roytang.net

2007 July

• Rich Internet Applications

  July 29, 2007, 4:50 a.m.

  

  Most of the time, my work involves mostly run-of-the-mill information management systems. Lately however, I've been asked to look into some new tech, and that got me interested in what's called Rich Internet Applications (RIAs for short). The primary platform for RIAs is Flash, which apparently is already owned by Adobe and Macromedia is no more. Yeah, I never really paid attention to Flash, like most people I assumed it was only for making amusing movies and annoying ads. Also, Flash has always been a tool oriented towards people who are more design-oriented, not engineers or programmers like me. I

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  Posted by Roy Tang under blog at July 29, 2007, 4:50 a.m. #software-development

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• Brush with the Law

  July 29, 2007, 3:03 a.m.

  A friend of mine, let's call her "C", was waiting for a taxi near her home. There were several other people there waiting for taxis but she had been there first. She finally managed to hail a cab and had already gotten in the back seat when an MMDA traffic guy [1] stopped her and told her that he had hailed that taxi for two women nearby that he pointed to. C said she was the one who had hailed the taxi, but the traffic guy politely but firmly insisted that she get out of the car. Indignant, C took

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  Posted by Roy Tang under blog at July 29, 2007, 3:03 a.m.

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• Going to HK Again

  July 28, 2007, 4:09 p.m.

  For two weeks, starting next Tuesday. Maybe the time away from everyone will be good for me. Work has been a chore lately.

  Posted by Roy Tang under blog at July 28, 2007, 4:09 p.m.

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• I Suck At Standard

  July 28, 2007, 3:09 p.m.

  Just to make it, y'know, official: I suck at Standard. I played in two Nationals qualifiers over the past two weekends. The first one with the Mishra deck (Flores' Legends of Team CMU) to a disappointing 4-3 finish in a sea of Angelfire, Solar Flare and Gruul. Disappointed with the decks performance, I took a look at the result of Australian Nationals that same weekend, and decided to play the Rakdos "Satanic Sligh" build that had won that event in today's qualifier, which was incidentally the last one I could play given my schedule. I guess I wasn't the only

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  Posted by Roy Tang under blog at July 28, 2007, 3:09 p.m. #mtg

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• links for 2007-07-28

  July 28, 2007, 1:30 a.m.

  SlideRocket (tags: flex) Demo of Virtual Ubiquity's Buzzword web word processor recorded by Dan Bricklin (tags: flex) Picnik -- Photo Editing Webapp (tags: flex) [Note 2020 Jan] all delicious links have been imported into the links list

  Posted by Roy Tang under blog at July 28, 2007, 1:30 a.m. #links

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• links for 2007-07-23

  July 23, 2007, 1:28 a.m.

  YouTube -- Algorithm March with Prisoners The inmates at a prison in Cebu perform the Algorithm March from Pythagoras Switch (tags: music weird pinoy) YouTube -- "Thriller" The inmates at a prison in Cebu perform the "Thriller" video. This has got to be a really entertaining prison. (tags: music weird pinoy) Gang Kidnaps Gamer to Get Password Using Fake Orkut Date -- Gizmodo Oh those crazy lawless Brazilian gamers! (tags: games funny) Sirlin.net — Your source of shocking insights on game design » Playing to Win Index Sirlin's book "Playing to Win" can be read for free on his website.

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  Posted by Roy Tang under blog at July 23, 2007, 1:28 a.m. #links

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• Magic Game Day

  July 14, 2007, 4:04 p.m.

  Today is of course the release of Magic's Xth edition, Magic Game Day. As usual, I played at Neutral Grounds in Galleria. Helluva lot of people there, more than I was expecting for a Core Set Release tournament. The format is, as usual, Sealed Deck with four rounds of Swiss pairings. Players were grouped in Flights of 32 people each (previous prerelease tournaments had 48-people flights), each win gets you an Xth booster pack and the top 2 of each flight (the ones who went 4-0) get something extra. Apparently the extra prizes were stuff like a bag, a shirt

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  Posted by Roy Tang under blog at July 14, 2007, 4:04 p.m. #mtg

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• Bad Day Perspective

  July 11, 2007, 2:14 p.m.

  Some days just don't go very well. You wake up with a mild headache. Your bed demands that you stay just a few minutes longer. Your computer refuses to work correctly. You have no energy. Every task assigned to you seems to be something you'd rather not do. You find out some people hate you. You get drenched in rain on the way home. You arrive home and feel completely useless, thinking you've done nothing today. I was planning to write about how I had a bad day, but then the above paragraph got out of hand. Exaggerated even. I

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  Posted by Roy Tang under blog at July 11, 2007, 2:14 p.m.

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• Transformers

  July 2, 2007, 12:56 a.m.

  As a big Transformers fan back in the day, I have to say: the movie is okay. Action-packed and a fun popcorn flick. The story's nothing to win an oscar over, but everything looks SO COOL! Some questionable things though: (Spoilers) Why does the all-spark only create violent, gun-toting robots? Where the hell did the Autobots come from? I don't recall seeing the Decepticon symbol anywhere, was it there? How come Soundwave can survive getting his head chopped off, but Jazz can't take being split in half? Hell of a movie.

  Posted by Roy Tang under blog at July 2, 2007, 12:56 a.m. #movies #pop-culture

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• PTQ Valencia 2007-06-30 @ NG Galleria

  July 2, 2007, 12:15 a.m.

  

  I was playing UG shifters. Lands 4 terramorphic Expans 9 Island 6 Forest 3 Llanowar Reborn 1 Pendelhaven Creatures 4 Vesuvan Shapeshifter 4 Wall of Roots 4 Riftwing Cloudskate 3 Mystic Snake 2 Thelonite Hermit 2 Brine Elemental 2 Aeon Chronicler 2 Willbender 1 Draining Whelk Spells 3 Search for Tomorrow 3 Foresee 2 Psionic Blast 2 Call of the Herd 2 Take Posession 1 Spell Burst Sideboard 3 Mwonvuli Acid-Moss 2 Krosan Grip 3 Delay 2 Riftsweeper 2 Penumbra Spider 3 Serrated Arrows It was my first Block Constructed tourney. I got my first ever sixth win in a

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  Posted by Roy Tang under blog at July 2, 2007, 12:15 a.m. #mtg

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