No wonder Zuckerberg had such a simple time illegally setting up the original Facebook on Harvard servers; Harvard doesn’t provide enough security for its students.
harvard computing services needs better security to protect students/faculty/staff/affiliates
August 7th, 2008update: alan gets 8 autograph requests; is amused
August 7th, 2008
masi oka gives alan autograph, alan decides to give out autographed photos as well
August 7th, 2008
I met Masi Oka, the talented and ingenius actor who plays Hiro on Heroes, last year at an event (which event I’m not at liberty to say). He was a super awesome person, and I of course asked for his autograph (“for a friend, oh, and, it’d be nice if you could throw one in for me too”).
I received my autographed photos today, a year later, and while they are rather generic, Masi apparently remembered that I know Japanese and wrote his generic message in Japanese for me. Well done.
After receiving this photo, I realised that if Masi Oka could have autographed photo happiness, then I should be able to as well. Accordingly, I present to you the Alan Sien Wei Hshieh autographed photo. Simply send an envelope with postage and a note to my address (look around for it on my professional page) and you could have the above amazing, personalised photo to append to your collection.
domo-kun papercraft surfaces; alan drops cancer research dreams to make 3,141592 million domos
August 6th, 2008
Click on the thumbnails to access their appropriate pages and download, print, papercraft.
stanford grad ranks consistenly nr. 1 in 2009
August 6th, 2008
In 1996, Stanford officially stated that it didn’t care about college rankings. This year, it changed its stance.
Leland Stanford Junior University, my wonderful school that is certain it is better than everything and everyone else, finally has some claim to its name, consistently beating out almost all other graduate schools in almost every category in U.S. New’s 2009 Top Graduate Schools list. Also, according to Shanghai Jiao Tong University’s international university rankings, Stanford ties this year with Harvard for the first time.
Dominating everything except medical school (in which Stanford placed 8th), Stanford ranked first in more categories than any other school; tying with Harvard and MIT in several categories.
Final Fantasy XIII at 「DKΣ3713」
August 6th, 2008
I recently got a preview of Final Fantasy XIII for the PS3 and Xbox 360 at Square Enix’s “private party” 「DKΣ3713」. The game is looking awesome. Unfortunately, Square Enix is giving the Final Fantasy spin-off possibility too much attention, and I worry about the mass-marketing of the series. If there are Final Fantasy spin-offs everywhere, who will want to play them? Dirge of Cerberus was a huge disappointment, along with most of the FFVII spin-offs. How will these be good? Even Kingdom Hearts is getting three incarnations.
Nevertheless, XIII is looking great. Let’s hope it is.
新しいポケットモンスターの映画のスワーグ
August 6th, 2008
Pokémon movies come every summer, but who would have thought that this one would have been a good one? The new movie was recently released: 劇場版ポケットモンスター ダイヤモンド+パールギラティナと氷空の花束 シェイミ (rough translation: Pokémon Diamond & Pearl the Movie: Giratina and the Frozen Sky’s Bouquet: Shaymin). I will admit straight out that I cried very much watching this tear-jerk of a movie. Not only were Sheimi’s (a.k.a Shaymin) evolutions shown, but the audience was awarded with amazing fan-swag (see image above), including the very appropriate and necessary tissues which are labeled “Arigatoudesyu!”, “Sankyuu!”, and “Arigatou!” based along with different photos of Sheimi in its different forms.
Unfortunately, since the copy I watched was a random in-theatre recording posted in an iPod Linux forum. Should I ever get the chance, however, I will be the first person in line for Pokémon paraphernalia.
my hair is turning korean
August 6th, 2008
My hair is turning Korean. Not that there’s anything wrong with that… but I’m tired of being mistaken for a Korean all the time. When will the tourists at Stanford and Harvard realise I’m not Korean and speak to me in English first? I mean, I’m glad to take the photos, but sometimes the Korean is way too fast for me to understand. And I’m sorry, I can’t get your child into Stanford because I’m a student there. And no, I will not be your “sibling.”
Of course, I still have a ways to go, if my hair continues to grow upwards like it is right now, I might transform into a Japanese person instead. Which could be fun. I’m expecting the back to mulletfy and the front to eventually droop, making me officially drama Korean one day.
Perhaps I should just end all of this, shave my head, and then everyone will realise that I’m Chinese.
Of course, I’ll probably then be confused for a Tibetan monk.
assassin’s creed
August 5th, 2008
After playing Super Monkey Ball non-stop over the past few days, I felt the need to head back to hardcore gaming. I figured that I wouldn’t have this opportunity by playing my Wii (I have all of the “hardcore” games already), so I obtained a copy of Assassin’s Creed for my dual-OS MacBook Pro and had at it.
The controls were pretty annoying on the PC. I definitely needed a controller, so I paired my Wiimote to my Mac, set movement to the joystick and camera to B+waggle and am now having a really great time.
The game looks great, the plot is amazing, and the graphics are stylised and inspired.
a sad case of engrish
August 4th, 2008
There are so many things wrong with this that I’m not even going to elaborate.