Having Launch while I work

When I recently upgrded my Yahoo Messenger, I noticed that the new version came in-built with something called LAUNCHcast radio. I tried it, liked it, and am still using it.

But what is Launch? It's like radio streamed to your PC. You can choose from a number of channels, from "Today's Pop" to "Lite Office Music" to "Grunge Rock", but probably the most interesting feature is the ability to create your own music channel.

You can give ratings to songs, artists and albums as you listen to them. Launch then uses your preferences to deliver music that it thinks you will like. You listen to that and tweak your preferences a little more.

What this means is that you get to listen to pretty much is a great radio station with lots and lots and lots of music that you like. Once in a while, it'll throw you something from out of the blue, and you'll go 'Huh? Where did that come from?', but it's good that it does that - otherwise there is a risk that what you listen to gets filtered to too narrow a range.

I've used this for a few days now, and have been introduced to an artist called Michael Mewborne, about whom I know nothing about, but - importantly - I like his music.

Anyway, if you use Launch, you might be able to listen to my radio station at http://launch.yahoo.com/lc/?rt=0&rp1=0&rp2=1532023475.

Malaysian Idol: Latest episode on BitTorrent

Update August 2005: Anyone searching Google and hitting this post should try looking at http://www.torrentmalaya.com/.

This is technology for you. You can now get the latest episode of Malaysian Idol on BitTorrent.

You don't have to use BitTorrent; you can also download it from the Malaysian Idol Viewer Site. But using BitTorrent will reduce the load on the source servers, and if enough people seed the show, it can be as fast as downloading it directly.

Of course, if you don't know what BitTorrent is, I don't suppose this post will make much sense to you...

Labels: tv

Patriotic Question of the Day

What (as of 25 August 2004) do Romania, Ethiopia, Thailand, Cuba, Indonesia, Lithuania, The United Arab Emirates, North Korea, Kazakhstan, Hong Kong, Azerbaijan, Eritrea, Israel and Mongolia have that we Malaysians don't? And, yes, I said Eritrea.

Malaysian Idol on Kazaa

You can now get Malaysian Idol on Kazaa, which is pretty cool. They don't have the whole show per se, but what you can find are individual singers in the various heats and auditions. Just search for 'Malaysian Idol'.

Alternatively, you can go to The Malaysian Idol Viewer's Site and download videos directly. Incidentally, this is a great site, and I think it's better than the official site. Of course, by downloading from this website you're defeating the whole idea of sharing bandwidth and load that P2P networks aim for.

Some may think, "Is this legal?". The short answer is "probably not", but I suspect there won't be any prosecutions from this, as long as people are sharing and not selling.

Since I'm on the subject, let me just say that I have my own particular favourite. I won't mention names except to say that her nick has three characters, begins with a 'J', ends with a 'C' and has an 'A' somewhere in the middle of it.

Also, Dina quite good too.

Labels: tv

Melissa in this month's Remaja magazine

566 - Number of searches for 'Melissa' directed to this site. Whenever the Mel-count goes up, it must mean that there's a feature of her in a newspaper or magazine, most probably in a photoshoot.

Anyway, if anybody wants to know, she is in this month's issue of Remaja magazine (and on the cover as well). The article headline proudly proclaims, "Melissa gemar membaca & melancong". Good thing they pointed that out, otherwise I would have never been drawn to reading the whole article.

Table for Two: Episode 9 and mini-competition!

Where on Earth is my brain? I should have posted this up ages earlier.

Anyway, synopsis sez, "Adam becomes jealous and suspicious when Sue starts spending more time with a colleague". The biggie about this episode is that it'll say "written by Dzofrain Azmi" on the front credits.

I have to point out that Ping Ho, the producer/director, has name on three times altogether - front credits, 'directed by' and then at the end. Because although life isn't fair, everyone should do whatever they can to make it so, I suggest that y'all tape the episode and then replay it to my name and leave it on pause for, oh, say, thirty seconds or so. And then write in to TV3 and say, "What a wonderful episode, More Please".

Remember, Table for Two, Saturdays on TV3 at 7pm. And for the benefit of search engines out there, starring Azizan Nin and Melissa Maureen Rizal. As well as Cheryl Samad, Jien and Azura.

Also, small prize for the person who can spot the Debbie Gibson song title intentionally embedded in the dialogue. And it isn't one word like "Sure" or "Goodbye" - that would be too easy!

Labels: tv

"Discussion of Islam benefits society"

Finally. I have a letter printed in a national newspaper (albeit an online one). This is the problem the Internet presents: when you read something that inflames your passion so much, when it moves you to put something down in writing, technology allows you to send a reply immediately.

Do I regret sending the letter? Nope. What about not using a pseudonym? Nope, no problems there either. How about the sentiment? It's still there with me.

No, what annoys me in rereading it is the following sentence:

An argument along the lines of ‘You cannot talk about this, you're not one of us, you're not an expert on the issue’ effectively reduces the debate to a childish argument along the lines of ‘I'm right, you're wrong’.

This, probably the key paragraph in the whole letter, has the phrase "along the lines" repeated to no real affect. I would like to remove the second "along the lines" please. It's punchier that way.

I could have done it if it was on this website, but now it's on somebody elses...

Argh. Grr.

Fantasy Football

Since I've had two comments about this in the previous post, I'll explain this a little.

For the last few years, a couple of good friends and me started playing Fantasy Football. For those who don't know, Fantasy Football is when you make up a team from actual Premier League players. Each of these selected players gets points depending on how well they play in real life. Points are given for goals and clean sheets, and taken away for goals let in and yellow/red cards.

In particular, the version we choose is the one offered by premierleague.com. The reason why I like it is because:

• It's FREE


• The User Interface is fantastic - very easy to use


• You can set up your own leagues


• Results are updated in real time


• It allows you to swap players every week, but penalizes "over-trading"


• Oh, and did I mention? It's free

Actually, it began its life on another website Can You Kick It. Certainly, at that time, it seemed the best fantasy football website. On a downside, there are no prizes on offer, but you know what? IT'S FREE.

Anyway, I guess everyone is invited to take part in a league. But you can have too many people. Well, email me if you wanna join in.

Busy, Busy, Busy - and I missed Table for Two!

Just a quick note, since people have been saying, "Eh Dzof, long time no write one".

In fact, I've been writing an awful lot, but none of it is appearing on this blog. One is for Chit-Chat Bola, in particular, a preview of Aston Villa's season.

Also, there are new scripts being churned out. And no, I can't say anything about them, since (a) they're P&C, and (b) I don't wanna jinx nothing. But being able to write is good. I'll even write as a lackey for a multi-national cosmetics company. Oh. Done that already.

Also, I've been training on training Veritas software and Crystal Reports. If anybody out there is keen about getting this sort of training in Kuala Lumpur, contact me.

Finally, because of all this work, I actually zonked out on Saturday afternoon and missed Table for Two. IF ANYBODY HAS A RECORDING OF EPISODE 8 OF THE SHOW, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE GET IN TOUCH WITH ME. 'Nuff said.

Table for Two: The Music

I've gotten some enquiries about the theme tune and the music in Table for Two. In short, most of the music is written and performed by Douglas Lim (yes, the one who played Steven in Kopitiam). This includes the theme music and other incidental music.

I was told that he hadn't written it specifically for Table for Two, and that it was recorded sometime before. However it's not available on general release as an album. If you like it, write in. It may persuade him to release it.

Finally, for that one person who asked, here is a recording of the theme tune (MP3, 716KB). It's in gorgeous stereo, which is something you can't get off TV3 since there's some problem with them playing stereo. I'm not saying whose fault it is, just that it'd be nice for it to be in dual channel, since that's how it's made.

I guess all I want now is for somebody to figure out the lyrics. What's that last line again? "All I need is one... oar?". :)

Labels: tv