Pinging psychoric [Malaysia] with 32 tonnes of shit:
Reply from psychoric: shit=32 time=2months+ TTL=240
Reply from psychoric: shit=32 time=2months+ TTL=240
Reply from psychoric: shit=32 time=2months+ TTL=240
Reply from psychoric: shit=32 time=2months+ TTL=240

Ping statistics for psychoric: [breathing]

Woots, it is now close to 3 months since I last posted here. I don’t think it is anything unusual as I always believe in procratisnating. There have been up and down. Family crap that I can’t do much about unless if I can manage to cough out hundred of thousands, then I guess everyone will be worry free. But hell, I can’t so I have to live with it. Yeah you will probably say there are people out there who are even more unfortunate than this. I know that. On the good side, I learnt that problem is not really a problem if everyone sticks together. Otherwise, problem creates problem. It is only partially true that money plays a critical role in a family. The lack of it causes worries, grudges, arguments. But if you think deeper, it is not the real reason. The actual cause is on each member of the family. Shoud everyone understand the situation and adapt to it considerately, the effects of any problem are minimized. Communication is also very important to sustain a marriage, a family, a relationship. Many times we have seen cases of sad ending that are caused by breakdown in communication. When individuals are able to sit down and talk calmly, I believe nothing is impossible. What’s the point of bottling matters up and in the end causes an explosion that requires even more effort to clean up?

Anyway, enough of those important-in-life theories. MIFC was on last month and I managed to shoot 2 countries of the many. You can find the pictures here and here.Apart from this, nothing much fancy to share, except that I am stepping my feet into MOSS 2007 (Sharepoint). So far, it is a new and smooth experience. But I guess I can say so before I bang into the limiting walls that many have run into. Any exciting upcoming events to look forward to? That will be visiting Bali at the end of October and a new job

Ciao for now!

Click for the full size

One of the OK shots

So what do you do with a empty box lying around? (actually i got mine from MPH warehouse sales)

Cut off the flaps. You can leave them too as ‘extension’ or ‘box-hood’

Draw the lines on where you wanna cut. Size is up to you

I cut 3 sides. You can cut 4 if you like

Book wrapper isn’t just for book! It is used here as a ‘diffuser’ for the lighting

There you go, a bare box. You can add on by adding white paper as the inner wallpaper

Tested with lighting. Note that the light temperature isn’t suitable. Go for one with cool daylight.

Added a near black background paper. Aw, wrong type as you can see reflection on the paper

Test shot without the background

Test shot with the background

Cheap and easy, you have a photo tent for product shot or anything you can fit in there. With 3 openings, you can add on or move the lighting anywhere you like.

Cost
——————
Paper box : FOC
Book wrapper: RM1.90
Paper background: RM0.60
Tools: I am sure you have it around your household
Total: RM2.50
Result: Priceless
Bonus: You do your part in recycling!

Oh, what’s SsSS? My own-made-up-acronym that stands for Small stuff Shooting Studio!

Without	With

So what do you think? Is it worth the purchase? I think it does coz sometimes you wouldn’t want a harsh light especially on closer subjects.

Generics support few types of constraints:

• Interface: Allow only types that implement specific interfaces to use your generic.
• Class/Base class: Allow only types that match or inherit from a specific base class to use your generic.
• Constructor: Require types that use your generic to implement a parameterless constructor.

Say you have a custom Interface as below

public interface IMyCustomOne
{
	string WhatsMyName();
}

and a generic method

public bool CheckNameEqualJohn<T>()
{
	return (T.WhatsMyName == "John");
}

Compiler will throw you at the instant you try to build.

To solve this, we add Where at the end

public bool CheckNameEqualJohn<T>() where T : IMyCustomOne
{
	return (T.WhatsMyName == "John");
}

Woots, compiler is now happy! The obstacle has been removed and off you go to maximize your creativity. If you need 2 constraints, how to go about it?

public class MyClass<T,U>
	where T : IMyCustomT
	where U : IMyCustomU
{
	//....
}

Some additional jargons about this constraint that will make you look cooler in front of your peers

Unbound Type Parameter
Basically this refers to the most basic way of us using generic

public class MyClass<T>
{
	//....
}

Naked Type Constraint
When a generic type parameter is used as constraint

public class MyClass<T>
{
	public void MethodOne<U>(U param) where U : T
	{
		//....
	}
}

Happy Generic’ing!

If (MyValue == "3") { //3 means ok, do some stuff }

What if one day you decide that you don’t like 3 (for whatever reason) and change it to 30? You will have to find and replace the repeated value all over your project. Yes, you have the FindAndReplace function with most IDE, but holy cow, you only realize that the last couple of 3 meant something else!

So a safer way is to cast the value into appropriate enum for comparison or any other operation.

'VB.NET
dim myEnumValue as TheEnum = CType([Enum].Parse(GetType(TheEnum), _
				tempValue.ToString()), TheEnum)
If myEnumValue = TheEnum.NumberThree Then
	'..
End If

//C#
TheEnum myEnumValue = (TheEnum)Enum.Parse(typeof(TheEnum), tempValue);
if (myEnumValue == TheEnum.NumberThree) { //.. }

“Hey, that looks useful. I want it in my SuperCoolReusable library” you might say. With the power of Generic, we can put it into a common call.

'VB.NET
Public Shared Function ParseEnum(Of T)(ByVal Value As Object) As T
	Return CType([Enum].Parse(GetType(T), Value.ToString()), T)
End Function

//C#
public static ReturnType ConvertStringToEnum<ReturnType>(string Value)
{
	return (ReturnType)Enum.Parse(typeof(ReturnType), Value);
}

Another simple yet useful tip!

1. It takes less than half a second to turn off the water tap while brushing your teeth, and that in turn saves 14,600 litres of water a year!

2. It requires less than 0.1% of your brain power to remember to turn lights out when not required, and that action saves 68kilogram of CO2 a year!

3. It requires less than couple of mouse clicks to print 2 pages a sheet, and that setting saves half a tree every year!

Those are my pledges to prevent the earth from deteriorating. You don’t have to be involved in lots of activities to save the earth when you can even start small at your own pace. Make your pledge today here! Together, we can