Roppon's Reflections

PDF viewer is one of the most necessary piece of software for people spending time online. On my Mac I love Skim. But on Windows, it seems to me that a perfect software to view PDF files is still missing.

First of all, the official app Adobe Reader is bloated. What’s with the Content Preparation annoyance. And why is it so damn big?

Sumatra is a nice tiny reader but doesn’t progressively load the content. It also doesn’t remember View options.

Foxit Reader is also fast but it has that annoying messed-up Toolbars bug when the window is minimized. How come they haven’t fixed it?

Lastly, PDF XChange doesn’t scroll with spacebar. What an oversight.

Is there no good PDF viewer on Windows?

One victory at a time. Don’t look too far into the future. Don’t linger on the past. Congrats Roger for 3rd straight title in your hometown!

(picture from Mens Tennis Forums.)

Politics can make people do stupid things.

A woman who claimed she was attacked by an Obama supporter for having a McCain bumper sticker on her car admitted she lied about her ordeal.

The lie involved carving a B (backward) on her own face and applying mascara for a black eye. She will now be forever known as a racist woman who craved attention.

Bangkok Post columnist Jessada Tandhasetti wrote a good article on the state of Bangkok. We both feel that Bangkok is a dirty city with horrific traffic systems and regulations. Low quality of life.

I’ll wait and see if Apirak can make Bangkok better like he promised. He already had four years to do it and he failed. It saddened me that, in the last election, people refused to give a new candidate a chance.

Life is about finding ways to be happy.

How?
Everyone has a different way.
My way:
Think hard.
Keep learning.
Illusions, learn to let them go.
Not easy,
but easier than I think.
Be serious about making things better,
and then relax.

Life is a dream.
Born. Live. Die.
Time passes by like the wind.
Life. The strangest dream.
Make it a good dream.

Back to Thailand. The trip went quite smoothly. I enjoyed my stay in Geneva. Met an old friend. Learned some fusion physics (not much). Saw some nice architecture. Friendly Swiss people, who don’t try to be too friendly. Just the way I like.

Overall, a nice city. Loved the bike lanes and courteous drivers. Pickpocket incidence still bothers me. Food is amazingly expensive there as well. With all its problems, a very nice thing about Thailand is that you can get great food for very cheap price.

nice car. in Geneva.

Last night after attending the piano concert at Geneva Conservatory I was walking back to the hostel with my colleague. The streets at nearly 10pm were dark in some spots. A guy in black leather walked behind us and mumbled things to me. He motioned to my watch. I assumed that he was asking for time. So I showed him my watch. Then he mumbled some more and wanted to give a hi five. Then he got closer and tangled his foot with mine. I got suspicious and realized he already had his hand in my right pocket. I grabbed my wallet and yelled ‘No!’ He then walked away quickly.

It was a close call to losing my wallet. besides money I of course had various cards and documents in there. It would ruin my trip if I were to lose it last night. Got to be careful at all time. There are crooks everywhere.

Esthel Walker

Originally uploaded by aeroppon

Attended a piano recital last night by Esthel Walker. She played music composed by Franz Liszt. Beautiful music. It was held in the Geneva Conservatory.

The temperature inside the hall was unusually warm though so I wasn’t too comfortable.

Geneva 12/10/2008

Originally uploaded by aeroppon

I’m in Geneva this week. Attending a major fusion energy conference (http://www.fec2008.ch). Great many people here. Today is the 1st of six days. Fusion is the future of World’s energy so this is an important scientific conference. I hope to learn something from the talks and posters.

Yesterday I met my sister Aim who flew from London for a day. We had a walking tour of Geneva. Wonderful weather and great time we had together.