The heart of a father

Mr. Bae Ho-jung, 72, resting his head on a Bible after knowing about the death of his son Bae Hyung-Kyu.

42-year-old Bae Hyung-Kyu, was killed by the Taliban militants on Wednesday. He was the Korean leader of a team of medical aid and English teacher volunteers to love the people in war-torn Afghanistan. In the end, he was murdered in cold blood by the country’s own people.

Complex feelings, the heart of a father has.

South Korean hostages

Update 25 July 2007 (9:30PM GMT+8): Taliban releases 8 hostages, but reportedly killed one. News link

Update 24 July 2007: Taliban has extended the deadline to tonight 10:30PM (GMT+8). Praying that the negotiations can proceed smoothly without any violence.

Not sure if it’s because I’m just back from Korea, but I was specially touched today when I saw this photo of a Korean father praying for the safety of his child who has been taken hostage. These 23 South Koreans had been taken hostage by a militant group in Afghanistan on Thursday. It had been earlier reported that the captors will start killing these 23 hostages this evening if their demands are not met.

Let’s all pray for the safe release of these 23 innocent people.

(Photo from http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr)

Multiply large numbers

Quick, what’s 52106 multiplied by 26078? Learn to multiply large numbers quickly using this amazing technique with the clever use of grids.

YouTube text link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owMjAbkU1eE

My blog is rated PG

Saw on Wilfrid’s blog that his blog has been given a R rating *sorry buddy*. Out of curiosity, I ran my blog through the same test and mine got a PG rating. Haha.

There’s nothing scientific or cutting-edge about the test - I think it merely checks for the presence of certain keywords inside your blog. For example, the test results for my blog indicates that my blog contains two undesirable keywords: suicide and pain.

Interested to check the rating of your blog? Just click on the label above. Have fun, with a pinch of salt!

How to download YouTube videos

Just found a way to download YouTube videos onto my computer. Here’re a series of steps on how to do it, giving you the flexibility to view them at your own leisure later even without an Internet connection.

1. Browse to the YouTube page that shows the video to be downloaded. For example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNF_P281Uu4
2. View HTML source of the page.
3. In the HTML source, search for the word watch_fullscreen. On the same line, take note of the video_id and t that follows. For example: …watch_fullscreen?video_id=bNF_P281Uu4&l=222 &t=OEgsToPDskLbIWM30wSDZHe8P7dYRFaU&soff=…
4. In your browser’s address bar, manually key in this URL: http://www.youtube.com/get_video?video_id=…&t=…, replacing the values of video_id and t with the ones you noted in the step above. For example: http://www.youtube.com/get_video?video_id=bNF_P281Uu4&t=OEgsToPDskLbIWM30wSDZHe8P7dYRFaU
5. When prompted, simply save the file anywhere on your computer. That file is actually the video, in Flash Video (FLV) format.

Or, if you find the steps above too troublesome, you can install the FireFox addon Fast Video Download , which basically does all the above behind the scene for you.

One last thing, what program do we use to open the downloaded videos? I recommend installing the highly popular VLC media player from http://www.videolan.org/vlc.

ITQ for 1200kg of durians

What an interesting find! From the mrbrown show, I got to know that the Ministry of Home Affairs-Singapore Police Force has recently posted an ITQ for “Supply and delivery of superior grade durian”. The total weight of durians to be supplied is, believe it or not, 1200kg - that’s more than a tonne!

The ITQ HOMSPFETQ0700100 has already closed on 9 July 2007 11:59PM (SGT). Delivery date is set at 13 July 2007. For those who are interested in following the progress of this ITQ (yeah, can’t wait to see which fortunate durian uncle gets awarded), simply follow these easy steps:

1. Browse to http://www.gebiz.gov.sg
2. Look out for Past Opportunities in the left menu. Under it, click Tenders & Quotations.
3. In the Search for dropdown list, select ITQ/ITT No. Then enter the ITQ number HOMSPFETQ07001000 in the text field beside it.
4. Then click the Search button beside.
5. From the search results, simply click on the hyperlink to view the details of this ITQ.

May the best durian uncle win!

Latest Update (22 July 2007)

My heartiest congratulations to 717 Trading for being awarded the tender at SGD8,400. (btw, I didn’t know that superior grade durians can come so cheap at S$7 per kg)

Rocking Bike

Spotted at a wooden furniture shop near Potong Pasir MRT

Rocking horses are passé… check out the new rocking bike!

Live Earth Day

Today is 7.7.07 - Live Earth Day! To mark this special day, this blog is going green too. (yeah, a green-coloured theme. hehe)

Browse Happy!

Do you know - Microsoft Internet Explorer can make your computer unsafe. Why not switch to another browser that’s more secure?