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  • Space Unicron

    …space Unicron
    soaring through the stars
    delivering the rainbows
    all across the world…

    …umm… yeah… nevermind… >_<’

  • *DROOL (III)*

         Well, as luck would have it, the “something” I wanted to do with the animated swf file in question resulted in a desktop gadget.  I figured it’d be neat to have that running on my desktop, atleast for a few days. :3  So… I googled around for how to create desktop gadget for Windows 7, and this is what I found.

    Step 1, create a folder called “ConanTrailer.Gadget”.  You can call it anything you’d like, actually.  Anyways…

    Step 2, create three png files titled “default.png” (a 200×200 pixel png image of anything you feel like, actually), “icon.png” (128×128 pixels) and “logo.png”(100×50 pixels).  Copy them into “ConanTrailer.Gadget”.  If you’re feeling extra indifferent, you can save the images I uploaded, which are essentially variations of my user ID pic, because I did not want to risk some sort of copyright disputes over posting screen-caps.  (And not because I feel like stroking my own ego.)
     

    Step 3, create another folder in “ConanTrailer.Gadget” called “en-US”, because… well… I’m… err… writing this gadget in US English…?  Anyways, copy “Conan_MoPo.swf” into the “en-US folder.”  Also, right-click and create two empty text files, and rename them to “gadget.xml” and “ConanTrailer.html”, respectively.

    Step 4, copy the following lines of code to “gadget.xml”:

    <?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”utf-8″ ?>
    <gadget>
        <name>Conan Trailer</name>
        <namespace>microsoft.windows</namespace>
        <version>1.0.0.0</version>
        <author name=”Lakakalo…?”>
            <info url=”http://lakakalo.xanga.com” text=”Glub?”/>
            <logo src=”logo.png” />
        </author>
        <copyright>&#169; 2011</copyright>
        <description>Trailer for Conan The Barbarian</description>
        <icons>
            <icon height=”128″ width=”128″ src=”icon.png” />
        </icons>
        <hosts>
            <host name=”sidebar”>
                <autoscaleDPI>true</autoscaleDPI>
                <base type=”HTML” apiVersion=”1.0.0″ src=”ConanTrailer.html” />
                <permissions>Full</permissions>
                <platform minPlatformVersion=”1.0″ />
                <defaultImage src=”default.png” />
            </host>
        </hosts>
    </gadget>

    Step 5, copy and paste the following line of codes to “ConanTrailer.html”:

    <html xmlns=”http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml”>
        <head>
            <title>Conan Trailer</title>
            <style type=”text/css”>
                body{
                    margin:0;
                    width:420px;
                    height:750px;
                }

            </style>
        </head>
        <body>
             <object classid=”clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000″
                codebase=”http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=9,0,0,0″
                type=”application/x-shockwave-flash”
                width=”420″ height=”750″
                id=”ConanTheBarbarianIn3D” align=”middle”>
                <param name=”allowScriptAccess” value=”always” />
                <param name=”allowFullScreen” value=”true” />
                <param name=”wmode” value=”transparent” />
                <param name=”movie” value=”Conan_MoPo.swf” />
                <param name=”quality” value=”high” />
                <param name=”bgcolor” value=”#000000″ />
                <embed src=”Conan_MoPo.swf”
                    pluginspage=”http://www.adobe.com/go/getflashplayer” />
            </object>
        </body>
    </html>

    Step 6, copy “ConanTrailer.Gadget” in it’s entirety to “c:Program FilesWindows SidebarGadgets” (You may need to provide authorization to paste the files there.)

    Step 7, if you’re using 64-bit version of Windows 7, you’ll need to download and install a 64-bit flash player from http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/000/6b3af6c9.html (As of the date of this posting, anyway.)

    Now… theoretically, there may be a possible step 8 (and step 9) that involves decompiling “Conan_MoPo.swf”, extracting just the video, and re-compiling it out as another swf file.  But, you know, once again that’s treading copyright violation territory.

    After ~15 or so minutes worth of fiddling around, I ended up with:
     

  • *DROOL (II)*

    Okay, okay, so maybe I’m a bit TOO excited about this.  The movie may or may not be any good, but this just looks awesome.  And being the computer-computer that I am, I figured I’d try and do something or another with it.  SOOOOOOOOOO…

    First thing’s first, the file needs to be saved.

    Now, if you’re using Firefox, you’re in luck.


    Right click anywhere on the page, and select view page info.


    Head on over to the Media tab, and scroll down until you see “http://www.conanthebarbarianin3d.com/motionposter/Conan_MoPo.swf“  BTW, the line about the file size, 3,788.45 KB (3,879,373 bytes), means that you’re in luck.  What you see is actually contained in the swf file.  Hit Save As and you’re good to go.

    If you’re not using Firefox, you need to view the source code, load individual the swf file in a new window/tab and save it from there.


    Either go to View=>Page Source, or hit CTRL+u, methinks.  Once the source code is displayed, hit CTRL+f and type “.swf” into the search box.  This will systematically take you to every instance of swf fliles embedded in the page.  (Admittedly, since the file in question is “http://www.conanthebarbarianin3d.com/motionposter/Conan_MoPo.swf“, it’s a bit redundant in this case.)


    Anyways, open a new window/tab, type in (or paste) “http://www.conanthebarbarianin3d.com/motionposter/Conan_MoPo.swf” in to the address bar, wait for the file to finish loading and then save it from File=>Save Page As, CTRL+s, or the equivalent in your browser of choice.

    That’s all I have to say about that.

  • *DROOL*

    A little something I found at ToplessRobot.com.  Don’t know if the movie will be any good or not, but the motion poster (as the kids are calling it these days) kicks ass!!  ^_^

  • For your listening and/or viewing pleasure :D

  • The Philosophy of Stir-fried Squid With Diced Onions and Chillies

    Because there’s not much more to Stir-fried Squid With Diced Onions and Chillies other than heating some oil in a frying pan, throwing in some strips of squid-flesh, stirring until they smell like they’re thoroughly stir-fried, adding a bit of chopped onions, stirring some more until the onions also smell like they’ve been properly stir-fried, throwing in some diced green chili  peppers, stirring (big surprise there eh?) the whole thing for a minute or two before calling it a day; I figured I’d talk about the philosophy behind stir-frying Squid instead.

    A bit of a disclaimer though, what follows are general rules-of-thumb, rather than laws-that-must-never-be-disobeyed-lest-the-wrath-of-culinary-gods-descend-upon-the-Earth-with-the-fury-of-a-thousand-exploding-culinary-genesis-devices or what have you.

    Anyways, like the title states, the Philosophy of Stir-fried Squid With Diced Onions and Chillies:

     - Stir frying is simple.  You heat up some oil of your choice in a frying pan, throw in (or gently lower) whatever it is you want to stir-fry, and stir.  Really.  Beef, chicken, fish, and/or pork.  I mean really, it’s that’s simple.  Pre-heat oil.  Throw things in.  Stir.

     - Whatever you’re stir-frying goes in first.  Things like beef take a bit of time to be thoroughly cook, and adding something things like onions early on results in the onions getting burnt.  Come to think of it…

    - Ingredients that can get burnt, like onions, garlic and tomatoes should be added last.  Things like beef take a while to cook, and adding onions, garlic and tomatoes early on usually result in a dish featuring badly burnt onions, garlic and tomatoes.

    - Chopping things up into small pieces/strips helps speed up the cooking process.

    - Spice & condiments, i.e. salt, pepper, soy-sauce, ketchup & what have you can be added at any point.  Some prefer to add them early on, others prefer to wait until the whole thing is almost done.  Speaking of which…

    - Always add things in small increments.  It’s easy to add a little more salt to something that needs a little more salt.  It’s not easy to add a little less salt to something that needs a little less salt.

    - The best bet as to when an item is properly cooked is when it smells properly cooked.

    - If possible taste the food as often as possible.  Ya’know, when you’re stir-frying something like vegetables, and not when you’re stir-frying something like duck.

    - *AHEM* Take chances, make mistakes, get messy!

    - And as always, practice makes perfect.

    That’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it. :D

  • “Weird Al” – Don’t Wear Those Shoes

    …

    …that’s …erm… one of way of making a fashion statement…
    :P

  • Hypnosis with Kevin Pollak (ft. Statham and Walken)


    If nothing else, the impressions are AMAZING!
    ^_^

  • What’s your favorite quote and why?

    “Emptiness is form, form is emptiness.”

    It’s abstract enough to be applicable to just about everything. ^_^

    I just answered this Featured Question; you can answer it too!

  • Yet another entry on 9-11, Muslims (and screwing exactly one goat)

    The Muslim calender follows the Lunar Cycle, resulting in each year consisting of 354 days.  As such, the holy days, and holidays, have a tendency of traveling all over the calender.  Geology is also a factor, since sighting a new moon is also an important factor.  In a twist of fate, Eid (atleast in Bangladesh) fell on September 11th this year.

    So… um… yeah…

    I, ofcourse, decided to spend the day actively participating in my favorite activity, and slept through most of the day as well as the night.  Quite a lot of other folks, on the other hand, seems to have written on the 9-11 attacks, Islam & what have you.  And of all things, reading them kept reminding me of a joke.  (Copied  verbatim from this page at TVTropes.org)

    A young man is walking through a small village one day and decides to stop by a bar and have a beer. He walks into a bar, and sees a grizzled old man, crying into his beer. Curious, the young man sits down and says, “Hey old timer, why the long face?”
    The old man looks at him and points out the window, “See that dock out there? I built that dock with my own two hands, plank by plank, nail by nail, but do they call me McGregor the dockbuilder? No, no.”
    The old man continued, “And see that ship out there? I’ve been fishing these waters for my village for 35 years! But do they call me McGregor the fisherman? No, no.”
    The old man continued, “And see all the crops in the farms out there? I planted and have been farming those crops for my village for nearly 45 years! But do they call me McGregor the farmer? No, no.”
    The old man starts to cry again, “But you screw one goat…”


    Muslim extremists essentially screw goats.  While trying to associate their action with the religion of Islam as much as possible.

    Unfortunately, people, in general, have a tendency of not noticing inaction.  So the majority of 1.57 billion Muslims, roughly 23% of the global population not screwing goats in the name of Islam tend to get ignored in favor of a a few thousand loud & obnoxious idiots.  A situation not entirely dissimilar to the all the people who listen to heavy metal, jazz and/or rap music, play highly violent video games, read comicbooks, watch extremely gory movies, browse the internet for porn; and yet, for reasons unknown to man or psychology alike, never go on bloody rampages massacring all in sight, raping corpses and eating hearts all willy-nilly.  And not necessarily in that order either.

    The obvious solution would also be the obvious problem.  Exposure.  How does one go about exposing the diversity of non-extremist Muslims across the world?  It’s not exactly an easily visible ethnic trait.  In order to communicate that a person is not an extremist Muslim would involve branding on par with 60′s era Batman.  Imagine a world where a Non-Extremist-Muslim man, or woman, lives in a Non-Extremist-Muslim home, commutes via a plethora of on-Extremist-Muslim vehicles (Non-Extremist-Muslim-Mobile, Non-Extremist-Muslim-Jet-Ski, Non-Extremist-Muslim-Autogyro), works in Non-Extremist-Muslim facilities, eats Non-Extremist-Muslim lunches (which may or may not be prepared by Non-Extremist-Muslims), probably pick up a bit of Non-Extremist-Muslim-Groceries on their way back home, and occasionally uses a Non-Extremist-Muslim-Shark-Repellent-Spray.  Well, it’s actually happening all over the world.  But without anyone drawing attention to it, because, well, it would irritate the hell out of all the Non-Muslims, Non-Extremist or not.  No one really pays attention to average every day people going about their daily lives.  The media can’t sell average every day people going about their daily lives.  Youtube doesn’t get a 56 million views on clips of average every day people going about their daily lives.

    “But you screw one goat…”

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