The default keyboard settings for 1st player is quite convenient to myself, i.e. the Z key meant for shooting, X key meant for releasing bomb and the Arrow keys are use to move the Raiden jet-fighter in up/down/right/left direction

Now, if the Windows running on PC / laptop failed to open the classic Raiden-III, you might have seen an error message dialog box similar to this:

Depending on the locale available on Windows (using AppLocale on XP or the Vista Ultimate MUI pack), you might see some Japanese words or some weird characters that follow the word Direct3D. My friend translated that for me as “failed to initialize Direct3D”.

According to the official system requirement for playing this classic Raiden-III are as follow:

• Windows 2000/XP
• Pentium4 (1.7GHz and above) or Celeron (2.0GHz and above)
• At least 512MB of RAM
• DirectX-compatible graphic card with at least 64MB of RAM and support hardware texture acceleration for texture and lighting (e.g. ATI Radeon 9000 or later nVidia GeForceFX)

Is that enough? Take a look of the Raiden-III trailer that I’ve just found in YouTube:

This lotto dictionary is well-known as “dream book” among the Chinese community. Most of these veteran players believe that every dreams they have or incidents that happen around them are the indication of luck to strike on the game, with the 4-digit number that represent the dream / incident!

For example, I found this interesting dictionary called Magnum 4D Treasure Chest - Translate your dreams, incidents, encounters and inspirations into lucky 4D numbers!

If you’re interested to know what are the lucky numbers that represent “election” related incidents, here is the result of Treasure Chest - there is about 13 numbers represent respective incidents related to the “election”!

Have you got one for today? I wish you Good luck!

Caution: Please be assured that the banker is always the winner!

Google Logo for 25 Years of TCP/IP & Happy New Year on Jan 1, 2008

Google Logo for USA Election on Nov 7th, 2000

Google Logo for Picasso Birthday on October 25, 2002

Google Logo for February 14, 2003 - Happy Valentine Day




Here are some of my favourite:

Google Logo for Albert Einstein Birthday on March 14, 2003

Google Logo for Vincent van Gogh Birthday on March 30, 2005

Google Logo for Leonardo da Vinci Birthday on April 15, 2005

Google Logo for National Teacher Day on May 3, 2005

Google Logo for Martin Luther King Jr. Day on January 16, 2006

Google Logo for St. Patrick’s Day on March 17, 2006

Google Logo for Earth Day on April 22, 2007

Don’t worry; I don’t know all the flags too. But Google at local domain (scroll down to the bottom of page) and Flags of the World (FOTW) have the answer for us! If the you can’t read some of the countries name described by Google, please refer to the country code top-level domain (ccTLD) at IANA

(See also the previous post on how to switch between Google at local domain website.)

If your interest is not limited to country flags, the FOTW is definitely a good resource to enhance your (flag) studies! According to the site,

…Flags of the World (FOTW) is the Internet’s largest site devoted to vexillology (the study of flags). Here you can read more than 35,000 pages about flags and view more than 66,000 images of flags.

…Flags of the World is produced and maintained by an Editorial Staff of unpaid volunteers and the contents of these pages are offered freely to the Internet community.

The official flag of FOTW designed by Mark Sensen. To follow the history, proceed to this About of FOTW flag hyperlink.

If you’re looking for download mini country flags, Google has a list of 159 countries in the world where its localized version is, or download this 101KB zipped file.

Lyrics - Write You A Song, Plain White T’s Every Second Counts (Deluxe edition)

I don't know how to make lots of money
I got debts that I'm trying to pay
I can't buy you nice things, like big diamond rings
But that don't mean much anyway
I can't give you the house you've been dreaming
If I could I would build it alone
I'd be out there all day, just hammering away
Make us a place of our own

I will write you a song
That's how you'll know that my love is still strong
I will write you a song
And you'll know from this song that I just can't go on without you

I don't know that I'd make a good soldier
I don't believe in being violent and cruel
I don't know how to fight, but I'll draw blood tonight
If somebody tries hurting you 

I will write you a song
That's how you'll know that my love is still strong
I will write you a song
And you'll know from this song that I just can't go on without you

Now that it's out on the table (it's out on the table)
Both of us knew all along (knew all along)
I've got your loving and you've got my song

I don't know how to make lots of money
I don't know all the right things to do
I can't say where we'll go, but the one thing I know
Is how to be a good man to you
Until I die that's what I'll do

I will write you a song
That's how you'll know that my love is still strong
I will write you a song
And you'll know from this song that I just can't go on without
I will write you a song (I will write you a song)
That's how you'll know that my love is still strong (love is still strong)
I will write you a song
And you know from this song that I just can't go on without you

Hey there Delilah
What's it like in New York City?
I'm a thousand miles away
But girl, tonight you look so pretty
Yes you do
Times Square can't shine as bright as you
I swear it's true

Hey there Delilah
Don't you worry about the distance
I'm right there if you get lonely
Give this song another listen
Close your eyes
Listen to my voice, it's my disguise
I'm by your side

Oh it's what you do to me
Oh it's what you do to me
Oh it's what you do to me
Oh it's what you do to me
What you do to me

Hey there Delilah
I know times are getting hard
But just believe me, girl
Someday I'll pay the bills with this guitar
We'll have it good
We'll have the life we knew we would
My word is good

Hey there Delilah
I've got so much left to say
If every simple song I wrote to you
Would take your breath away
I'd write it all
Even more in love with me you'd fall
We'd have it all

Oh it's what you do to me
Oh it's what you do to me
Oh it's what you do to me
Oh it's what you do to me

A thousand miles seems pretty far
But they've got planes and trains and cars
I'd walk to you if I had no other way
Our friends would all make fun of us
and we'll just laugh along because we know
That none of them have felt this way
Delilah I can promise you
That by the time we get through
The world will never ever be the same
And you're to blame

Hey there Delilah
You be good and don't you miss me
Two more years and you'll be done with school
And I'll be making history like I do
You'll know it's all because of you
We can do whatever we want to
Hey there Delilah here's to you
This one's for you

Oh it's what you do to me
Oh it's what you do to me
Oh it's what you do to me
Oh it's what you do to me
What you do to me.

If you feel better by gifting her the album, remember to ask for “Every Second Counts - Deluxe Edition”

1. Our Time Now
2. Come Back To Me
3. Hate (I Really Don’t Like You)
4. You And Me
5. Friends Don’t Let Friends Dial Drunk
6. Making A Memory
7. So Damn Clever
8. Tearing Us Apart
9. Write You A Song
10. Gimme A Chance
11. Figure It Out
12. Let Me Take You There
13. Hey There Delilah
14. We Can Work It Out
15. Hold On


Happy Valentine 2008!

So, if you’ve not sending any seasonal greeting to friends,

if you’re thinking of making fun with colleague or beloved,

or if you’re thinking of sending another free-of-charge and funny Ecard to people who you know, I recommend you to elf yourself or elf your friends / colleagues / bosses at elfyourself.com!

As shown here, famous comedian Jim Carrey, Steve Martin and Mr Bean, elf themselves to cheer fans!

How to elf yourself?

Don’t worry about “cutting” the portrait nicely, just upload a JPEG photo of less than 2MB, and then use its interactive web interface to rotate, resize and shape the elf-ed portrait!

If you’ve guts, elf your bosses and send out the link to everyone in company email, represent them to greet every co-worker a (belated) Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Have fun :-)