Archive for October, 2006

Converting Batch of NWCs to MIDis to MP3 to CD

Published
by
Zz85
on October 31, 2006
in Uncategorized
. 0 Comments

Steps
1. Preparing NWC files.
2. Save as Midis
3. Convert Midi to Wave/Mp3
4. Burn the Files

Step 1: Preparing NWC files.
Find available nwc files on the net, otherwise creating, composing, importing, transposing or editing songs in NWC is relatively easy.

Step 2: Save to midi
If you have noteworthy composer, you can save the song as a midi file. Otherwise, or if you prefer batch processing, you could try my nwc2ly.py converter.

Step 3: To convert midi to wav/mp3 you need a software synthesizer.

SynthFont is a great windows freeware which uses SoundFonts to render the wav/mp3s. TiMidity is the popular open source software synthesizer on multiple plateforms.

Side note: Other cool free MP3 tools are Audacity, Messer & RazerLame

Step 4: Burning to CDs
Most general purpose Cd writing software and many free utilities would support creating audio CDs with mp3s or wave.

21st Birthday Gathering

Published
by
Zz85
on October 29, 2006
in About Me
. 0 Comments

is at 4th November 2006, coming Saturday.

If you need fetching, pickup spot is at Pasir Ris Interchange, 6pm.

TIBS Bus service is take is 403Q.

Venue:
Home Team NS @ Pasir Ris
125A-125H Pasir Ris Rd
Chalet B3

The event starts at 7pm.

Map

Please let me know if you are coming.
If not, just send the presents in.
(Just joking.. but I’ll come up with my wishlist later)

Choke on a Fishbone

Published
by
Zz85
on October 18, 2006
in Family and Stories
. 0 Comments

I choked on a fishbone today.

I don’t have much experiences with fishbone chokes (as I use to stay away from fishes) but I have at least 2 experiences:

  1. Knowing there’s bones my mouth, I kept chewing until the fishbones break down and then swallow it.
  2. Removing a bone from my sister’s throat with a pincer after 1 was stuck in her’s.

Cant remember what’s the fish called, but it has lot of bones. I had used a big spoon and swallow carelessly. One piece of fishbone was felt in the midway of my throat though I tried to spit them out after feeling discomfort down the throat. Juggled and rinsing with some water did not help much.

So the father’s/grandmother’s typed advice was heed.

Swallow riceballs. I took handful of rice and swallow. It helps.

Of course another “grandma” remedies was that you place a finger into your mouth in hope of vomitting them out.

I would think western doctors might have a differing view. Its better out than in. Swallowing down bone might puncture your throat or maybe somewhere more serious deeper down - intestines? Of course I think the size of the fish bone is a factor.

A church member shared that the doctor had to use some instruments to remove the fishbone from his son’s throat. Had they unable to resist his struggling, they would give him GA. Not something nice to imagine about.

Thank God I’m alive and kicking.

Chinese Radical Lookup - Online and Freeware

Published
by
Zz85
on October 9, 2006
in Family, Technology and WebLinks
. 0 Comments

There are many good language tools online and free software for learning and studying Chinese, but have 1 website and 1 freeware that I like to recommend after recently used them - CCDICT- the online Chinese dictionary and WAKAN- Freeware tool for Japanese and Chinese language learners for Windows. Infact its a means of improving your Chinese, English, Cantonese or other dialects, Japanese and Korean with them.

Its a world of difference, my dad is well verse in different languages and dialects, but languages are my worst subjects - verbally, practically, and academically (maybe not that bad for computer languages). My dad taught me how to use a chinese dictionary when I was young. The most common method is by “hanyu pinyin” 汉语拼音, the standard way of pronouncing words using roman characters (Chinese Google/è°·æ­Œ has an auto pinyin conversion built into its search). However, at times my pinyin basics are weak or when you don’t know how to read the word you are looking for, there you look up the word via radical stroke. You take what seems to be the “suffix” of the word, and then look-up by the number of strokes in the character. Stroke is also one of the ways you can input Chinese text with on your hand-phone.

So back to the topic, the recommended website - languages of china is a web front to its ccdict database (both downloadable), buts its very powerful yet in a simple interface. You can lookup via radical/stroke, hanyupinyin, english translation, and finding the characters gives pronunciations in Chinese and dialects, simplified and traditional chinese, and explanation in English.

和漢wakan project is what I found after I wanted all these features off-line/ downloaded. Its also very powerful and feature packed, in so you might require some time to explore its features and find out how to get what you need. I recommend you download its installer first.

If you are interested to find much more good tools (both freeware and online sites), you can search for their databases, namely CEDICT (Chinese-English Dictionary), EDICT (Japanese-English Dictionary), KDICT so on… there should be one something which suit your needs - including for palm and j2me ;)

Tallest Building in the North (my Area)

Published
by
Zz85
on October 8, 2006
in Biking, Hobbies, Stories and Thoughts
. 0 Comments

Ok, I’m planning to complete the Vertical Marathon and the Standard Charter Marathon (its half for me only - 21km) this year.

Due to my lazy routine and just about just 2 more months to go, I need some accelerated training.

Here’s what I’ve run the past days.
27-Sep-2006 Tango Loop 20mins -
28-Sep-2006 Safra - Home 30mins ~4km
29-Sep-2006 Depot Loop 30mins -
2-Oct-2006 Katib - Home 50mins ~6km
4-Oct-2006 Camp - CCK 1 hour 6.8km

The exercises stopped in view of my MC for wisdom tooth op.

For the vertical marathon, the training is slightly different. 1 mission to find a suitable place to train.

30-Sep-2006,
In search of the tallest building to train for climbing stairs,
I took 1h 30mins for the round-trip of
approximate 30km
Cycling from Home to near the (Singapore’s/Malaysia’s not the shopping center) causeway and back home.

Mission Accomplished.

The latest buildings at the highest altitude can be found at the area name Causeway View, close to the Singapore Immigration checkpoints, nearest MRT being Marsling. The tallest buildings are namely 214,215,216, block 214 at 24 stories high.

The runners up were blocks around 204 (or block 7?) at 21 stories high.

That’s all for now. If you are also staying in the north like me, and need stairs training, maybe you could find the blocks I mentioned.