Did not pass two questions

I didn’t pass Database and Network. In deep depress at the moment. What’s going on? What is the main reason for this failure? Time! Yes, I didn’t totally pay attention to this module. Next semester, more time should be reserved to study this again! Life still goes on. Try your best and you will not regret that.

Daily News

1. Render Water as a Post-Process Effect

Daily News

1. GPU-accelerated WiFi password cracking goes mainstream
2. Hierarchical Image Space Radiosity for Interactive Global Illumination (Eurographics 2009)
3. Seadragon Mobile (iPhone app from Microsoft) uses iPhone GPU acceleration for large image browsing and zooming.
4. Deferred Shading tutorial and implementation.
5. Deferred Lighting (Light PrePass) in CryEngine 3.

Experience from CS6240

I’ve been trying out my best efforts in this CS6240 course project although I did not have a lot of time. I felt quite satisfied with my presentation preparation but it seems not running well when I present the work to the professor. No matter how I try, he kept asking me about those questions that I think it is really trivial to the way I’m doing the project. I’ve no idea what is going wrong. I’ve been working hard, and I don’t want to get a bad grade. But anyway, before you blame others, you need to look back at yourself. I drew out a couple of things after this project:
1. Do not try to reimplement other’s method, unless you are asked to do so in an assignment. Use your own method, even though it’s not so good. But it shows how independent you are from defining the problem, find an algorithm to solve, and evaluate the result.
2. Do not start your project too late that you suffer from the pressure of being late in the project deadline. It prevents your creativity.
3. You need to determine what you want to solve from the beginning. Do not try out a method and after that run tests to see how far this method can work, or how many tests it can handle. Instead, design a method that address a specific problem that you know well, and make the algorithm to address and solve that problem in the end. My experience: I implemented a method to transfer the style. However, I didn’t address any specific styles like water color, oil, pastel. I complete the implementation and then test what it can handle. This is not good for research (the professor told me that). Instead, address something like water color, and design your method to transfer good water color instead. This is far more better.

Finally, sometimes you get wrong, but do not give up. This failure is a good experience to a better work in the future. So do not blame the others, first blame myself and learn from it. The world is always interesting to learn about.  :)

Tile Studio, a very nice tool for pixel artists

I revisit Tile Studio again today after knowing about it a few years ago. Not many updates since then but I like the way this tool helps pixel artists, especially newbies, to draw more easily. Tiles of different size can be created side by side and then animation can be synthesized using key frames. Colors can be selected in a range to ease the shading. The darken/lighten tool make the lighting process, in case you do it manually, more easier. Darker and brighter colors are selected automatically. Last but not least, a small preview window at the bottom right shows how your tile looks when placing it on the map. A must-use tool for indie game developers.

Ubuntu Shortcuts

Ctrl + Alt + F1 = Switch to the first virtual terminal
Ctrl + Alt + F2(F3)(F4)(F5)(F6) = Select the different virtual terminals
Ctrl + Alt + F7 = Switch to current terminal session with X (e.g., go back to Gnome from terminal)

(from http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=50794)

Alt-Ctrl-L Locks the screen.

Alt-F1 opens the Applications menu, then use the arrow keys to navigate the submenus.

Alt-F2 opens the Run Application dialog box.

Alt-F3 opens the Deskbar Applet (F3 opens the search bar at the bottom of the window).

Alt-F4 closes the current window.

Alt-F5 unmaximizes the current window (if it’s maximized, of course).

Alt-F7, followed by arrow keys or mouse movement, adjusts the current window’s position.

Alt-F8 resizes the current window.

Alt-F9 minimizes the current window.

Alt-F10 maximizes the current window.

Alt-spacebar opens the window menu.

Alt-Tab moves between open windows.

Ctrl-Alt-Tab moves between open panels on the desktop.

Ctrl-W closes the current window.

Ctrl-Q closes the current application.

Here are some keyboard shortcuts for working in the Terminal window:

Ctrl-C kills the current process.

Ctrl-Z sends the current process to the background.

Ctrl-D logs you out.

Ctrl-R finds the last command matching the entered letters.

Tab followed by entered letters lists the available commands beginning with those letters.

Ctrl-U deletes the current line.

Ctrl-K deletes from the cursor right.

Ctrl-W deletes the word before the cursor.

Ctrl-L clears the terminal output.

Shift-Insert pastes the contents of the clipboard.

Alt-F moves forward one word.

Alt-B moves backward one word.

(From Ubuntu Unleashed, http://www.ubuntu-unleashed.com/2008/02/list-of-ubuntu-keyboard-shortcuts.html)

[November 12, 2008] Ngày 12 tháng 11 năm 2008 :D

Hôm nay thứ tư, ngày 12 tháng 11 năm 2008. Một ngày bình thường, tối về nhà sớm hơn 2 ông trong nhà, ở trường làm việc rồi, về nhà được nghỉ ngơi nên buồn buồn lôi cái blog ra update. ^^

Kể ra thì còn một tháng nữa thi JLPT3 rồi, mà giờ này còn 3 bài chưa học T_T, chưa luyện nghe, chưa làm sample test, chưa ôn hết ngữ pháp (, đã vậy cuối tháng còn ham hố theo mấy đứa trong lab wa Kuching chơi 3 ngày nữa. Lần này gan ớn luôn rồi, thi JLPT3 mà tèo coi như tốn mấy trăm k tiền đăng kí. ( Giờ chỉ ước, đi chơi về khỏi học bài mà tự nhiên thi đậu thì thiệt là khoái )

Dạo này ở Sing không buồn cũng không dzui. Ngày lại ngày, công việc một đống, mỗi ngày đem ra gặm một miếng, khi nào gần hết đống đó tự nhiên lòi ra một đống khác, làm suốt ngày mà không được nghỉ ( Mau mau qua tháng 12 cho con nhờ, mau mau tới Tết cho con nhờ, sẽ về nhà chơi, sẽ được nghỉ nửa tháng )

Hết tháng 12 năm nay coi như xong vụ tiếng Nhật đi, năm sau sẽ polish tiếng Tàu của mình lên cái nữa. Sẽ cố gắng cho cái english tiến thêm tí nữa, degrade quá rồi

Hè hè, phải đi tắm rồi. Đói bụng quá nữa. Đi tắm rồi đi nấu mì ăn )

Viết blog xong tự nhiên thấy yêu đời gớm. )

Windows PowerShell tutorial

http://www.powershellpro.com/powershell-tutorial-introduction/

[August 12, 2008] Go go!

Oh man, dust is covering my blog. Time to write something new!

(Ah, I write this for myself. If you feel confused with the content, it’s not my fault. But if you’re uncomfortable with my English, then feel free to blame me. )

It’s been a while, 7 months, since the last entry. Well, it’s my familiar way to start an entry. Not enough free time and energy and good mood to write something valuable or readable until tonight…

Everything goes on, and life still goes on, too. A little wonder about the sub-slogan of my blog: “If you think you can, you can.” when I came back to my page and suddenly saw it again. I used to believe that I can do something different, something that I actually expect to conquer last month, at least at the time I was facing the interviewers, and the time I was going out of that room. I believed, but I failed. Sad, but that’s the fact. And I was well-prepared to confront it. So move on!

All right, that big failure opens another route for me. I decided to stay. I felt that I owed this place, so why not be here, set up new goals, and fly high with them. I hope so, anyway…

Then new stuffs are coming. You know, I was able to attend the first lecture during my seven months being here. The feeling is so great! Now I’m studying again, after one year not taking any courses. The lecture theater is big, wide, cool, blah blah; devices for lectures are advanced; and the projector is good for movies in the dim light during the class…

I’ll take time to polish my Chinese as well. My Chinese is recovering, after some talks with the two newly-come Chinese girl lab-mates. At the same time, go and fight those Japanese for this year’s JLPT 3!

And take care of those image deblurring in the lab. It’s tough. It should be tough and will be much more tough. But I’m going to make it!

Another big day is coming. How to celebrate with her, who knows. Sleep, and carefully consider it.

See you in a beautiful day in the near near future.

My TOEFL and GRE wordlist

I took the TOEFL and GRE test in Jan and Feb of 2008. Here are the vocabulary lists that I studied for the exams:

TOEFL
GRE 1
GRE 2

Maybe some of you will find them useful.

N.B. This GRE word list (approx. 1000 words, I think) can help you reach nearly 500 in your verbal test (my verbal score is 470). If you are looking for higher scores, I think you should learn the Barron’s word list instead, which has roughly 3500 words.

Enjoy!