Speaking of cheerleaders...

  

Note: Click on the photos to enlarge them.

If you feel interested in any of them and want to get the original file, please don't hesitate to email me!

Quad day

we have a (probably old) custom here. Before each new fall semester starts, everyone will gather in the quad south of the Illini union, for a big recruitment event; almost all of the different groups in the campus set up a booth and give fliers to passerbies, and shout and ... it's a big, interesting mess!
And to top it all, the University music band performs in the end, while cheerleaders do their ... cheerleading!
  

Note: Click on the photos to enlarge them.

If you feel interested in any of them and want to get the original file, please don't hesitate to email me!

Lotta's fountain in San Francisco

Gift of Lotta Crabtree, 1875

This fountain was one of the few places that survived the 1906 earthquake, at which time it became a meeting place for people in search of their families.

  

Note: Click on the photos to enlarge them.

If you feel interested in any of them and want to get the original file, please don't hesitate to email me!

This one's my favourite!

I really like this one! (I only like it since I guess it is bad to fall in love with your own work!)

  

Note: Click on the photos to enlarge them.

If you feel interested in any of them and want to get the original file, please don't hesitate to email me!

Lincoln the great

This guy's the reason that there's no more slavery in US, and it is a big united country. Although lots of people died in the war he waged... As like many other things in world, there's a compromise, a tradeoff. You have to give in order to earn.
Any way, enjoy the thoughtful face of the infamous Lincoln!
  

Note: Click on the photos to enlarge them.

If you feel interested in any of them and want to get the original file, please don't hesitate to email me!

Lincoln in wind

As I was saying in my last post, US is a windy country. Strong winds that even shake statues...
  

Note: Click on the photos to enlarge them.

If you feel interested in any of them and want to get the original file, please don't hesitate to email me!

The perfect land for flags!

United states is the perfect land for flags! You see, there's so much wind blowing everywhere, that all the flags have a happy life in here. (And by the way, people really respect flags in here).

  

Note: Click on the photos to enlarge them.

If you feel interested in any of them and want to get the original file, please don't hesitate to email me!

Some rocks beneath the Golden gate bridge

  

Note: Click on the photos to enlarge them.

If you feel interested in any of them and want to get the original file, please don't hesitate to email me!

Zidane the commando!

It seems that Zizo has invented a new fighting technique! You rock man!

Note: Click on the photos to enlarge them.

If you feel interested in any of them and want to get the original file, please don't hesitate to email me!

sharing files with VMWare

I Recently installed VMWare on my machine to use linux while I'm on windows. Although I have linux installed on my laptop's hard disk in a dual boot setup (which took me a painful 24 hours to setup everything, including wireless driver installation), I've become a user of VMWare lately. That's because I can switch to using linux much faster, and the network connection is more robust. I used to be a cygwin user, and now I've dumped it in favor of linux on WMVare!

Any way, the first and biggest problem I faced using fedora core 5 on a VMWare session was the problem of file sharing between windows and WMWare. WMWare (at least its free player version) doesn't read host system's directories. No NTFS access (which a native linux installed as dual boot can do), no shared directory, nothing. I'm not sure, but they may have reserved it for their non-free versions.

Naturally I googled to find a solution. The most practical suggestion I found was to use a USB memory stick, since the VMWare player recognises memory sticks. Not a very elegant solution I should say. It worked, but was a pain in the A..!

So here's a suggestion that works like a charm: Download and install a free FTP server software on your windows machine. I used the GNU software FileZilla. After installing it, add a user account, with a username and password. You also need to set at least one directory as the FTP directory. Don't forget to give the user you just created Write and delete permission in addition to the default read permit.

You also need to know your computer's IP address (use windows' ipconfig command). Now in the linux session running in your WMWare, open a file browser (in my fedora setup, I can use "computer" or "home folder" icons, which actually launch the nautilus shell manager. There is a similar app in KDE which I don't remember its name now), and enter your computer's IP address in the address bar, which should be something like this: ftp://192.168.0.xxx

If everything is setup correctly, a pop up dialog box should ask your user name and password. Enter them, and ... presto! You have your designated FTP directory in VMWare, with full read and write access. Enjoy!

Note: Click on the photos to enlarge them.

If you feel interested in any of them and want to get the original file, please don't hesitate to email me!

Ceiling of Nordstrom in SF

This is a glass ceiling installed in the Market street's Nordstrom shop in San Francisco. The ship has a story behind it. As the story goes, during the great gold rush days some 150 years ago. As the ships would arrive, the crew would abandon the ship faster than the passengers to get theeir hands on some gold! Thus, there were lots and lots of "ghost ships" anchored around San Francisco bay.

The story says that one of these abandoned ships were modified and used as a store, which later transformed into the Nordstrom shop. So when they decided to get a shop in the city, they took some of the ship symbols to the new shop. The picture on the ceiling is kind of a reference to those old days.

Interesting story, isn't it?!

  

Note: Click on the photos to enlarge them.

If you feel interested in any of them and want to get the original file, please don't hesitate to email me!