Germany vs Spain

Who said you can't learn anything from watching football? My World Geography knowledge was bolstered ever since I started watching football since young. Did you know that Spain's national anthem has no lyrics? At first I thought that the Spanish players were not patriotic folks but realised that there were no lyrics to be found when they zoomed in on the Spanish fans and some were humming along to the anthem because of the lack of lyrics.
Even game so far with the closest effort being Metzelder almost scoring an own goal but Lehmann keeps it out. Torres's header hits the base of the post. Ballack has an effort blocked by a defender's body. Goal! It had to be Torres... what the hell is Lehmann doing rushing out? He's no spring chicken... he should have stayed in goal. Ballack has an eye injury with blood streaming out.
Half-time and the score remains 1-0 in Spain's favour. Mark Richmond is in the studio with StarHub trying to make up for their cock-up.
Joachim Low makes a tactical change and brings on Kevin Kuranyi. Germany starts to control proceedings before Aragones replaces Fabreagas with Xabi Alonso. Its like a chess game now.
Game over. Spain are the champions of Europe. The Germans huffed and puffed but failed to force Casillas into a save.

Skydrive

Microsoft offers 5GB password-protected online storage to its Windows Live users. You can store private files in personal folders, share files with friends or host publicly accessible documents. Very simple to use and secure as the whole session (except for public folders) is protected via HTTPS. Do use a strong password as it is the only mechanism that secures your online storage facility.

Surprise!!!

The match between Germany and Turkey ended at 5+ so I decided to take a shower and head straight to work instead of crawling back into bed. Imagine the shock on my boss's face when he saw me sitting in front of my desk when he came in at 7am.
I was in the office at 6.40am btw and I have evidence. Haha... the sky was still dark when I arrived and this image of the lighted overhead bridge caught my eye. A long day at work (almost 12 hours in the office) ends off with beautiful clouds saying goodbye to me.

Evening swirl

Was admiring the illuminated swirls created by the light from the setting sun shining upon the clouds.

Spain vs Russia

An uneventful first half ends 0-0. Iniesta changes the game with a superb assist for Xavi to score in the 50th minute. I was expecting more from the Russians. Super sub Fabregas was the difference in my opinion... he later provides 2 assists to seal the game 3-0.
Spain move on to the final. I'm surprised by their success this year after being perennial underachievers in major tournaments. Guus Hiddink is the "semi final man" because his teams always go out at that stage.

Never say die

A match between 2 resilient teams... can't say the same about StarHub. Turkey draws first blood but Germany equalize then disaster strikes... StarHub loses the transmission with the score at 1-1. When the signal was restored, the freaking score was 2-2!!! I missed 2 goals... ~!@#$%^&*. Philip Lahm soon scores in the 89th minute to give Germany a 3-2 lead then the signal is lost again. WTF!!!
Transmission resumes but the game is over. the German players are celebrating on the pitch with the Turks nowhere in sight. Is StarHub going to do a partial refund for the cock-up? StarHub realised their mistake and decided to make it up by replaying the segment of the game that was missed. I watched Klose give Germany a 2-1 lead and saw Turkey fight back in the 86th minute. The Turks must have thought they had done it again but scoring late in the game. But it was not to be as Germany gave them a taste of their own medicine by killing them off in the 89th minute. The Turks' luck had run out even though they outplayed the Germans.

New "Get Smart"

Watched it in the cinema today with my bird. What can I say? I'm a sucker for Cult Classics. You need to have watched the original "Get Smart" to appreciate the references to the TV series... the steel doors, telephone booth, shoe phone, the red Sunbeam sports car and the "Cone of Silence".
What's my verdict? I was ROTFLMAO.

Why don't I trust third parties?

I encounter a lot of ignorant and irresponsible people in my line of work and that contributes to my distrust and paranoia. This admission by Ryanair doesn't help in reducing my reluctance to surrender my personal details online to third parties.

Italy vs Spain

STALEmate. I'm stressing the first part of the word because it aptly describes the match as both teams cancel out other out. Its the second half of extra time and the score is still 0-0. That's why I despise Italian football and Serie A... boring, too theatric and corruption.
Watching movie trailers on Apple's website is keeping me up. There are quite a few intriguing movies coming out soon. The upcoming Kevin Costner movie "Swing vote" is one that I would be interested in watching. Did I mention that Kevin is one of my fav actors of all-time? "Dances with wolves", "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves", "The Bodyguard", "A Perfect World", "For the love of the game" and "Dragonfly"... good movies.
Full-time and its 0-0. Crap! They should have just started the match with the penalty shootout and scrapped the 120 minutes of play. Fabregas scores the winning penalty and Spain wins 4-2 on penalties. Italy out!!!

Will he make the grade?

Paul Ince is appointed Blackburn's new gaffer. I'm relieved as I was against the decision to shortlist Sam "Long Ball" Allardyce and Steve "Clueless" McClaren. A pity that Shearer elected to pull out of contention... it would have been interesting to see how he would have done in the managerial hot seat. Paul's young managerial career has seen some modest success and I hope the team can continue to progress under him.

Oranje squash

As my Dutch friend said... don't bet on the Dutch team as they always disappoint. After winning all their group matches, they flattered to deceive and were duly dumped out of Euro2008 3-1 by an impressive Russian team. The Russians dominated from start to end and deserved to progress to the semis. 

Mac Trojans detected!

2 newly discovered Trojans were reported to target Mac OS X. One is disguised as a game while the other is a fake codec. Watch what you install.

Croatia vs Turkey

Decided to wake up to watch the game even though I didn't plan to originally. Dreadfully boring match with the exception of the last 2 mins of extra time... Croatia scores in the 119th minute... but the freaking Turks never say die and scored in the last minute to shock the Croats. The Croats never recovered and they lost 4-1 on penalties.
You gotta give the Turks respect for scoring late goals in their last 3 games. However, I think they've used up their luck and will be eliminated by the Germans in the semis.

WTH???

Michael Laudrup is surprisingly considering joining Blackburn as manager. He was reported to have been impressed after speaking to Rovers' chairman, John Williams. He is no slouch having played for Barcelona and Real Madrid. He has had recent success managing Getafe in the Spanish Primera Liga. Rovers is in a lose-lose situation nonetheless. We could choose a less experienced manager who would leave for greener pastures after they succeed just like Mark Hughes. An experienced manager could flop too.

Same old story

A researcher finds a vulnerability in Firefox 3 within 5 hours of its offical release. In the meantime, I will use Opera 9.5 while waiting for the patch to be released.

Germany vs Portugal

The game is on live at the moment and its halftime with the score 2-1 in Germany's favour. The TV is on but I was busy multitasking and ended up watching the goals replayed. Kekekekeke. The problem of modern society... too many distractions. I'm surprised by the openness of the game and the 3 goals scored so far. 2 quick goals by Germany but a lifeline for Portugal with a goal scored by Nuno "Can't touch the ball" Gomes*.
1 goal each in the 2nd half and the match ends 3-2. The score was close but it was quite a comfortable game for Germany. Never write the Germans off.

* Portugal's midfield is too strong resulting in their strikers hardly touching the ball during games. There was a group match where the commentator revealed that Gomes contributed 3 passes out of the team's 200+ completed passes. WTH.

Deserving

Its nice when talent gets rewarded. I'm so happy for Choom. I like the silhouette of her awards created by the sunlight against her window. I thought they were outdoor statues at the prize presentation ceremony. Kekekekeke.

History repeats itself

No team has lost in the NBA Finals after going 3-1 up and true to form... the Boston Celtics defeated the Lakers in Game 6 to be crowned champions having finished as the league's worst team last year. A real fairytale ending to a fantastic season. Just as I predicted, Paul Pierce wins Finals MVP for his effort. To commemorate their truimph, I placed a picture of the victorious Celtics team hugging the Finals trophy in my blog header and changed my blog title font to Celtic green.
*sigh* How different would things have turned out had Kevin McHale allowed KG to join the Lakers instead of his former team? My heart bleeds inside... bleeds Gold and Purple.

Firefox 3

Firefox 3 is released! The new version closely follows the availability of Opera's new browser.
I've installed Firefox 3. On the surface, it doesn't look much different from version 2 with the exception of cosmetic changes to its browser buttons. I observed a new security feature that will display a warning to users in the instance that they visit sites containing malware.

Microsoft is lagging behind both its competitors as it has yet to release Internet Explorer 8 which is still in beta.

Orange blanket

The sky was covered with orange clouds... too bad my mobile doesn't do justice by failing to capture the beautiful hue.

Sandstorm

Jux was telling me that she is holed up at home in Bahrain because she's in the middle of a sandstorm. Reminded me of the song "Sandstorm" by Darude... one of my fav all-time dance songs. Haha.

Wonder if the clouds in the music video are real?

Coronation postponed

The Lakers hold off the Celtics in Game 5 to delay their crowning as champions. The thought of the Celtics being awarded the NBA championship trophy in LA must have proven motivation enough to starve off elimination and push them to a crucial win today. Can they hold off the Celtics in Game 6?

180 degrees

View from my living-room after my afternoon nap today. Glorious.

What if?

Singapore is out of World Cup contention. Its the end of the road after we lost 2-0 to the Saudis who were far more superior. Could our fate have been different had Noh Alam Shah not gotten himself foolishly suspended for a moment of madness? We definitely miss his physical presence, skill, goals and never-say-die attitude. Its such a shame that my last game at the National Stadium ended in a mauling. *sigh*

Raddy has balls! He surprisingly left out Lionel Lewis and brought in Hassan Sunny in his place for today's game. But that's Raddy... a man who is willing to take risks by bringing in young and less experienced players. Previous coaches always irked me by playing the same players regardless of form and performances. That's what I like about Raddy.

Holland power!

Holland defeated Italy 3-0 in their opening game and followed that up by thrashing France 4-1. France's defense was constantly stretched by Holland's attackers. Was Italy's poor defensive showing attributed to Cannavaro's absence or the skill of the Dutch?
The Dutch have booked a slot in the next round in convincing fashion. It will be a nervous final group match for both Italy and France who meet each other next in what is a must-win for both sides. Holland has nothing to play for and Romania might just spring a surprise by beating the Oranje and as a result knocking out both Italy and France. That would be sensational. This is the ultimate "group of Death".

Game over!

I don't see the Lakers overcoming their 3-1 deficit after losing Game 4. The Lakers lead by as many as 24 points in this home game but let victory slip from their hands. The Boston Celtics can start chilling the champagne now.

Opera 9.5

I've used earlier versions of Opera but removed it because it was quite similar to Firefox. What prompted me to download and install the latest edition was the promise of added security... so I decided to give it a second chance.
Launched Opera 9.5 for the first time and a "Welcome" page is displayed. Opera touts their new "Fraud Protection" feature but at the same time offers instructions on how to disable it. Ironic. Checked out the security protocols that Opera supports for HTTPS sessions and was pleasantly surprised to find out that Opera is TLS1.1 ready. Users are also given the option of deciding what encryption ciphers they want to enable.

The current version of Firefox has a similar mechanism to protect its users from fraud. However, it does not support TLS1.1 yet and does not offer granularity in choosing ciphers. Opera has definitely raised the bar for its competitors.

Thumbnails for tabs? Wow... that's a new one. Hovering your mouse pointer over a browser tab displays a thumbnail of the webpage currently open on that specific tab. You have "Speed Dial" for phones... how about "speed dialing" for webpages? Now that's a new concept. They have pretty interesting Widgets too.

Overall, I'm pleased with the look, feel and speed of this new browser. Firefox is powerful but it can be sluggish at times. I may consider switching over to Opera permanently.

Bid anyone?

NBA Finals game-worn jerseys being auctioned... wow!!! No surprises... Kobe's jersey attracted the highest bid. KG's is not even a close second. Do they wash them or you get them with the player's dried sweat?

Sore losers

Talk about being sour grapes... a Polish politician threatens to get Podolski's Polish passport cancelled because he scored twice in Germany's opening game of Euro2008. Podolski has the last laugh because he does not hold one.
This reminds me of the incident involving South Korean footballer, Ahn Jung Hwan... who got sacked by Perugia after his winning goal against Italy in World Cup 2002.

Unexcited

This year's European Championships hasn't gotten me feverish... I've subscribed for the cable channel and following the tournament but I'm not trembling with excitement. Is it because England did not qualify? Or is the root cause the retirement of my idols, FIgo and Zidane? I can't put my finger on it.
Ironically what is occupying my thoughts recently is the drama caused by Mark Hughes' departure. My personal favourite is Shearer to take over the reins at Blackburn but I'm surprised by Henning Berg's name being raised as a potential candidate in Blackburn's shortlist. Both candidates are Blackburn legends as a members of the championship winning team of 94-95. I can envision either one being welcomed with open arms by the Rovers fans. I am praying Steve "Disaster" McClaren is not hired. Please no... I don't need another Manchester United agent relegating my team.

Feeling blue?

Bluetooth is another amazing technology that most can't live without. Just like Wifi, it is a convenient way of connecting devices and transferring files without wires. The similarities does not end there. Bluetooth like Wifi is also a standard that wasn't originally designed with security in mind.
Microsoft has published a new notification alerting users of a vulnerability in Windows' Bluetooth stack. This flaw permits attackers to remotely execute code resulting in complete control over your machines. They are tend free to do whatever they want with your beloved machine.
The solution? Patch your OS and disable Bluetooth whenever you are not using it.

Phew!!!

*sigh of relief* Lakers won Game 3 at home to save their season. If they had lost, it would have been curtains for them as no team has ever made a comeback from 3 down in NBA Playoff history. The surprise of the game was Sasha Vujacic clocking 20 points, 4 rebounds and 1 assist. Nice!

Don't be a victim

I recently blogged about receiving a phishing URL via IM. The common phishing vector is the use of emails with the most notorious of all being the "Nigerian scam". Phishing emails are so common that I usually just mark them as "spam" (if they were not already filtered by my spam filter) and forget about them. What intrigued me about this specific one was that it was sent to an Information Security mailing list I subscribe to... which Security professional is going to take the bait? There's even a typo in it. Haha.

Celtics 0wn the Lakers

2 games into the NBA Finals and the Lakers have yet to find a way to beat the Celtics. The Lakers better win Game 3 at home if not its curtains for them. No team in NBA Playoff history has won a series after going 3-0 down.

Superior?

Haute Secure is a company that developed anti-malware technology aiming to offer protection when surfing legitimate sites injected with malware through browser integration. Opera claims that its next release will be superior to other competing browsers, like IE and Firefox, because Haute's software is embedded into its browser instead of being offered as a plug-in.
I'm skeptical and only time will tell.

Portugal won't win Euro2008

My bird and RH are both rooting for Portugal. Portugal is one of the tournament favourites with a strong midfield that includes star players like Ronaldo and Deco. Yes... they won their opening game 2-0 and will most likely qualify out of their group for the next round. 
But they won't win it all, why? They don't have a world-class striker who can guarantee goals. Their ordinary strikers hardly touch the ball during games because their midfielders are too skillful and seldom involve them in plays. This results in a lot of pressure on the rest of the team to contribute with goals. This was evident in today's game with goals coming from their defense (Pepe) and midfield (Raul Meireles).

"Stroll at Dusk"

I'm in love with this painting entitled "Stroll at Dusk". I came across it at this small gallery at China Square. I always stop and stare whenever I'm in the vicinity.

I was admiring it one afternoon and the lady boss came out to indulge me in a conversation. She was entertaining my questions and that's how I found out that the artist is from China. She was trying to convince me to buy it because there is only one copy of it as its an original. I would like to own the painting but the price is pretty hefty at S$1060.

Advantage Celtics

Watching the replay of today's Game 1 of the NBA Finals. My idol, Magic Johnson, was a guest analyst for ABC.
The game was a lot closer than the final score suggests. My Lakers had a good first half but didn't execute as well offensively in the 2nd half. Good defence by the Celtics too. KG, Ray Allen and "The Truth" all played well... showing no hint of nervousness playing in their first finals and going 1 up. Game 2 in Boston on Monday. Going to miss it live again because of work. Grrrrrrr.
Btw... I added widgets (on the right) for my readers to track the progress of the European Championships 2008 and the NBA Finals.

Inevitable

It was inevitable that Mark Hughes left. He made himself an obvious target for other clubs with the success he had with Blackburn. Who would reject Thaksin with the $ that he has and with Man City playing in the UEFA Cup next season? I just pray that he doesn't take Bentley and Santa Cruz with him to Man City.
Shearer for Blackburn? I cringe at the thought of Allardyce at the helm. No McClaren please!!!

HK dangerous?

McAfee conducted a study on top-level domains and determined that .hk domains had the highest proportion of malicious sites followed by .cn. They studied nearly 10 million websites to arrive at this conclusion.
I find the result surprising because I expect China's presence on the Internet to be stronger. I don't recall ever being sent a link ending with .hk but think twice before clicking folks.

Mac OS X hardening

Apple released security configuration guides to "harden" your Mac OS X machines. An alternative source for hardening configurations for Mac OS X can be obtained from CIS. CIS also provides recommendations to secure other OSs.

What's the story morning glory?

Another sunrise... another day of work. When can I retire and not work?

Common sense

"Apple Software Update" keeps prompting me to install Safari browser on my Windows desktop... I do use Safari since its native on my Macbook but it just didn't make sense to install another browser in my Windows OS since I already have Mozilla Firefox installed.
Thank goodness for my resistance since its been newly published that the Windows version of Safari contains vulnerabilities that permit hackers to execute malicious code on your machine.
Practice common sense and only install software that you need. Every additional piece of software you install is another potential attack vector against your machine.

Unfair?

Kobe get his own tribute page... not that I'm complaining because I'm a fan... but why doesn't KG, "The Truth" or Ray Allen get one of their own? MVP... MVP... MVP.

Colourful

Beautiful stained glass window at a local church. 

All good things come to an end

Me at the Grand Old Dame again. A clean slate at 0-0. Setting sun at the stadium. Flag wavers during the singing of the National Anthem.

My winning streak at the National Stadium finally came to an end. I haven't witnessed a loss there since the "Kallang Massacre". The match started promisingly with Singapore having the first chance after a through ball put Duric clear on goal with only the keeper to beat but he chose to dribble to the flank thus ending that attack when he lost the ball. Uzbekistan then struck the first blow with a soft goal conceded by Singapore. There was a brief respite as Singapore came from behind twice to level the score... the Lions showed some fight but after conceding the third goal, another weak goal, it was curtains for Singapore. I left promptly when Uzbekistan scored their 7th uncontested goal.
It was schoolboy defending throughout the game... almost like Reading playing Manchester United... such was the gulf in skill. I felt that Raddy should have taken Lionel Lewis off at half-time and put in the reserve keeper to give him some valuable experience. There goes our hopes of qualifying for the fourth round of World Cup qualifying.