Little-Wonder.Net

06 October, 2008

Meep?

17:04:47 | Daily Life, Web Stuff | writebacks (3)

A’right, finally done with one midterm exam. One which I studied extremely hard for - so I hope the results will pay off in the end.

I am after all, grade conscious. Make that extremely grade conscious.

Anyway, the purpose of this entry is to pimp my new design on Brendalogy.Net. (Maybe not quite, since I’m rambling about other matters here as well but … you get the point.)

It was designed during one of my classes - yesh, bad, bad me - when I somewhat lost interest halfway in what the professor was yammering on about. So, it gave me an excellent opportunity to practise illustrations and design elements on my tablet. ;)

I’ve plenty of other stuff to do for the next few days, despite the fact that it is supposed to be my one-week long midterm break at this moment. Yet, I have to come back on the first day of my break for an exam (today), not to mention another one at the end of the midterm break - next week, to be exact.

It goes against the rationale of having a midterm break in the very first place, and completely shatters the concept of a ‘break’. Huh? Break?!? What break?

One more paper to study for.

One (half-completed) assignment.

One (barely started) report.

Plus, even more coding for my FYP.

All these, on top of having to cope with yet another relapse which took place the past couple of days - which leaves me practically no time for anything else.

So, apologies if updates are few and far between over the past few days (and for the coming week). And if you don’t see me lurking around your blogs as of late, it’s because of the same reason as well.

Le sighhhhhhh.

28 September, 2008

Random, random, random.

03:54:44 | Daily Life, Web Stuff | writebacks (6)

Got this site from Loi’s blog - which allows you to create your own quizzes. So, I decided take a cue from her, be narcissistic and create one which is all about me, me, me.

So, here you go!

Go and see how well you know me. ;) Some of those questions in there are really obvious so if you get anything less than 50% … tsktsk.

Nah, kidding.

Share your scores with me (and which answers you got wrong) in the comments … if you wish. Because I don’t get notified of any responses, which is what I find lacking in that site.

Talk about cheap thrills. Nothing else seems to excite me anymore.

———————

Mood has been pretty up and down lately.

The last time I’ve seen any of my non-school friends has been … four months ago. Health issues has been keeping me at home, and I only leave this place either to (i) go to school or (ii) head somewhere with my mum.

Needless to say, I’ve been spending loads of time with my mum during the past three months plus.

Somehow, I no longer feel safe when I’m alone, or with anyone else.

I feel the most confident only when I’m out with her, knowing that she knows exactly what to do in the event anything happens, and that she will catch me if I fall, or faint, or whatsoever.

She’s been really supportive. And overly pampering me, I must say - paying me for my incessant purchases, satisfying my weird cravings for various food, fetching me to and fro school, cardiologist appointments, doctor appointments and anywhere else.

Big fat thank you.

And meanwhile, I shall heed her advice and turn in early.

3.50 A.M.

Well, at least it’s still considered early for me. I’ll try to do better next time.

04 September, 2008

My take on ST701

17:00:47 | Web Stuff | Comments Off

ST701 was recently launched by Singapore Press Holdings (the dominant controller of Singapore media) as a medium for users to buy, sell and trade goods - ranging from second hand clothes and bags, to even electronics and textbooks in a secure environment, emulating the eBay and Yahoo! Auctions business model.

Out of curiosity, I decided to sign up for it today - since I wanted to expand my sales exposure beyond just Livejournal communities. After playing (or rather, struggling) with the system for almost an hour, my final verdict is - I am not impressed.

Let me delve into the issues I faced, shall I?

1) Repeated account activation is tres’ annoying!
So, I have an ST701 account. Righty. Typically, this means that I can access every single section of that blasted website, as it is with other similar web portal services, aye?

Noooo, not in this case. Instead, ST701 chooses to force the user to activate his/her access to every single dog’gone section of the website.

Which means that I have to click a darn ‘Activate access!’ link once when I enter ‘ST Shops’, another time when I enter ‘ST Sprees’ and so on. Pray tell, what’s the rationale for that?

2) Adding/editing listings is such a hassle!
Five separate sections (in separate pages) to fill just to add a listing. Now, that’s way too much. Back in the days of yore where eBay used to be free, the most I had to go through was just two pages. Here, I have to load five! And the fact that the server is slower than the pace of a turtle makes the whole experience even more painful.

It’s a similar situation when one tries to edit listings. Instead of providing the capability of completing all the required edits in one page and then pressing a big fat ‘EDIT!’ button - the system forces you to go through all five pages all over again.

Now I know what it means by costly mistakes - with regard to time. It took me five minutes just to make a simple correction on one dog’gone listing when it takes me less than a minute in eBay, and under ten seconds in Livejournal.

3) Inability to add multiple listings at a time.
I have the ‘Place ad’ (i.e. add listing) page loaded on one tab in my beloved Firefox, and another loaded in another tab - with the intention of uploading two separate listings at one go. (MULTI-TASKING. That’s the way to go in today’s fast-paced society - especially when I have a class to rush for in less than half an hours time.)

So, I proceeded to add two different items in each respective tab. As I pressed ‘Next’ in each tab to proceed on to the next section to fill - both pages suddenly loaded identical items.

Woe is me. The system just decided to mix up both items!

The same thing happens when I try to add a new listing on one tab, and edit an existing listing in another tab. Suddenly, I find both tabs displaying the same blasted thing.

4) The server is slow.
Need I say more? Efficiency, dude. Efficiency! And it is not as if this site has a large enough user base yet, considering how it’s still a startup. But, if you can’t handle such a small capacity with passable loading speeds, I seriously wonder how you’re going to cope when the influx of late majority users start coming in.

And this is just one section I’ve gone through so far. Thus, I seriously wonder how screwed up the rest are likely to be.

FAIL.