now look at the right-hand side for Baked Viewport Textures. Set it to High Quality as shown in the picture.










Restart Maya and you're good to go!





How to Get Started?
1.
Open up Maya.
Alright, just run Maya!



2. Set your project file.
For any rig you download on the net, you are most probably going to have a folder with other folders such as scenes, sourceimages and so on. So click File -> Project -> Set...









This will allow you to set the main project folder and load all textures and files which are included in your rigged character. So now, browse to the main folder of your rigged character and click OK.











3. Open up a scene.
Now that you've set your project, Maya knows what you are working on and can get the texture files and other file directories right. But it's still blank! So let's open up a scene that contains the character. File -> Open Scene.














Once you opened the scene you should see your little character.





4. Animate!
Look at the little circles on your model. These are the controls which you can use to animate your character. Click on any of these and you can use the Rotate or Move tools to animate.









Once you have posed your character, you can press "S" to set a key within the time slider. You do not need to press the "S" key if your Auto-Keys (the small key at the bottom-right hand corner, if it's on it'll be red) is on.


Set a few keys with different poses and click Play at the bottom-right hand corner. See how your character moves!




Other Notes
If you do not know how the animation works, it is basically like a flipbook. Each keyframe (the numbers on the time slider at the bottom) represents a piece of paper in the flipbook. So when you play the animation, its like flipping through all the pages and there you have your animation. In Maya, all you have to do is to pose your character at a keyframe, set it, and move on to another frame to set another pose. Any keys in between which were not set will automatically try to transition to your next pose.



Now that you know how animation works and how to pose your character, look up some postures and tutorials on YouTube to see how to make a walk animation!





Love,
Nicholas.

[Update] - Life in College

10 June 2010

Okay! 2 months hiatus was quite some time. Back to blogging.



Alright, so I had been going to INTI Subang Jaya College as I previously said. So here are some photos for you all to enjoy, as a little enlightment for my return to my blog.



INTI's Library is a nice place to start with. Let's move on to what other things I saw.





Cock Ring! Beautiful brand name of a ring file, owned by Stephanie.





As if Cock Ring isn't enough, there are Cock Firestarters too! Alright, now for what kinda food I see.





The greatest Pan Mee from Face2Face! Near INTI, get yours now.





And I just can't miss out this photo of the CHOCOLATE FAIR.





Now that I'm done with the things I see. Let's move on to the famous dudes for my programme.






Tribute to Jason, the guy with the black hoodie for being the most happening guy in college.





Tribute to gayism in college.





Tribute to Shawn in the middle for being the definition of fun.





Also, tribute to Vinoth the sleeping king and the best comedian of all times.





It's been 3 months since I enrolled to college! And nothing can be more enjoyable than this. School life was yesterday and I have to admit that college life is a lot better and relaxing. Of course, it relies on different factors, but for me, it's really good. Thanks for those who keep bugging me for updates, and yeah, updates will come tommorow. More guides on computers, psychology, other categories. More knowledge! Stay tuned.