many intuitive search methods, including stroke recognition
capacity for speech readout of Chinese characters (refer to author's site)
words searched automatically link to its most common phrases
Flash tutorial included in the download
and many more!
Just helping him to host these useful software up, they are available here in the Downloads section if you are not able to download directly from his site.
The writeup, setup and usage instructions, etc. are all at his site as well as inside the zip package.
Finally, the answers to MySQL database questions about which character set to use, what's the difference between character set, and what's collation and which one to use?
Basic Steps for setting up PHP, Joomla,
Wordpress... on your own local PC
This article is written to remind me about the
first steps to do after installing WampServer, but if it helps anyone who's
looking to enhance their web life by getting a hand into the thick of things,
that would be even better.
To make it easier for readers who are not so
familiar with these stuff, I just typed out a brief introduction
here.
First of all: You'll need to get this piece of
software called WAMPServer.
Where? Do a google search for it and download it,
you can get it from download.com too.
What does it basically mean -
Windows Apache
MySQL PHP.
It was shown on terrestrial TV many years back,
probably 15 or so years. The time slot .. should be about 2.30pm or 4.30pm, one
of those times which are not prime time even for children's movies... the
impression that lingers is that one got to watch this series on TV sometime
after school.
Familiar faces that we see in this movie
include that Asian dude from Heroes (Masi Oka) and The Rock.
So the premise of the story is secret agent with
suit, tie and gadgets, last explored in Johnny English and The
Tuxedo.
Now, not only was this story really enjoyable to me
(yes, I'm rather 'shallow' and undemanding in my choice of movies, to make up
for other areas of my life) but it was also delightful to see a series that one
has a fond impression of come to the big screen.
And the revelation of this movie seems to
be...Anne Hathaway.
Having first, and the only time, ever seen her in
the Princess Diaries 2 (of which, I never even watched The Princess Diaries 1),
the second with Julie Andrews, whom most of us would
remember from her Sound of Music days.
Well that movie never left a very remarkable
impression of her on me apart from that I never would have imagined that I'd be
over-eager to see another of the movies that Anne Hathaway acts in.
With that, after this movie, I never imagined that
I'd moe*
over her :p Well, after the ballroom dance competition and mansion
infiltration scheme (with the evening dress and high-intensity lasers)
in this movie, at least.
The witty repartee between her character and Maxwell Smart was also
amusing, particularly the phrase "dusty old uterus" that was brought up
by her.
Although my impression of her in Princess Diaries 2 is rather bland, in
this story she portrays a female agent with the typical characteristics
of tsundere* ... and although you should all know how this story is going to go, it's enjoyable to see how the process of it gets there...
Ah, and so it seems most apt, that since in a recent entry I mentioned about the concept of moe ... it's only suitable, perhaps even inevitable, that a mention of the concept of tsundere should follow, and so here it is!
*tsundereツンデレ : Used to describe, especially, girls who act all cold to you when you first get to know them... but then get all spoony** when they warm up to you.
When in doubt, always always consult the UrbanDictionary : The only
dictionary that you''ll ever need for brutally honest (and accurate)
definition of words, without the obfuscating obligatory political
correctness.
Might as well I record the definition down here. I've always liked how
they make you get a picture and understand things clearly in
UrbanDictionary:
Tsundere is a slang born on the Internet, and it is a word to describe
the nature of female anime or game characters. Tsundere is a word
combining two words, "Tsun Tsun" and "Dere Dere". Both terms describe
attitudes of a person. "Tsun Tsun" is used for cold/blunt/curt
attitude, while "Dere Dere" is used when a person becomes spoony in front of his/her lover.
(Definition is from the game " Tsuyokisu Cool×Sweet ")
Therefore, "Tsundere" is a female character who is usually cold, but
she becomes spoony on her lover. Or, she is cold to the main character
at first, but she becomes lovestruck later.
I can't remember having ever moe-d over any actress
in my teens and with that, ever in my lifetime, like any regular male
should have .. at least once in their lifetime. Just on
two-dimensional girls so far ... as everyone should
know by now. *Comely anime girl waves and beckons*
That brings a scary thought to mind: that my
maturity was all along in the "childhood" stage, and I'm only just maturing
into my teens now ...
:-S
* moe 萌え : its usual meaning has something to do with
cute (usually anime-related) stuff, but it can also mean to excessively
fawn in a dreamy star-struck state over something, usually induced by cute
(usually anime-related) stuff. Not to that high a degree in this particular instance, though.
A similar pop-up dictionary functionality is also provided at AnimeLyrics.com -> Kanji View.
As you can see, it has Jp pronunciation for the whole phrase, and for individual words, Mandarin, Cantonese, On'yomi (imported Chinese) and Kun'yomi (native Japanese) pronunciations.
And also an indication (P) whether this is a common word, one that you should remember how to speak, by all means. And I'll tell you why the stroke count is important:
Sometimes, when you use some handwriting/stroke recognition character input, and you just can't get the ^$#^#$! software to recognize the strokes you use to write a certain character, you may have to search for it using radical search. It helps there when you know for a fact, quickly, how many strokes that character has. If not, you can always count again, one by one...
As promised, esteemed
friends, the first part of the Hokkaido Travelogue is now out!
It is a very
beautiful place indeed, and I made many Precious Memories there (not including offspring that I might
not have been informed of.)
Day001 - (15 Feb
2008)
Starting from KLIA, a night
flight to Osaka (Kansai airport) and transit
there to Sapporo (Chitose
airport).
2- Beginning of the journey -
before boarding the plane - at KLIA.
With my mum, who whipped* me into
the moral upstanding citizen whom you all know and love today. In
other words - thanks to her dishing out decades of painstaking behaviourial
conditioning - my future spouse would be blissfully insulated from having to
deal with a bratty kid (apart from the ones we produce.)
*Just a figure of speech. Interview
With The UltraBeast does not encourage smacking,
whipping or any other form of physical punishment (except when with informed
consent, with both parties above the age of
18)
Day002 - (16 Feb 2008)
On the
plane to Osaka
And so the second(!) day of our tour
began on the plane, which was a JAL (Japan Airlines)
flight.
Do take note here - that on many itineraries, which state, let's say: "8 Days", one of the enumerated days could actually be the day of a night flight. That means that most likely, your actual tour starts on the morning of "Day 002". Which actually gives you less one full day. As for about how the "day count" accounts for the "returning day", I'm too tired after work today to recall now, but we'll eventually get to that, much later in the travelogue. Much much later.
12- Beautiful sunrise as we approach
the Land of the Rising Sun. I especially like the way the colour blends from
starry midnight blue to twilight to orange sunrise, creating a colour gradient
effect.
And so, the anticipation begins...
~doki doki... doki doki...~ (the Japanese onomatopoeia for
'heartbeat'... 'heartbeat'...)
Well it's finally only after 2 (two) years after watching episode 4, that I watched
episode 5 of Ai Yori Aoshi.
Once again, it's an anime... About an insignificant
guy (I start to hear, sighs all around ...) ...whose only significance is
somehow having all the comely anime girls gravitate towards
him.
This anime features girls of mind-bogglingly unbelievable demure
subservience. While other girls are literally throwing themselves
at him, getting him drunk and passed out, ... and
feeling him up.
Girl of demure subservience. (The female
lead.)
And also feeling up other girls as
well.
Usually I wouldn't write about an anime until quite
some time after I've actually finished watching the whole series, but due to
changes in schedule today (and for many, many coming days) one has no
choice but to evolve, adapt, I-Ching, whatever. Anyway this anime has
been around for a long time, probably almost as long as Love
Hina (that I finished watching, a long time ago, but I won't write
about that.)
Now I wouldn't say that this series is
earth-shaking from what I've seen so far, but that could probably be because
this one is rather late in the sequence of animes of this genre that
I've ever watched... coupled with the undesirable, but inevitable fact of
increasing maturity that prolonged exposure to adult
situations such as paying the bills and doing the taxes seems to bring
as a side effect.
I really (like, really,
really) like the instrumental soundtrack though, and that has
been playing in my car for 2 (two) years.
In ancient times, I used to watch all episodes of
an anime in one sitting - usually to 5am in the morning before bed, or if it
happened to be a friday or saturday night, till 11am the next morning before
bed. Likewise, I'd rather have read through and
presented a full translation of this song, but due to a change in schedule -
which appears to be going to be a prolonged one - nowadays I'd just be
happy with pasting part of the song (which you usually can see from the TV size
fansubs)
Anyway this one is already up by someone else on
AnimeLyrics, if I'd choose one to translate, it would most probably be for a
song that is not already up there ... unless I had the time and that dreamy,
starry-eyed state of mind to write my own translation of one that is already up
just for the sake of feeling the atmosphere, and to moe* over
it.
* moe 萌え : its usual meaning has something to do with
cute (usually anime-related) stuff, but it can also mean to excessively
fawn in a dreamy star-struck state over something, usually induced by cute
(usually anime-related) stuff.
Changed slightly from the original translation from fansub..
To sing along, scroll down for the romaji.
Namo Shirenu Hana
(Flowers Without Name)
What is the weakest thing in this
world?
Even then, it's here to protect the two of
us.
Though there are as many words as there are
stars,
I wanted to hear it from your voice.
So, please say that it's love.
Say that it's love
Even though we're like
a pair of nameless flowers.
Say that we'll fall in love,
Say that we'll become stronger
I want you to feel the same way,
This small transient love.
名も知れぬ花
この世で一番弱い物は何？
それでも二人を守る為にある
星の数程ある言葉から
あなたの声で聞きたくて
だから愛だと言って
それは愛だと言って
名も知れぬ花達と同じ様な二人でも
恋をするって
とても強くなるって
あなたにも同じ事を感じて欲しいから
小さく儚い愛を
Namo Shirenu Hana (TV Size)
kono yo de ichiban yowai mono wa nani
soredemo futari wo mamoru tameni aru
hoshi no kazu hodo aru kotoba kara
anata no koe de kikitakute
dakara ai da to itte
sorewa ai da to itte
namoshirenu hana tachi to onaji you na futari demo
koi wo suru tte tottemo tsuyoku naru tte
anata ni mo onaji koto kanjite hoshii kara
chiisaku hakanai ai wo
Owing to work requirements, I have to use the Internet Phone and Chat software called Skype. However, it has a niggling side effect: Skype somehow uses Port 80 which WampServer also needs.
Thus, the symptom you will see is that when you are logged in to Skype, and try to "Start All Services" on Wampserver, one of the services will never start, it will get 'stuck'.
The solution to this is to only log in to Skype after you have "Started All Services". WampServer functions seem to work alright in this manner. Also, just to note, when the Skype program is open but not logged in, you can still start all WampServer functions.
