Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Scan multiple pages as a single PDF file with A-PDF Image to PDF

Since I upgraded to a Windows 7 machine, the scan and fax software of my HP LaserJet 3055 All-In-One printer does not work anymore. People are actually quite upset about it as you can see from the following two threads:
The "official" answer from HP's website is to use the Windows Fax and Scan software that came with Windows 7. This solution, however, at least has the following issues:
  • I can no longer connect my HP printer to the router and use it as a network scanner because Windows Fax and Scan will not recognize it as a scanner (printing is okay)
  • Windows Fax and Scan does not let you save scanned document in PDF format but TIFF only
  • Unless you use the document feeder of the printer, you cannot scan multiple pages at one shot. Instead, you have to scan the pages one-by-one, save them as separate files and merge them together, which is a big hassle.
I exchanged a few emails with HP support but they would not help me as the warranty of my printer has already expired. Guess what, when it is time for me to get a new printer, I will definitely not buy from HP.

The Microsoft Office Document Imaging software that comes with Microsoft Office can actually scan multiple pages in one shot but then I discovered that it is deprecated (no longer available) in Office 2010!

So, I tried to look for a third-party solution and found a software named A-PDF Image to PDF. I downloaded its trial version and finally I can scan multiple pages manually without the feeder as a single PDF file. It is not free (the trial version will put a watermark at the upper left corner on the first page) but it has a better interface and a lot more features than the HP scan software that I have been using in Windows XP and Vista.

Hopefully this is useful to others who got screwed by HP's All-In-One printers :P

Death Valley


Golden Canyon


Fancy a golf game with the devils? :P


Natural Bridge


The photo that I love the most from
this trip

Badwater, the lowest point in
North America




Sand Dunes in Stovepipe Wells


Monday, December 27, 2010

Las Vegas


Outside The Cosmopolitan

Between Crystals and Aria at
CityCenter

Aria lobby

In Vdara. Looks like the DNA 
double helix
The glassware at this shop
is extremely expensive

One toughest challenge of taking
pictures at tourist spots is to
avoid people..


Veer

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Close to You (Long Vacation) - Alex


Finally got a chance to record my playing of this long-time favorite of mine. One little accomplishment before the start of 2010?

Don't worry, Be Happy :)

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

漩渦 (Swirl) - 黃耀明, 彭羚



沿著你設計那些曲線
原地轉又轉墮進風眼樂園
世上萬物 向心公轉
陪我 為你沉澱

逾越了理性超過自然
瞞住了上帝讓你到身邊
即使愛你愛到你變成碎片
仍有我接應你落地上天
如你 化作了粉末 誰還要健全

來沉沒 在我的深處吧 埋在愛情下
世界快要 變作碎花 來接我吧
趁這結尾 歎口氣吧 原諒我們吧
答應送我最美那朵水花可以嗎

來擁抱著我 形成漩渦
捲起那 熱吻背後萬呎風波
將你 連同人間浸沒
我愛你 亦是那麼多

來擁抱著我 從我腳尖親我
靈魂逐寸向著洪水跌墮
戀愛在蠶蝕我 如地網天羅
不顧後果 這貪歡惹的禍
是誰在吞沒誰也奈何
是誰被捲入誰紅顏禍

來沉沒 在我的深處吧 埋在愛情下
世界快要 變作碎花 來接我吧
趁這結尾 歎口氣吧 原諒我們吧
答應送我最美那朵水花可以嗎

來擁抱著我 形成漩渦
扭曲那 萬有引力倒海翻波
直到這世界澈底攪拌
清清楚楚只得我們
直到這世界徹底癱瘓
剩下自己在遊玩

來擁抱著我 形成漩渦
捲起那 熱吻背後萬呎風波
將你 連同人間浸沒
我愛你 亦是那麼多

來擁抱著我 從我腳尖親我
靈魂逐寸向著洪水跌墮
戀愛在蠶蝕我 如地網天羅
不顧後果 這貪歡惹的禍
是誰在吞沒誰也奈何
是誰被捲入誰紅顏禍

沿著你設計那些曲線
原地轉又轉墮進風眼樂園
世上萬物 向心公轉
沉沒湖底 欣賞月圓

Saturday, November 27, 2010

Shortsighted followers generate shortsighted leader

Some recent news says that Obama's support rate has fallen to 50% or so and it seems the main reason is that he has not really fixed any problem of the U.S. in the last two years.

I haven't studied much economics at school, but common sense tells me that problems at the scale the financial disaster in 2008 take many years to fix. Despite this, many people expect to see results of his policies in a mere of two years.

If you are Obama, how will you feel and act? You will probably feel bad about the support rate, and, unless you are really unselfish, you will begin to adopt policies that will have immediate, observable "good" results in the next two years, although they may not be beneficial (or even disastrous) to the country in the long term. Otherwise, it is quite likely that you will not be elected as the President in the next term.

Similarly, in the finance industry, when investors want to see growth every quarter, the CEO and the board will feel the pressure and focus on generating more short-term revenue in the price of other difficult to measure but important things (such as employee morale).

I always have reservation about democracy and wonder what the contexts should be for it to be appropriately applied. Some people say that you have to do a job yourself first before hiring someone to do it. To my mind, even if you haven't done the job, you should have quite some knowledge about it to outsource. How many people have good knowledge about what it takes to be a good President? I don't, and I am not sure how many do.

One big problem about regular citizen making comments on the President is that they are not thinking like a President. In other words, they are not assessing the benefit of a policy to the country as a whole but to themselves only. The responsibility of a President is to allocate resources to deliver the greatest good for the greatest number of people and this process will inevitably leave some behind, and, those who are left behind usually generate the loudest voices.

Democracy works only if followers can make informed decisions and fair judgment on the leader. Shortsighted followers encourage a shortsighted leader to lead them. Even if the leader is not one in the beginning, s/he will have to adapt and be one to survive. This is sad.

Friday, November 19, 2010

Insight: To play a song well...

To play a song well, you have to memorize all the notes first, and then forget about them.

Monday, November 1, 2010

Friday, October 1, 2010

A Piece of Love - Ranma ½

Recently listen to some very old cassette types that I recorded long time ago and found this song. Now that I read the Ranma ½ comic books and still find the stories funny, no wonder I love the animation so much when I was young :P


Thursday, June 10, 2010

暗湧 (Undercurrent) - 黄耀明



害怕悲劇重演 我的命中命中 越美麗的東西我越不可碰
歷史在重演 這麼煩囂城中 沒理由相戀可以沒有暗湧
其實我再去愛惜你又有何用 難道這次我抱緊你未必落空
仍靜候著你說我別錯用神 甚麼我都有預感

就算天空再深 看不出裂痕 眉頭仍聚滿密雲
就算一屋暗燈 照不穿我身 仍可反映你心
讓這口煙跳昇 我身軀下沉 曾多麼想多麼想貼近
你的心和眼口和耳亦沒緣份 我都捉不緊

害怕悲劇重演 我的命中命中 越美麗的東西我越不可碰
歷史在重演 這麼煩囂城中 沒理由相戀可以沒有暗湧
其實我再去愛惜你又有何用 難道 這次我抱緊你未必落空
仍靜候著你說我別錯用神 甚麼我都有預感

然後睜不開兩眼 看命運光臨
然後天空又再湧起密雲

然後睜不開兩眼 看命運光臨
然後天空又再湧起密雲

然後天空又再湧起密雲

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

IKEA

The sauce and lingonberry jam perfectly
compliment the IKEA meatballs
Belgian waffle. Of course not as
good as the one we had in Belgium
Would be better if
the ground is less busy

Saw this scene at the cafe and
couldn't help to take a shot at it

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Justice, in many cases, is too...

Justice, in many cases, is too expensive to enforce. So, legal contracts don't mean much if people don't trust you. Build your trust and cherish it like your hard-earned money (or more so). Without trust, no work can be done.

Sunday, April 11, 2010

I've got Rhythm - Hiromi Uehara


Stunning techniques. The degree that Hiromi is to into the music is quite unparalleled (watch her facial expression). Very talented pianist. Thanks Tina!

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

2 = 1

A friend's Facebook status reminds me of this silly proof of 2 = 1:

a = b
a2 = ab
a2 - b2 = ab - b2
(a + b)(a - b) = b(a - b)
a + b = b
a + a = a (as we suppose a = b in the beginning)
2a = a
2 = 1

:P

Monday, March 29, 2010

Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve

Took some photos at the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve today. Hope you like them :)

The poppies were really beautiful







What were they doing?




Enjoy Each Day!

Monday, March 1, 2010

Why unnecessary complexities are "necessary"

I always believe in Einstein's quote

Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not more so.

The world as I know it now, however, has way too many complexities. From my experience, these complexities exist usually not because the systems need them to work. Rather, they are there because it is easy to screw outsiders when a system is complex enough.


This is especially true because few of us are research-type people who would do due diligence to really find out how things work. And for those who can, they may not have time to do that.


Think about it, many industries are like that.

Monday, February 22, 2010

Making decision and moving forward are almost always...

Making decision and moving forward are almost always more important than debating what the optimal solution is.

Why?

Because it is rarely the case that the optimal solution is significantly better than the second-best (or even the third-best) one that deserves the hassle of argument.

That's why I like Aaron Burr's quote so much.

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Accounts Alerts: You've no alerts at this time

This alerts box on GoDaddy really caught my attention when I logged in:


It's like

"Hey you!!!!"

"What??"

"Ah, nothing."

"#$@!*&"

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Little Wonders - Rob Thomas



Didn't know that there was such as good film back in 2007 until now. The lovely lyrics of this song wonderfully match the main theme of the movie. The director chose to play it at the very end, a brilliant move :)
Let it go
Let it roll right off your shoulder
Don't you know
The hardest part is over
Let it in
Let your clarity define you
In the end
You will only just remember how it feels

Our lives are made
In these small hours
These little wonders
These twists and turns of fate
Time falls away
But these small hours
These small hours
Still remain

Let it slide
Let your troubles fall behind you
Let it shine
Till you feel it all around you
And I don't mind
If it's me you need to turn to
We'll get by
It's the heart that really matters in the end

Our lives are made
In these small hours
These little wonders
These twists and turns of fate
Time falls away
But these small hours
These small hours
Still remain

All of my regret
Will wash away somehow
But I cannot forget
the way I feel right now

In these small hours
These little wonders
These twists and turns of fate
Yeah, these twisted turns of fate
Time falls away
Yeah, but these small hours
These small hours
Still remain

Yeah, oh they still remain
These little wonders
All these twists and turns of fate
Time falls away
But these small hours
These little wonders
Still remain

Friday, January 8, 2010

今天只做一件事 - Tuomas Jauhiainen


I'm touched every time I see that music crosses the boundary of countries and races (like MJ...). This video features a guy in Finland singing a song of Eason in Cantonese. Tuomas may not understand the lyrics but it's definitely a beautiful articulation :)