Hờ hờ, mừng sinh nhật chị Quỳnh Anh dở hơi. Chúc chị sống trăm tuổi bạc đầu lâu ). Đi nhậu với cái đám này mệt kinh người :”>

This page is dedicated for Dang Phan Trung Duc.

He was my good friend. We have known each other for only 4 months but in that period, he’s more than that. He was closer to me than my closest friend. He has lived a good life, helping each other to his best without demanding anything in return.

He was a good programmer, he has been working in FIS, and he’s supposed to be one of my colleagues but the accident prevent him from working with us just 3 days before his first working day.

He was a great fellow raider. We can’t go this far in WoW without him.

He died after a tragic accident at the age of 23, the age of love, hope and dream. He still has so much to do but yet..

He died leaving behind his mother, without any brother and sister. His father’s gone long time ago.

He died leaving behind his girlfriend Mai. They love each other so much that no word can describe.

He died leaving behind us in such a grief that make we cry a lot just think about him.

You will be missed, my dear brother, by me, by your friends, by your lover, by your family member. Forever.

Rest in peace, my friend. You gone too soon.

Love you,

Linh Le Tung

Riku:
Nautnah ạ, mà hình như Nautnah cũng không phải nick của ông nhưng tôi quen gọi thế rồi. Tôi hy vọng có kiếp sau để ông đọc được lời mọi người gửi tới ông. Cũng biết đời phù du vãi cứt nhưng tôi đéo nghĩ sẽ nghe tin bạn tôi mất khi mới 20 tuổi. Tôi với ông tuy không thân lắm, ông lại hiếm khi nói chuyện trên channel với tôi, nhưng ông đối xử với tôi rất tốt. Tôi còn nhớ hôm ông, prune và fk tận tình phụ tôi viết CV, giờ còn chưa phỏng vấn mà ông đã đi mất rồi. Cả lúc tôi và ông lén mọi người tráo account đi raid, mỗi tội enhan phức tạp quá tôi chịu. Thôi hy vọng ông an nghỉ, tôi không ra Hà Nội tiễn ông được nên nói nhiều một chút, buồn vãi lắm ông ạ.
Status nó không cho để dài được, bài này lại là bài tôi muốn đựơc chơi ở đám tang của mình, thôi gửi tặng ông.
Rest in peace, bro.

Đám cưới anh Quý CN vừa rồi. Xin được chúc 2 anh chị hanh phúc bền lâu

Ảnh chụp tại Prague – Czech

I played a lot of game, and, mind you, own quite a collection. Sometime I have the patient to finish some of them, but mostly they’re left somewhere in the middle, just because I don’t have enough time to play everything I bought. Games in Vietnam is dirt cheap, I know. That’s a part of the reason I have too many games in my hand to play.

In Vietnam you can’t just go out and buy a legal version of the game you want. No one sells it because majority of the population don’t have enough money to spend 60$ on each game released. Games are generally sold for about 1$/DVD/game here (yes we price game by the number of DVDs it takes, 4 or 5 years ago it’s priced by CDs). I have about 10-20games lying around and only managed to completed 1 or 2 games I really like. The only console which have games selling legally is PlayStation 3, just because it’s unhackable. If Gamestop have a store here they will go bankrupt because their pricing on used games can’t compete with stores in Vietnam. Generally customers can just bring old game to store which they bought their PS3s and have another game in exchange for like 6$, as opposed to Gamestop where you lose like 20 or 30$ when you sold it back. I dare you enter our realm, Gamestop !

Because of that, finishing a game is a real achievement. Every game I finished really meant something to me. Somehow I just want to take a look back to each and every games I can remember. A lot of games in this list are Bioware/Black Isle games or Square Soft game. Somehow I just love games from those 2 studios.

The most memorable series I’ve played are Legacy of Kain and Baldur’s Gate. For the former, the story are just fantastic, maybe you don’t believe it but I spend more time studying the back story than actually playing them. You follow Raziel, the blood-turned-soul-sucked vampire through out the land of Nosgoth, jumping back and forth in time for your revenge, and just dying for your free-will sake. Foolish guy maybe, but Amy Hennig (story writer, who moved to Naughty Dog studio which are famous for Uncharted series on PS3) did a awesome job leading gamer to the land of Nosgoth, but left early leaving us hungry for the last part of the journey. Come on Amy!

The later is much more famous, Baldur’s Gate series. I started with Baldur’s Gate 2, finish it twice with two different characters (one of them are everybody’s favourite Fighter-Wizard dual-classes variant:  Kensai-Wizard). I didn’t finish BG1, for the sad part. BG2, BG2 Throne of Bhaal, Icewind Dale 1 + exp, Icewind Dale 2, I’ve finished each one of them at least twice. There’s no word can describe how good these games are. Stories are good (generic hero-rescue-everybody-kill-bastard-in-the-process over D&D world setup), but they manage to make it one of the best game series ever made. You need to play it to believe.

/rambling start . /order finished-time desc

• Batman Akham Asylum: really cool hero game, imo best hero-theme game I’ve every played. A masterpiece really.
• The World Ends With You: DS game from heart. Utilize every DS feature to the fitness. Second and most memorable game I played on DS.
• Final Fantasy Crisis Core: FF VII prequel. Masterpiece CGs, okay gameplay. I play it mostly for the story.
• Final Fantasy 8 + 9: sadly I cannot finish FF7 for the fourth try. Good games indeed, FF8 probably the most popular FF game in Vietnam, everyone’s entry to FF series. FF9 is good, old school and captivating. Finished each of them thrice.
• Mass Effect (twice) : another game from Bioware, fantastic voice-over work, good combat and all.
• Knight of the Old Republic 1&2: Bioware and Obsidian’s work. Jedi-in-d20-dice game. I cannot believe they can do it until I play it myself, and now I cannot believe if they can do it any otherwise.
• Fallout 1 & 2 & 3: legendary series. A post apocalyptic game.  Finished 1 and 2 twice. Cannot imagine how Bethesda can make Fallout 3 any better but 5 minutes into the game I actually said: “That’s how Fallout 3 should really be”. Must play.
• Warcraft 3 & TFT: campaign finished. Love the gameplay so much, managed to get to lvl 40 on battle.net with 75% win rates on Random race, how lucky I am .
• Bahamut Lagoon: really old game. nice combat and story until you figured out how to make invisible dragon and everything are just too easy.
• Ace Attorney series: finished some of them. a-ok games. 6/10.
• Fable 1: funny game from Lionhead studio.
• Metal Gear Solid 1 & 2: I must admit I hate the stealth gameplay but good story is what make me still playing it.
• Ninja Gaiden 1: THIS-IS-MUST-PLAY-NO-MATTER-WHO-YOU-ARE. crazy combat. I was beaten up and down, got my friends keep giggling at me on the first boss. That’s how hard this game is. Same for Ninja Gaiden 2, but I don’t have time to finish it. I remember it took 3 of us 1 week to beat this game.
• Guitar Hero 2, 3, WT, Metallica, Aerosmith: really funny games. I love it so much that I bought 1 PS2 guitar, 1 Xbox 360 and 1 World Tour pack for it .
• Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 1 & 2, Defiance, Blood Omen 2: the most beloved game mostly for the story. Ok gameplay.
• Syberia 1 & 2: Beautiful adventure series. Nice voice work and story. Must play if you are into these kind of game. Too bad the next game of Benoît Sokal

That’s it for now, dunno if I missed any. But these games are most memorable to me. How about you?

For a few days I have been trying to install Leopard to my new PC.

At first it proves to be difficult, which should not be, because theoretically Intel Mac and PC are running on the same architecture.  After a week of trying to have Kalyway version of Leopard boot with no success, i decided to search around, and it turns out that my particular mainboard, Asus P5Q Pro , need to update a modded Bios firmware to be able to successfully boot into Mac OS.

So I went ahead and flashed new firmware into my computer (WARNING: kids don’t try this at home), and the rest of the process turn out to be much simpler, except, Leopard doesn’t like my PS/2 keyboard, not-one-bit. It’s 8:30 PM and I rode to my nearest computer shop, which is 4kms away from my house, just in time to buy a 10$ Dell keyboard before they closed.

And from dust it booted. Leopard is great, even better with a 22″ LCD. Only a few drivers need to be installed and it runs at its full glory. No wonder Macs still hold a considerable install base among home PCs. User interface is beautiful, from interface elements to transition effect, everything just blend nicely with each other. Before Win7 (more on that later), no Microsoft OS can hold a candle to Mac OS X. Apple’s designers sure need to be the greatest guys from all over the world to be able to design such a masterpiece.

It’s all about details. You click on an icon, it “bounces” nicely until the application is loaded. You push the Expose button, and all open windows are laid nicely before you for your switching needed (believe me, I really miss it when I get back to Windows). You click on minimize button, and your window “minimizes” with a nice animation, both please to the eyes and at the same time provide you a visual “cue” where your windows minimize to, nice.

That’s really something Microsoft missed when they release Windows Vista. The concept is good, the OS is solid, but it’s like rough diamond. Everything feel like XP with a new sugar coat. It’s rough. No one like it. It’s nice to see but painfully to use. But Microsoft really changes the game with Windows 7. And I can say that’s it’s the most polished Windows ever. Dare I say that Windows 7 is even better than Leopard. Much better.

I will get back about Windows 7 later.

Góc nhìn khác chợ hoa hồ Hoàn Kiếm

GCS now has a dedicated page here. Please check back for more info and updates

Prague Astronomical Clock

Mừng nhà mới . Về nhà hơn tháng rồi giờ mới lôi được đống ảnh ra xem lại . Rảnh rảnh up lên share với mọi người ngắm cho vui :”> .

Đợt vừa rồi đi công tác có tranh thủ mấy hôm trước khi về sang thăm bác ruột sống ở Prague kết hợp đi du lịch cho mở rộng tầm mắt . Trước h đã sang được CPH vài lần, tưởng Europe cũng chỉ có thế, nhưng sang đến Prague mới thấy mình lầm to . Thực sự Prague quá đẹp, chỉ biết nói ngắn một câu là như vậy . Một thành phố cực cổ, đúng với những gì mà mình tưởng tượng về châu Âu .

Wenceslas Square

Sang chơi được 2 hôm, hôm đầu bác dẫn đi chơi Prague, may sao lại nhờ được một ông chú bạn bác Hoan đi cùng. Chú này rất hay dẫn người Việt sang đây công tác hay làm ăn đi thăm Prague với cả cũng hay đi du lịch nên giới thiệu chuyên nghiệp lắm . Chỉ tội thằng bé ra đến quảng trường Wenceslas là bị shock văn hóa , chỉ biết há hốc mồm ra mà ngắm mới chụp . Ông chú thao thao bất tuyệt giới thiệu nhưng thằng cháu nghe chữ được chữ không . Đi chơi Prague thường mọi người hay ra quảng trường chính là quảng trường Wenceslas, từ đó đi bộ ra khu thành cổ (Old Town). Khu này bây giờ chủ yếu dành cho khách du lịch nên toàn thấy cửa hàng cửa hiệu là chính .

Old Town

Đi dọc cái Old Town này thì đúng là chỉ có ngất ngây, kiến trúc cổ nhìn đẹp mê hồn . Nhà của nhìn đâu ra đấy. Phải cái người đông như kiến, toàn khách du lịch . Cửa hàng ở đây lại toàn là dân Nga sang bán (nhìn mấy cái tủ ở trên kia là biết) chứ dân bản địa không phải đa số ở khu này.

Road to Old Town Square

Con đường này là đường dẫn đến quảng trường thành cổ, dân Việt mình hay gọi là quảng trường Con Gà vì ở cái quảng trường này có cái đồng hồ thiên văn (Astronomical Clock) hay đại loại thế, trên đó có con gà (cái ảnh đầu post). Cứ một tiếng thì lại thấy con gà nhảy ra, rồi 12 cậu tông đồ lịch kịch ra chào anh em rồi đi vào :”>. Cái đồng hồ này cũng quái, như lời ông chú kể thì nếu biết cách nhìn vào đó có thể đọc được kỳ trăng tròn, mặt trời hay ngày tháng gì đủ kiểu, nói chung không quan tâm lắm :”>

Tạm thế đã, mạo muội khoe với mọi người mấy cái ảnh chụp trong khu Old Town, hôm sau lại tiếp :”>.