Tuesday Breakfast Show!!!

As we March into a new month (get the pun?), I thought I'd fire up my blog and post some of the stuff that's been happening on my Tuesday Breakfast Radio Show! (about time, you might say. If you see my iCal, you'll see why I've been leaving it till this late. I'm a student, after all!)


Some highlights from my show from the 31 January 2012 to 28 February 2012...


Records of the Week...


Every week (unless I screwed up and completely forgot), I pick a song to be my record of the week. I try to pick new stuff, obviously. And as you can tell, my music taste is quite mainstream - Top 40-ish sort of stuff, so if you're into that sort of thing, you might find a few tracks below that you may not have heard of, but like. So, enjoy!


31 Jan: Roll Deep - Picture Perfect



7 Feb: Madeon - Pop Culture
(Retrospectively declared - didn't realise I didn't pick a record that week... But as I said on air, this is a mix of samples from 39 different tracks, done in Ableton Live, by a 17-year-old kid. Not bad, for a DJ that can't buy alcohol yet...)



14 Feb: DJ Fresh ft. Rita Ora - Hot Right Now
(Note: This record went to #1 in the week I made it my RoTW! Not saying I didn't have anything to do with that, but, let's just say I did. In a very small way, perhaps.)



21 Feb: Clock Opera - Once And For All
(Something to get you up in the early morning, perhaps?)



28 Feb: Nero - Must Be The Feeling


Retro Record of the Week...


I only introduced this feature in my latest show (28 Feb), so there's only one to get out of the way, but it's a gem. Taken off the 1965 record "Bringing It All Back Home", it reached #1 in the UK and US Charts (a first for Dylan), it's Bob Dylan – Mr. Tambourine Man. What a tune...




Ed Sheeran Remixes of the Week...


Every week, I played an Ed Sheeran Remix of the Week on my show. You can catch more remixes from Ed's SoundCloud page, or alternatively, I've embedded my picks below for your convenience & listening pleasure...


31 Jan: You Need Me, I Don't Need You (Gemini Remix)



7 Feb: Drunk (Rudimental Remix)



14 Feb: The A Team (KoanSound Remix)



21 Feb: Lego House Subscape Remix



28 Feb: Drunk (Lazy Jay's Rave-o-Lution Dub Remix)







31 JAN 2012: FIRST SHOW!!!
First show! Quite nervous, but stoked to finally own a share of the Xpression FM schedule slot to call my own...


Since it's a first show, I thought I'd pick songs to reflect stuff I/people do in the morning (outside the toilet, I mean)


Songs for the Hungover: Ed Sheeran - Drunk

Songs for the people who can’t open their eyes: Steve Angello ft Alex Metric - Open Your Eyes

Songs for the 1D fans out there / My Guilty Pleasure: One Direction - One Thing 

Song for those walking to campus: Empire of the Sun - Walking on a Dream

Songs for those working out early in the morning: Skrillex - Breakin' A Sweat

Songs for the Cyclists: Mark Ronson ft. The Business Int'l - The Bike Song

Songs for feeling good today: Flo Rida - Good Feelin

Songs for the Brightonian inside me: Fatboy Slim - Praise You

Most apt song request ever: Panic! At The Disco - Nine In The Afternoon (Thanks, Josh Irwandi!)

7 FEB 2012: GUILD ELECTION WEEK


I was being all corporate and promoting the Guild Election Debates that were happening that night + the Xpression FM Coverage of the elections. Obviously, the elections are over, the winners have been announced, and everyone's forgotten about it. But if you want to relive the Guild Election madness, we still have interviews with the winning candidates on the XpressionFM SoundCloud. We also have the debate shows + ALL candidates (bar one who was quite late to their interview slot, so we didn't have time to put hers on - Delphi!) on our Podomatic Podcast...






14 FEB 2012: BIRTHDAY & VALENTINE'S DAY PICKS

Thanks to the Xpression FM Crew for the surprise Birthday celebration they put up for me the night before my show - did not expect the surprise at all...


Because of what happened the night before, this was my hangover show, so pardon the not-so-brilliant picks, but for my Valentine's Day feature, I went with...

• Just The Way You Are by Bruno Mars
• Oasis - Let There Be Love
• David Guetta – Love Don't Let Me Go
• Ke$ha – Your Love Is My Drug

And the anti-V-day tune...

• Mark Ronson & The Business Intl – Somebody To Love Me

And for my Birthday, (thanks to Leonie for finding me this track)

• The Courteeners – Not Nineteen Forever

21 FEB 2012: Shrove Tuesday, AKA PANCAKE DAY


So, 21 Feb was pancake day. Days before the day, I was planning a really dull feature where I get my Mac to read out pancake recipes. Not very interesting, is it? Then, Robin came up to me and, well, he didn't suggest to me, he told me it's happening - Pancake, Skype, his house, me in Studio 2, Live on Air, Keen Team (Hazel Morgan & Genevieve Ladd, the freshers) vs the Dream/Safe Team (Jack Franklin and Robin Chu). Pancake Face-off! It's ON!!!!!


The result? See below...

The Keen Team's entry...

The Dream Team's Entry...

The Pancake Faceoff Crew... (L-R: Hazel Morgan, Jack Franklin, Robin Chu, GenevieveLadd)

Photo credits: Jack Franklin and Genevieve Ladd.

Massive massive THANK YOU to the Dream Team and Keen Team!

28 FEB 2012: Chart Attack & Reverse Challenge

#1 on Student Chart: DJ Fresh ft. Rita Ora: Hot Right Now

#1 on UK Charts: Gotye: Somebody That I Used To Know

#1 Album: Adele 21 (played the John Legend Cover of "Rolling In The Deep")

Reverse Challenge: 

This is the newest feature that I hope to make a regular one on my show...

Simple: I pop a song into Cool Edit Pro/Adobe Audition, reverse it, play it on air, you try to guess what it is, and I give you the answer right after I play a reverse remix.

Avicii - Levels (Gorge Monev Reverse Remix)

And The answer to the week's reverse challenge: Lana Del Ray - Born To Die

Tune in to the Tuesday Breakfast Show with Ronald Liong / @ronfiles, Tuesdays 8am - 10am, on 87.7 Xpression FM. 

You can listen online... 

via the XpressionFM website, 

via the widget on the right column of my blog (they're HTML 5, so they're experimental), 

via the Tunein Radio App,
or via iTunes (Click on the Radio tab on the left, look under "College / University", and scroll to the bottom.)

Within the Exeter area, you can hear us on 87.7FM (unless you live beyond Arena and the Quay/river, in which case your mileage may vary).

And of course, we are on campus - in the Student Shop.

You can get involved with the show via:

Twitter: @ronfiles or @xpressionfm

Facebook: XpressionFM or Ronald Liong

Call: 01392 723568

Email: rl305@exeter.ac.uk 

New Year's Resolution, 2012

It's 2012! Happy New Year!

That can only mean one thing...

The End is Nigh!

Ok, we don't know, really. The Mayans were probably tired and gave up at 2012 when they made their calendar.

Anyway, after deliberating over the exam period, it's finally done. Here's my New Year's Resolution for 2012...


ACADEMICS

• I will finish my 2nd year with at least a 2:1 overall.
• I will NOT go back to Jakarta over Christmas, so I can focus on my January exams in 2013.

JOB PROSPECTS

• I will get an Internship, and I will actually enjoy my internship &// find it useful and beneficial.
• I will actually help Robin with his Bubble Today website (have you heard of it? it's really good)
• I will brush up on any sort of code. HTML5/CSS/Objective-C, etc. Seriously, I will actually improve my knowledge of one/more of the above-mentioned computer/web design languages.

SOCIETY STUFF

• I will be in a committee in my 3rd year and not regret it.
• I will submit 6 articles to Exeposé by December 2013. Surely not that difficult, right?
• I will single-handedly work in a team to make Photosoc awesome. 
• I will learn to develop film.
• I will get presenter-trained/tested and get my own radio show on Xpression. 2 ideas for a show at the moment: A "Versus" show, in the style of Zane Lowe, AND/OR a food review show, reviewing the food on campus and in Exeter. (If I do get that food review show, I'll get off my pescatarian diet straight away.)

MUSIC CRED

• I will go to a gig in 2012.
• I will not chicken out like I did in 2010/2011, and I will actually get tickets to Glastonbury 2013. (ANYONE ELSE INTERESTED?)
• Failing that, I'd love to go to any of the major music festivals while I'm still in the UK. BBL, perhaps?

PERSONAL LIFE

• I will get a girlfriend. I'm 20 (as of 14 Feb, which is exactly one month away.), my brother's getting married tomorrow (15th Jan), so every nosey member of my extended family (and my mum) is going to start asking me now. Alright. THERE! I'll have a girlfriend by the end of 2012! HAPPY?!
• I will give up chocolate for Lent.
• I will wean off my Pescatarian diet by the time the June exams come. And I will then learn to cut the sugars and carbs out of my diet.
• I will run a 10K (standard triathlon distance).
• I will cycle 40K (standard triathlon distance).
• I will try to do a triathlon in one day. Yes, I know I've had this resolution as holiday targets that never ever gets done, but I'm going to give it a try.

FINANCES/TECH

• I will NOT ask my parents for any more money until the 2012/2013 academic year, when I really need money to pay my tuition fees.
• I'm allowed to buy an iPhone 5 and a new Mac this year. NO MORE. No iPad, no iPod.

20 resolutions in 2012. Let's see how I get on!

Christmas Vacation To-Do List

So that I have it on record...

Things to do this Christmas...

REVISION

• Revise BEA 2001 Financial Accounting (just because it's MCQ, doesn't mean you should ignore it)
• Revise BEA 2005 Information Systems
• Revise BEA 2008 Management Accounting I

OTHER UNI-RELATED STUFF

• Do your bit for the CIMA Global Business Challenge
• Do your bit for the BEA 2002 Taxation Group Work, due 3 days after my birthday
• Find out about filling up grant applications/budgets for PhotoSoc

HOLIDAY/FAMILY TIME

• Go to Penang w/ bro and sis-in-law

ADMIN/WORK TIME

• Go to Singapore and catch up with St. Andrew's/Choir mates
• Go to Singapore and collect Work Holiday Pass
• Ask Deloitte Singapore about Internship/Graduate job application (waaay overdue, this one)
• Work for Dad (standard)

SPORTS

• Do all 3 sports from a triathlon in 1 day (i.e.: swim, cycle and run). Doesn't have to be the full length, but do all 3 in one day.

BLOG

• Do my annual New Year's Resolution post (forgot to do one for 2011 - that's not happening again for 2012)

13 things. 3 weeks. Let's get cracking, then!

Crap, 20?

Heh, forgot I have a blog. Hello!

Seems like the only time I post on this darn thing is when the following conditions are met:

• my work's died down (i.e.: not during the middle of term)
• my life is not boring (i.e.: not in the middle of my holiday breaks)
• I'm not busy being festive or travelling (i.e.: not Christmas / Lebaran)

Hang on, that crosses out the whole year.

Oh well...

Yes, the blog's not dead. If you've read this blog before, you know I have the habit of beating this blog on its head and putting it into a coma for months, before splashing it with water, and then beating it again. Call it blog abuse, but it's not the first time I've done it. Not the last, either.

I decided to go back to blogging because a startling fact just dawned on me not too long ago.

I'm going to be 20 soon.

So what?

Well, maybe I'm being overly melodramatic, but I can't help to ask the question: what the heck was the last 20 years all about, and what's coming up in the next 20 years?

A part of me thinks the last 20 years was just a disarray, a mess, a shaky foundation to a future that's going to fall and tumble majestically. A road downhill (and anyone who's cycled with me knows that I can be a road hazard when coming downhill).

A part of me thinks the last 20 years was eventful, meaningful, purposeful, and all things considering, no small feat. (The other part of me is cynical, as usual.)

I keep having different scenarios in my head about how my life's going to end up.

1. I live to be a centenarian, married with kids and grandkids (and great grandkids).
2. I live to be a centenarian, alone.
3. I live till age 40, death by cancer.
4. I live till age 35, alone, living on the street.
5. I live till age 21, end of.
6. I don't think I want to talk about number 6.

A few facts I need to establish...

• Probability of me getting a girlfriend = 0.0005,
  partly because I'm a self-centred workaholic who went to an all-boys school, and forgot how to socialise with girls. FACT.
• Probability of me getting a job that's not with my dad = 0.001,
  partly because my dad often gets his way, and because I can't stay to work anywhere else in Indonesia (because my command of the Bahasa Indonesia language is laughable), and because I'm Indonesian, I'm gonna need the luck of an Irishman (literally) if I ever want to migrate, and even then, I'm gonna need the sort of luck my Dad has if I think I can survive on my own.
• Probability of me graduating from Uni with a First or 2:1 = 0.75 -
  the only thing I can look forward to right now, before life goes downhill.
• Probability of me getting either cancer, a mental disorder, dementia, diabetes/coronary heart disease, or killed by a fatal cycling accident = 1
  it's as certain as death in itself. If it's any consolation to me, I've narrowed down the possible ways I could die into that list up there. 
• Cancer from the microwaved dinners/improper diet, 
• mental disorder+dementia are already showing its teeth (by that, I mean the research studies show that these become more prevalent with people today as they age), 
• diabetes because of my mum's side (potentially hereditary),
• coronary heart disease because of the sort of diet I have when I'm in Indo with my family, and 
• cycling accidents have happened to me a few times already, so the "lightning doesn't strike twice in the same place" rule is abolished for that last one.
• Probability that any of the statistics I've mentioned are wrong/inaccurate, including this one that's coming up: 0.99

K, jokes from a slightly down and depressed guy.

You know what, I'm signing off here before I come up with any more grim jokes like that.

Sorry if this was the first time you've read a thing that I typed, btw.

An Op-Ed on Ultrabooks

ultrabook |ˈəltrəˌbŏk| 
noun  
A term used to describe a category of thin-and-light ultraportable laptops, coined by Intel Corp


It seems like this could be how Intel imagines the future of mobile computing to be - 

• small (between 9" and 13" screens), 
• thin (less than 1" thick), 
• light (less than 2kg and without an optical drive), 
• inexpensive,
• loaded with wireless technologies (3G/4G, Bluetooth, 802.11n, etc.)
• long battery life (≥7 hours), 
• powered by an Intel Sandy Bridge/Ivy Bridge multicore CPU,
• and a solid-state drive.

There are a couple of examples of Ultrabooks that are coming soon/available now. Apple's recently-updated MacBook Air is probably the most well-known ultrabook out there, alongside various iterations of Vaio X/Z models, as well as some up-and-coming Asus and HP products.

As a user of a 15" MacBook Pro, there are a few things that I find appealing in the Ultrabook concept, and a few that I have gripes with.

The most appealing feature about laptops in general is probably its portability. The ability to work from anywhere with a slab of electronics-plus-casing-with-batteries, at the expense of a bit of horsepower, has made the laptop an attractive product offering in any PC manufacturer's product lineup relative to their desktop counterparts. 

The ultrabook concept seems to be the natural evolutionary step for the laptop, then - getting lighter, more compact, and setting in stone the transition from the fragile and vulnerable HDD (with disk heads moving around barely microns over some platters) to the more robust and faster SSDs (which are basically NAND Flash).

However, as laptops shrink, the thermal environment in which to squeeze the essential components of a computer also shrinks, leading to crippled, low-power, "energy-saving" parts going into an overpriced and sluggish device. This has always been why I never buy sub-14" notebooks. It's rare to see a laptop under 14" that has a discrete GPU (read: not the Intel Graphics, or the occasional Nvidia/AMD-ATI integrated cards) - the only one that springs to mind right now is the Alienware M11x.

In an ideal world, my dream laptop would be a 13" laptop with a discrete GPU card, SSD+HDD, and because I love this feature on my current laptop, a backlit keyboard.

In reality, a 13" laptop would either weigh like my current 15", or be powered by the Intel Graphics.

But recent developments in the laptop arena, specifically from the Sony and Apple camps, have given me this new image of computing in the future.

Picture this scene: you're at work, working on a Word Document on your laptop. Suddenly, you've been given a task that involves heavy use of the GPU. It could be editing a video files, or perhaps giving a presentation on an external projector. This is when you normally get fed up, because your laptop just can't handle the task. What if you could add some extra horsepower to the laptop, just for this task? Something like an external dock, which has a GPU, connected via a fast connection (ExpressCard, eSATA, FireWire, USB3, Thunderbolt, etc.), maybe even build it into the projector/display itself. When you don't need the extra power, just unplug the GPU, and you are back to working on a thin-and-light, long-battery-life ultraportable.

We can run wild with this idea. The Ultrabooks shown on the gadget blogs seem to only have the essentials. The external docking device might include things that you only need when you're at a desk - a charging solution (a la Apple's Thunderbolt Display), extra ports, extra disk space (for your movies/photos/music), extra screen/projector, an optical drive (when was the last time you used the one in your laptop, anyway?), external GPU (upgradeable?). The list goes on.

With the development of Thunderbolt/USB3 and the emergence of Ultrabooks, perhaps there is a potential demand for power-boosting external docks again. Just imagine - a 13" sub-1kg thin-and-light laptop with 10 hours battery life, and when plugged in at home, can transform into a gaming rig churning MW3 at 60fps. All for the price of a MacBook Air + GPU.

The only issues I can foresee are these:

• The CPU on the MacBook Air may become a bottleneck, relative to the GPU.
• PC gamers would probably build proper rigs, not get an ultrabook + dock.
• Will the typical ultrabook buyer be savvy enough to understand the benefits of the external dock, and if so, will they be willing to buy it?
• Each company/manufacturer will probably have their own proprietary docking solution. Monopolies ensue.

In spite of these issues, I really think it's a solution that's worth a try. Just make sure the price is right (glares at Sony).