Azhar Kamar's Blog

The WordPress Tag Cloud – wp_tag_cloud

Azhar Kamar — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 08:23:40 +0000

Displaying your blog tags anywhere in your WordPress blog is simple.

Here’s the code:

Folks usually place this code in their sidebar.php file to display all the tags in their blog. Well you can place them anywhere you like.

Firebug – The Essential Firefox Add-on for Web Developers

Azhar Kamar — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 07:53:14 +0000

Yo web developer, go install Firebug in your Firefox web browser. I’ve been using it for almost a year now and it certainly has helped at least 50% of my website layout tweaking and debugging.

I use Firebug mainly to find out which CSS style to edit. It has helped me a whole lot. Right click on anything (but Flash) and select Inspect Element. You’ll then see the magic…

Now go get it here https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1843.

Wonderful World of Water – Graphic Design Contest by PUB Singapore

Azhar Kamar — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 02:11:07 +0000

Wonderful World of Water is a graphic design competition organized by PUB Singapore – Design Singapore’s drains!

www.wonderfulworldofwater.sg

Just A Bit About The 2010 FIFA World Cup

Azhar Kamar — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 01:45:33 +0000

The World Cup this year seems very different. Most of the good teams were lacking in performance, name England, France and Italy. Maybe they thought they were still in the qualifying rounds. All their 3 games in the Group matches suck. Well at least the Englishmen made it to the Round of 16.

Unlike France and Italy. These 2 didn’t even get to the Round of 16. Italy were quite okay though, just that the Slovakian guys surprisingly were faster and better. France should just go home after their first match.

The Semi-finals are just around the corner – Tomorrow! Lets take a peek at the countries playing in the semis.

World Cup 2010 Semi-finals

For the Semis, Uruguay will meet Netherlands and Germany will fight Spain. Here’s some interesting facts about the teams.

Uruguay

- This is Uruguay’s 11th appearance in the FIFA World Cup.
- Uruguay hosted the inaugural FIFA World Cup finals in 1930 and became champions after defeating Argentina 4-2 in the Final.
- The last time that the Uruguayans got into the Semi-finals of the FIFA World Cup was at Mexico in 1970, when they finished fourth.

Netherlands

- Netherlands have played in 8 World Cups so far (including this one).
- They’ve never gotten the cup; Twice runner-up in 1974 and 1978, and fourth at France 1998.

Germany

- Germany have won the FIFA World Cup three times in 1954, 1974 and 1990.
- The Germans made it to the World Cup Final seven times, same with Brazil.
- Germany have contested four penalty shoot-outs at the FIFA World Cup finals, winning all of them.
- Germany has made 17 World Cup appearances.

Spain

- Spain made into the record books when they won ten out of ten games in the South Africa 2010 qualifiers.
- The Spanish have taken part in all the finals of the World Cups and have not missed a single one since 1974.
- This is Spain’s 13th FIFA World Cup appearance.

Who will Win the World Cup 2010 Title?

Of course I don’t know. Haha! Hmmm… According to my lousy prediction, I think Germany will meet the Dutch in the Grand Final, and Germany will win. Spain will get the third place. Or maybe Spain will win the World Cup.

Brazil VS North Korea Live Video Streaming – World Cup 2010

Azhar Kamar — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 16:24:39 +0000

For Singaporeans, watching the World Cup at home would cost around $80 (thank you, Singtel) and most people are switching to the free alternative, online video streaming. Thanks to UStream.com Live, we’re able to watch reasonably clear and very speedy streaming videos of World Cup matches online.

Among the few websites that offer free live video streaming of the FIFA World Cup 2010 matches are www.worldcup2010live.tv, www.jouje.net and www.footyfire.com.

And the great thing is that the videos are freely shared by UStream in iframes and anyone can embed the iframes containing the live video stream in their website or blog. And that’s what I’ve done for the upcoming match later today, Brazil versus North Korea, at 2:30AM Singapore time. The video is embedded below for your viewing pleasure. Enjoy!
If the video doesn’t play, click here or here.

Brazil VS North Korea (Johannesburg Stadium) – Match 14, Group H

Result: Brazil 2 – North Korea 1

Google Web Search Features – Improve Your Search Experience

Azhar Kamar — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 21:37:42 +0000

Google Web Search Features

Did you know that you can use Google’s search box as a calculator and even a currency converter? You can also easily find out the weather in a certain location or see the time in cities around the world. There’s a whole lot of things you can do with the Google search textbox. Below are 2 of my most used features.

Calculator

You can use the search box in Google.com to perform calculations. The syntax is simple, for example if you want to do additions, type in x + y and hit Enter (e.g. 99 + 11).

Some useful operator symbols that you might not know of are ^ (raise to a power of), % (finds the remainder after division) and % of (x % of y computes x percent of y). View the full feature list here.

Currency Converter

For the currency converter function, simply enter the conversion in this format 1000 SGD in USD and Google will show you how much 1000 Singapore Dollars is in US Dollars.

Reference

[1] http://www.google.com/help/features.html

How to Kill Cockroaches the Fun Way

Azhar Kamar — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 00:22:08 +0000

I found out something quite interesting about these very much hated creatures. It was a few months back – I was in the kitchen going to the corner where my big fat cat’s food bowl is, to top it up with more goodies. And there was that dirty little pest of a cockroach in the bowl having dinner off my cat’s. I am a super anti-cockroach dude so there was nothing else left to do in this world at that point of time other then to eliminate that cockroach.

I didn’t want to spray insecticide because if I did, I had to really wash the bowl thoroughly to avoid accidentally poisoning my kitty to death. Kicking and shaking the bowl didn’t really bother that damn roach so I had to think of plan B.

The Fun Part

I took a cup of hot boiling water from the flask and quickly splashed it into the bowl. And amazingly, that cockroach died instantly. It was quite cool cos it didn’t wiggle its legs or try to run or anything. As soon as I gave it the hot boiling bath, it immediately stopped moving and died. As compared to spraying insecticide, this method is much more cleaner and yields better results but I agree that grabbing a can of insecticide is less troublesome than getting a cup of hot water.

But hey, it’s a fun way to kill cockroaches (to me at least). Try it!.

Buy Cool Light, Laser and LED Products – We Light This

Azhar Kamar — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 03:27:56 +0000

My friend just started an online store, We-Light-This.com selling cool gadgets and electronic stuff. They’ve got PC and Mac accessories, Electro-luminescent T-qualizer, LED accessories, iPod, iPad and iPhone accessories, flashlights, laser pointers, video game accessories from PSP, PS3, Wii, NDS and Xbox 360, high-end headphones from Bose, AKG, Monster, Sennheiser and many more!

Visit them here:

www.We-Light-This.com

Go and treat yourself to some super cool lighty brighty flashy gadgets! Believe me, their stuff is cool. I just got myself an Electro-luminescent T-qualizer. Visit We Light This now!

The We-Light-This logo was designed by yours truly.

Game Interface Design – CSCI346 Study Notes

Azhar Kamar — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 20:29:12 +0000

Interface Design Principles
- select appropriate camera perspective
- provide shortcuts
- permit easy reversal of actions
- minimize physical stress

Important Game Indicators
- where he is (map)
- what challenges he will be facing
- what he needs to do to be successful in the game
- consequences of actions
- alerts (time remaining, health bar, etc)

Level Design Structure
- duration of each level
- relationship between different levels
- level progression

Game Design Principles and Gameplay Elements – CSCI346 Study Notes

Azhar Kamar — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 19:56:35 +0000

Game Design Principles

Optimize Load Times
- divide game into shorter segments
- load more often and load faster

Saving the Game
- time required to save the game should be set at proper intervals
- allow more frequent saving feature during the game

Reduce Bugs

Interface Design
- ease of use is more important than diverse functionality

Gameplay Elements

- exploration
- exploitation
- combat
- puzzle-solving
- construction / destruction

Balancing the Game

- create strategies that have reasonable chances of resulting in victory
- avoid dominant strategies
- the player’s skill must affect his success