It was time for food after the frisbee game and the waiting game. After dinner, we decided to to to 'Jongker's Walk'. There were some interesting shops selling Made-in China Toys, clothes, hair accessories, earrings and art & crafts but all the hawker stalls had packed up because of the rain...I was a little disappointed :(

Now we had to use plan B for supper plans...'ROTI JOHN' !!! I wonder why did they name it 'ROTI JOHN'? Any answers? Anyone? Where are the Malacca people?

The next day, after breakfast, we headed back to Jongker's Walk to buy 'Mee Suah' for a friend. These noodles are handmade here in Malacca.

After finding a car park, we had to queue up to eat at one of the little Nyonya Baba styled restaurants. I called it little because of its dining space was very small and packed to the brim with people and it was not yet eleven thirty in the morning!

But the food served was DELICIOUS! We had Curry Laksa, rice with Assam Curry Fish and a BlackSauce Chicken served with a special sauce and of not forgetting Cendol!

As we left Malacca, I hope that rapid development that is taking place in Malacca and ever increasing number of tourist visiting this city will not transform it into a modern city but they will able to protect their heritage and maintain their historic city.

 

Well I come in on a night train
With an arm full of box cars
On the wings of a magpie
Cross a hooligan night
And I busted up a chifforobe
Way out by the cocomo
Cooked up a mess a mulligan
And got into a fight

Chorus:
Whistlin past the graveyard
Steppin on a crack
Im a mean motherhubbard
Papa one eyed jack

You propably seen me sleepin
Out by the railroad tracks
Go on and ask the prince of darkness
What about all thet smoke
Come from the stack
Sometimes I kill myself a jacket
Suck out all the blood
Steal myself a stationwagon
Drivin through the mud

Chorus

I know you seen my headlights
And the honkin of my horn
Im callin out my bloodhounds
Chase the devil through the corn
Last night I chugged the mississippi
Now that suckers dry as a bone
Born in a taxi cab
Im never comin home

Chorus

My eyes have seen the glory
Of the draining of the ditch
I only come to baton rouge
To find myself a witch
Im-ona snatch me up a
Couple of em every time it rains
You see a locomotive
Probably thinkin its a train

Chorus

What you think is the sunshine
Is just a twinkle in my eye
That ring around my fingers
Just the 4th of july
When I get a little bit lonesome
And a tear falls from my cheek
Theres gonna be an ocean in
The middle of the week

Chorus

I rode into town on a night train
With an arm full of box cars
On the wings of a magpie
Cross a hooligan night
Im-ona tear me off a rainbow
And wear it for a tie
I never told the truth
So I can never tell a lie

After we made our usual pit stops @ the bank (ha ha ha sounds like i have a million bucks!!) and @ the petrol kiosk...we start our journey and all within the speed limit.

It was smooth and easy drive to Malacca...no traffic jam...and thank God, no accidents ;)

Arrived in Malacca just after ten in the morning and like good tourist we went to visit ...

...old but beautiful

RAINBOW BEE-EATER (Merops ornatus)

I spotted these birds on the first day. I didn't get a good look ... I just saw the colours. I thought they must have been some sort of parrot. So I was after a good shot all weekend.

I finally got to see them when they were still, and discovered they were nothing like a parrot. Instead, I eventually identified them as Rainbow Bee-eaters.

On the last day of camp, I spot these two Rainbow Bee-eaters perched on the volleyball net. I crept up slowly, zoomed in and kept clicking as I came closer. I did end up with these nice shots.

They were one of the highlights of my weekend!!

The colours on these Rainbow Bee-eaters were stunning, especially when they flew. The sun would glisten on their wings and show up these gorgeous iridescent colours...

They were just like flying rainbows!! So graceful as they wheeled and swooped for flying insects.

I've been reading up on them, and my book tells me that because they are so active. they need to eat a lot of insects a day. One bird can eat up to several hundred bees in one day.

Their diet includes bees, wasps, hornets, dragonflies, etc. And, you may ask, why don't they get stung?? Well, they are immune to bee and wasp stings.

I doubt if I even, know myself as a whole
To be clear if I am playing only part of the role
I would have tried a new way to reach the goal
So that life doesn't end soon and take on a toll 

How can you measure failures or smiles?
When u r not sure where end the final miles
It's easy to think about taking short cuts and short routes
But will it be possible later to check on your foot

Even if you are lonely, please don't feel so low
For when u are alone, u learn to gather seeds to sow
You won't realize the value of these seeds you possess
Unless u let them grow, you won't be able to evaluate & assess

Are you the only one with dark clouds above?
Hey wake up, chum, watch the whole universe is white dove
Even if they sing the same twiddle little tunes
Of disaster and self doubt which blinds the eyes like a storm crumbling a sand dune

Oh get up buddy; you have no time to wait
For you don't know anyways, what's in store in your fate?
Just go on and take many risks and some chance
Who might know, you may have a big reason to dance...

The rules that we made, have no way to be checked
The only sure means is to go aboard the deck
You may miss something good, without leaving a trail
But that's life's bargains for us, just continue your sail

This is by far the most popular question around Yahoo Answers - "I forgot my Windows password, and how do I reset it?" - You see the same question almost everyday, and sometimes I wish Yahoo could pin that topic somewhere in the section, so people can read it before they ask the same thing again.  But no, they don't do that... so I feel like writing my own.  The following three methods are proven to work, but I leave the decision to you which one you'd like to use.

USE AN ADMIN ACCOUNT

There's a myth that you can use the "net user" command to reset the password, example:

net user Sparkie abc123

That myth is somewhat incorrect.  The truth is "net user" only works when you already have access to an account that has enough privilege - usually an admin's account - to execute this action, otherwise it will be denied by Windows.  Technically, "net user" is pretty much the same as Control Panel - if you can change the password by using "net user", you can change the password under Control Panel, as well.

In addition, even if you don't have an extra admin account to use, there's still a hidden local Administrator that you can access under safe-mode.  This account may, or may not be password-protected, depending on how the system builder set it up in the first place, but always give it a try.

To learn how to get into safe-mode, go to the following link:
http://www.computerhope.com/issues/chsafe.htm

CRACK THE PASSWORD BY RAINBOW

Windows does not store passwords in plaintext form, it is one-way encrypted (in LM algorithm), aka hashed, therefore there isn't a pretty way to crack it... but there is a way: Use a rainbow table.  Unlike a traditional brute-force attack - you keep on guessing a possible match until you get it right, which is very time-consuming - a rainbow table is a precomputed database that saves you cracking time computation in advance by using a technique called time-memory-tradeoff, allowing your brute-force method to be much more efficient, fast, and pretty damn accurate.

To learn more about rainbow, go here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow_table

To give you an idea how fast it cracks, I did an experiment with the following setup:

• Windows XP Pro SP3
• P4 2.0 ghz
• 2gb Memory
• 60gb HDD @ 7,200rpm
• ophcrack with 703mb rainbow table

Tested passwords and times:

• hondas2000 : 7sec
• abc123 : 6sec
• asdfdsa : 6sec
• max10121989 : 12sec
• monkey : 3sec
• 11231967:  3sec

Notes: The initialization could take as long as minute to load.  During the first experiment the actual time for "hondas2000" was 41sec (preload) + 5sec (crack time).

The above tool can be found here:
http://ophcrack.sourceforge.net/

However, in case you didn't realize, preping the computer for a rainbow crack is time-consuming (it took me 4 hours to prep the test, by the way), and some of us simply do not have the time for it.  Luckily, there's another way where you don't have to download the look-up table and still crack it - simply extract the password hash of the account, and use a web service to recover it for you.  This is what you need to do:

1. Still go ahead and download ophcrack
2. Install, but do not download any table
3. Run the program. Click on the big "Load" button, click on "Local Sam"
4. Save the results as "hash.txt" and put it somewhere you can find
5. In the results file, every line represents an account, and is in this format:

Sparkie:1009:7CE2DE1F24339022AE91A15A9FDF9D77:991795B7F0C46 5B98594ED9C5E4443EE:::

In this example, you see "Sparkie" is the account name, "7CE2DE1F24339022AE91A15A9FDF9D77" is the LM hash, and that's what you want.

6. Now, go to this website: http://www.objectif-securite.ch/en/products.php
7. Copy and paste the hash in the first field, click on "Submit".  Within a few seconds you should see the password.  See how easy that is?

RESET THE PASSWORD

There may be times cracking is just not an option for you, so what do you do?  You can just reset it - this method works on any type of Windows, and requires no admin privilege.

Personally, I use an utility called NT_Pass from Austrumi Linux 0.9.2 to reset Windows passwords.  Austrumi can be downloaded here:
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=103017&package_id=110546

Make sure you get the 0.9.2 distrubution, burn it onto a CD (click here to learn how), and boot up the computer with it, and follow the instructions on the screen.

Or there's another tool called "Offline NT Password & Registry Editor".  It works just like NT_Pass, burn it onto a disk and boot up with it.  This utility can be found here:
http://home.eunet.no/pnordahl/ntpasswd/

So, I have her some money, and then about an hour later she came in and said "Ok!  Everything is ready!  We are having a celebration in the bindery!"

And I went into the bindery to find this:

Hooray!  I love Beerlao, and I especially love drinking Beerlao at work!

Then we ate some food, and drank more Beerlao.

So, finally, after drinking beer for a few hours, I had to leave to go teach English.  I ran to catch the bus, a little drunkenly, and then about 30 seconds later it started pouring rain.  Just as I got to downtown, where I park my bicycle, the sun came out, and I looked behind me to see a glorious rainbow in the sky over Patuxay.

In the bus, I tapped the lady sitting next to me, pointed at the rainbow, and said "Nam lae!" (very beautiful), and she didn't really respond. I just told my director about how I saw the rainbow and he said "You know, in Lao culture, if you see a rainbow, you should NEVER point to it."  Then he told me that a rainbow is like a snake, and at one end there is a head.  So, if you see the head of the rainbow under your house, you should cover it with your clothes, and then when it goes away, you will take away the clothes and find riches in the place where the rainbow's head was.

So, basically, I commited a huge Lao Faux-Pas when I pointed at the rainbow.

I went to school, and then asked me class "So, tomorrow is teacher's day, right?"

"Yes"

"And on Teacher's day you give gifts to your teachers?"

"Yes"

"And I am your teacher?"

"Yes"

"So where are my gifts !??!"

No response.

"Ok, you can bring me gifts on Wednesday!"

"Ok teacher!"

Then, I made them read some stuff for a little while, and then we had a class break.  When I came back from the break, the students were all giggling about something.  A minute later, one of them came back into the room with a huge bag of crisps - and a bottle of water, and presented me with them.  Then she said "For you, from all of the class."  And I was very happy.

Then, another student said, "Can we have a party?"

"Ok.  You want to have a party?  We can listen to music and play some games."

So I put on my CD of English Songs (which includes some John Bellows and Vanessa Harris), and we played hangman and Simon Says, which they had a hard time understanding.

And now, today, Friday, we just had another teacher's day party at the library.  This time the director was here, so no Beerlao.  But the University Vice-President came and gave like a 20 minute long speech, and then we all ate pho in the lobby.

Why don't they have teacher's day in the rest of the world?  It's my new favorite holiday after Halloween.  Ok, maybe after Martin Luther King day, too.

Walt K says:

Not only do you have a superb capture of a complete primary rainbow and a double rainbow in a wonderfully scenic location, but you have an added fringe benefit called a supernumerary rainbow!!! On the inner fringe of the primary bow you will notice that the colors start repeating themselves for what appears to be two more cycles. This is the nature of a supernumerary rainbow, which is not all that common and occurs only when the raindrops are all nearly the same size.

Karena koneksi internet yang bermasalah, saya gak bisa online dengan komputer selama seminggu lebih. Jadinya baru bisa posting sekarang.
Well, better late than never, right? ^_^

Maaf lahir batin semuanya....

Just this side of heaven is a place called Rainbow Bridge.

When an animal dies that has been especially close to someone here, that pet goes to Rainbow Bridge.
There are meadows and hills for all of our special friends so they can run and play together.
There is plenty of food, water and sunshine, and our friends are warm and comfortable.

All the animals who had been ill and old are restored to health and vigor; those who were hurt or maimed are made whole and strong again, just as we remember them in our dreams of days and times gone by.
The animals are happy and content, except for one small thing; they each miss someone very special to them, who had to be left behind.

They all run and play together, but the day comes when one suddenly stops and looks into the distance. His bright eyes are intent; His eager body quivers. Suddenly he begins to run from the group, flying over the green grass, his legs carrying him faster and faster.

You have been spotted, and when you and your special friend finally meet, you cling together in joyous reunion, never to be parted again. The happy kisses rain upon your face; your hands again caress the beloved head, and you look once more into the trusting eyes of your pet, so long gone from your life but never absent from your heart.

Then you cross Rainbow Bridge together....

Speculating the Spectrum By Jennifyre

How can one person,
Tell us the colors we see,
So sorry Mr. Biv,
To break your decree.

Well I don’t like it,
No, I don’t think it’s fair.
This broken rainbow,
Is in need of some repair.

Strike the orange,
And impeach the red,
Reinstate them with something,
A bit more splendid.

Goodbye blue,
See you later, green.
Time to replace you,
With colors previously unseen.

Adieu, Violet,
Farewell yellow.
I think we need,
Something more mellow.

Beautiful indigo,
You’re the last to leave,
Please don’t try to stick around,
It’s just naïve.

And with the rainbow recreated,
We are each now free,
To observe the colors,
We wish to see.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7658945.stm

So basically, some scientists found a way to make living things glow. And they do it safely. Pretty cool I'd say. The scientists got the idea from jellyfish that glow when exposed to certain wavelengths of light. I'm not 100% sure what they really use this concept for, but I'm sure it's important. The fact that they made a rainbow brain (pictured in the top right of the article) is pretty damn cool.

Imagine, now we can play army men, but with real people! We'll make all the good guys glow green, the bad guys will glow tan (or red so it's more like a video game), and the civilians will glow blue or white! The only negative side is that there is no good or bad in war. But glowing people shooting each other is the laser tag of the future! Only more painful.