ArchivePage 2 of 97

My F1 tickets

Published
by
acroamatic
on Thursday, 26 June 2008
in Personal and Sports
. 13 Comments

I finally got my hands on the tickets for Singapore’s first Formula 1 race. Yes, I realise the irony of a post about Formula 1 just after one about Envirofest, but I don’t claim to be an environmental saint.

Unfortunately, the tickets came in a big box, meant for 10 sets - the maximum any individual can buy.

Hmmm... what is this?

Inside, mostly empty space, since I bought two sets of tickets.

A mostly empty box... with F1 tickets

The actual ticket holder: still lots of paper being used.

Ticket holder

Inside, a pass for each day of the race: Friday (practice), Saturday (qualifying) and Sunday (race day).

Individual passes for each day

Now, I feel I need to do some penance for my participation in this environmental monstrosity…

Similar Posts

Envirofest 2008 this weekend

Published
by
acroamatic
on Wednesday, 25 June 2008
in Hear Ye and Heritage
. 2 Comments

Envirofest 2008

Envirofest 2008 is on this weekend. It will be held in the open area in front of Toa Payoh Community Library from 11am to 8pm on Sat 28 and Sun 29 June.

Lots of nature and environment groups will be there! Me? I’m going to be at the Toddycats booth from opening to 2pm on both days.

Hmmm… what’s this SWITCH mentioned in the banner? Apparently, it stands for Simple Ways I can Take to Change my Habits.

Similar Posts

Firefox 3 - 8,414 downloads in Singapore and counting

Published
by
acroamatic
on Wednesday, 18 June 2008
in Tech
. 2 Comments

UPDATE - 3 July 2008 A World Record! 8,002,530 downloads in 24 hours.

Firefox 3 | 8,414 downloads from Singapore as at 1058hrs SGT

Have you grabbed Firefox 3 yet? What are you waiting for?

Download it now!

As at 1058hrs (Singapore time), 8,414 people have downloaded Firefox 3. I account for three: home PC, office PC and MacBook. =)

Total downloads are 2.8 million and counting!

If you’ve installed Firefox 3 and want to leverage on its full power, check out:

Similar Posts

Firefox Download Day is tomorrow (Singapore time)

Published
by
acroamatic
on Tuesday, 17 June 2008
in Tech
. 0 Comments

Download DayI have been using Firefox since its first release in late 2004.

I was fed up with Internet Explorer (i.e. the Blue E) as it was clunky. I never liked how it handled bookmarks (or favourites, in IE-speak). There wasn’t much I could customise or extend. Most of all, it’s just plain unsafe. The number of security issues that arise from the combination of Windows and IE is astounding. I have no hard data on this, but I reckon that switching to an alternative browser is a major step to safer browsing.

Firefox is a joy to use. It has tabbed browsing. No more opening multiple windows. This really helps as I rarely browse with just one window open. Firefox has extensions, which I use a lot to tailor the browser to my needs (perhaps a blog post on this another time).

It’s not perfect though. Like other users, I’ve noticed that Firefox 2 (about to be defunct), hogs RAM. And it just gets worse over time. Thankfully, Firefox 3 doesn’t seem to suffer from this problem. I’ve been using it on my MacBook, and it is really fast and responsive.

I hope Firefox 3 solves another issue. It’s okay to visit a site using Java (such as some internet banking sites) but visiting another site which uses Java later on in the same session (lets say I go to a government e-service site which uses SingPass) results in Java not working. It’s a bit of a pain as I have to quit Firefox to get the Java engine to close, then restart Firefox.

Whatever the case, Firefox is a better browser overall. If you haven’t gotten rid of that Microsoft junk that passes for a browser (tell me you love IE 7’s upside down interface and I’ll be speechless), help set a world record tomorrow - Wednesday, July 18, 1am to Thursday, July 19, 1am according to Otterman - by downloading and trying Firefox 3.

You won’t look back.

Similar Posts

Where I go, fires seem to follow

Published
by
acroamatic
on Wednesday, 4 June 2008
in Personal
. 6 Comments

I’m not sure how many people have been to places which have burnt down or caught on fire. Admittedly, having lived in Australia for two years made the chances of that higher as bushfires are common there. Still, I think it’s a little unusual to have been to a number of places that have been ravaged by fire.

The kitchen in my house, Bishan, Singapore
On fire: Ash Wednesday (the irony) early to mid 90s.
Cause: Stove fire.
Remarks: My grandmother left cooking unattended while she was on the phone. I was the only other person who was at home. I was supposed to be at church when the fire happened, but I had decided to go for a later mass. I managed to put out the fire before it got really big. The kitchen had to be renovated as the fire destroyed the hob, stove and part of the cabinets.

Mount Stromlo Observatory, Canberra, Australia | article
Visited: July 2001.
On fire: 18 January 2003.
Cause: Bushfire.
Remarks: Not many people visit Mount Stromlo (or Canberra, for that matter), so I was shocked to find out one morning that the observatory fell victim to a massive bush fire.

Victoria Ranges Indoor Rock Climbing Centre and Pistol Range, Melbourne, Australia | article
Visited: Various occasions in 2002 and 2003.
On fire: 12 November 2004.
Cause: I believe it was an accident. Can’t seem to find an article which confirms the cause.
Remarks: This place, next to a paper warehouse, was entirely gutted.

Wilsons Promontory National Park, Victoria, Australia | article
On fire: 1 April 2005.
Visited: Just a week or two before the fire.
Cause: Out of control back-burning
Remarks: I went to Melbourne for a short break in 2005. Not long after my first-ever visit to Wilsons Prom, a major fire (apparently due to back-burning gone wrong) wiped out a lot of the vegetation.

Universal Studios, Los Angeles, USA | article
Visited: December 1995.
On fire: 2 June 2008.
Cause: Apparently, an accident.
Remarks: The animatronic King Kong that scared my brother is now no more.

So, beware if I’ve ever been to your house…

Similar Posts