Andriod Rocks

I have a few friends who are really into getting a PDA phone and some of them are really into the Iphone.  Until I show them what Android can do too. :P

Iphone is great actually.  Especially the OS which basically is a scaled down version of it OS X.  But I really hate the idea of Apple monopolizing the hardware and using bloody iTunes to sync the device.   I don’t really like the form factor of the Iphone too.  (Just a matter of personal preference)  I am currently using Windows Mobile HTC Touch Cruise (surprise!) but I am already starting to plan my next purchase.  So Iphone used to be on my to buy list (I’m a bit sick of Windows Mobile) until I heard about the Open Handset Alliance and their announcement of the Android operating system for mobile phones looks really promising.  Its still pretty under development and they have cute names for their builds (current version is Cupcake… the next one is Donut)

It is really promising as since the OS is open sourced.  A lot of mobile phone manufacturers will implement it onto their PDA phones.  So far, HTC, Samsung, Sony Ericsson and LG are going to produce devices under Android.  Acer and Asus is also looking into using Android as a alternative for their netbooks.  Which means I get to have a lot more hardware to choose from rather than Apple alone.  If Apple is willing to open up and allow the other hardware manufacturers to offer hardware based on their OS.. then it might be a different story altogether.  But you should know the answer.  Its next to impossible for Apple to do that so Android based phones will be on my shopping list.

Sound Blaster X-Fi Gamer

I like music (who doesn't :P). Not to the extreme as those Audiophiles but to a certain degree, I want a system that really please my ears.

Comes the digital age and I find that I no longer really need expensive amplifiers (audiophiles will definitely disagree on this). This is because most of the time I would listen to my collections on my PC or Mp3 players. I always buy the latest creative series of soundblaster cards for my PCs as they are really good. My Audigy card just died recently so I switched to the onboard audio (those came with the motherboard)to save some money(since got one inside mah). Too my horror (Maybe I am just too fickle) but I find the output is not good at all. Bass and tonality is not there at all.

Went down to Simlim and bought the latest X-Fi series (Gamer edition). Since I might used it to play some games and its only $40 more than the standard edition. I bought it and wow.. the advertised X-Fi really works leh. Bass is deep and clear. Treble is sweet and sharp (not over piercingly like those on the motherboard). The quality is definitely better than my Audigy. Paid $135 for it and really worth it.

Comic

Not sure I have post this before, here's some fun stuff I made :P

Part 1

Part 2

Bamboo Fun (Tek Koh)

I loved to use my old tablet PC. But after I sold it away and started using Mac. I missed the tablet function. Wacom produces great tablet and pen hardware but their Graphire series were to expensive. Recently they released the Bamboo tablet which is more affordable. My photography master's wife had one and I tried it. Not too bad at all for a SG$100 plus tablet. Already decided to buy but then they came out the bamboo fun. Which has a package of software and a mouse too. And its 40 dollars more nia.. Mai Tu Liao. Had a Mass order and got this tablet at a bargain. This tool is great for photo touch-ups and Chinese Input. I bought the small version (4x6) inches so I can carry around with my Macbook Pro. Wish to know more click here. Yeah!!!

Firefox rules!!

Another good reason you should dump the free Internet Explorer and install Firefox. This little add on called Ad-Block Plus is way too cool. It blocks all sort of ads in the website by subscribing to a well maintained filter list. Easy to install (just a few clicks and restart the browser) and you get an ads free page. Great thing is that pages actually loads much faster now as all those unwanted ads are removed.

BTW, saw this feature already mentioned by Mr Brown too.... hehehe

More Zen!!

I want to write more about my new Zen Vision W. Hehe. Wanted to give a review about this little gadget. First, its really has a great screen. 16:9 aspect ratio really helps in viewing movies. And it also have the ability to stretch the video to fill up the screen if necessary. Pretty cool feature. Battery last quite long, about 5 hours (a bit more as the box gave 4.5 hours)

Sound quality with my Shure E2G headphones are excellent. I watched part of Snakes on a Plane on a bus heading to my school and enjoyed every minute of it.

Plugging this baby into a computer is easy with Vista. As it is using MTP (M$ Transfer Protocol), I could easily transfer file by dragging and dropping in Explorer (only in Windows system). For my MACbook Pro, I used XNJB. A free software and I could make it mount easily on my MAC too!!! Yeah!!

The software provided by Creative is simple and easy to use. Files that needs conversion will actually be prompted and you could choose to re-code it to a playable format.

Most files actually play. There are some that don't, especially those that are AC3(5.1) encoded. Copying from VCD is also not a hassle as the player supports VCD's dat format. I copied my friend's Ultraman Mebius and Ultraman brothers and watched it without any issues.

So far so good, but here's the ugly part. First, the screen is a dust or finger print magnet. One touch and you get smudge so a screen protector is absolutely necessary. The silicon skin is also magnet to dust and so is the bloody pouch. Pouch is too small and its made of velvet. :( No no to dusty environment. Another major thing is VOB files from DVD does not work and it requires ripping and conversion. Which means all my current DVD library needs to be encoded.

I tried encoding with some third party software and most of them took ages to convert. And its not easy to encode in DivX or Xvid. So you would end up encoding it in mpeg or VCD. Which means quality suffers and file sizes bigger.

The player also has a CF card slot which allows you to back up the CF card. Buy now and creative is giving a free SD/MS/XD card converter for those using other media. VERY useful for me as a photographer. For those interested, beware! You can't play videos or pictures from the card directly, you need to import it into the Zen's hard drive before you can play.

All in all, a good player that met my expectations and actually performed even better than I expected. Not recommended if you are not sure of where to get videos. (IF you plan to rip DVD, forget about this device). If you have a good collection of VCDs or divx/Xvid. Yes, its definitely a good buy. My only complain now is why in the world I go buy the 30Gig version??!!! Should have add 100 more for the 60Gig.... 4/5 stars

*Updates. Forgot to mention you could hooked this up to your TV with the supplied AV cables. I re-watched Hot Fuzz with my Family that night and quality is as good as DVD. Too bad no AC3 audio but good enough for me already :)

Upgrade

My old Desktop in Singapore is giving me troubles recently. Think my HDD(Hardisk) is dying. Moreover, the system always reboot for no apparent reasons. Think 3 years is more than enough for a heavy user like me :). Anyway, went down to Sim Lim today with my good friend to upgrade my CPU. Actually, should not say upgrade as I am almost building a new one. Motherboard P35DSP, Intel C2D 6320 Processor, 2G 1000 DDR RAM, ATi x1650 Pro Graphics Card, DVD Burner Drive, 450 Acbel power supply, Centurion (Ah Beng) Case and a 320G Seagate HDD. Also bought a original Windows Vista Home Premium edition.

The first impression of Vista is pretty cool. I must admit that it is another great leap form M$. Something like Dos to 95, 95 to 98SE, 98SE to 2000 and 2000 to XP. Changes are quite significant regarding access rights and system settings. The eye candies are great and so far, the system is really stable. Only issues so far are my Microtek Scanner. Drivers for the scanners are still yet to be released and I guess Vista main issues now are drivers and old software compatibilities. Anyway, I shall explore more and maybe will write more about it here.

Game completed!

Just finished my Neverwinter Nights 2. Overall quite a good gamin experience. I played a Char Bo (Female) Sorcerer. A bit bad decision as the game is not very friendly to spell casters.

Anyway, here's a screen shot of my main character. You can view the bigger version by clicking on it. The sword I am holding is a powerful artifact. Its a silver sword of Gith.

Now have to go have dinner and rest my eyes. Non stop gaming for 8 hours.. :P Feels like my Poly gaming days again... hahaha

Stoned.

Haha, back to my one line titles. A bit "Stoned" after a few days of inactivity. Actually wanted to write something but a bit lazy to do it. Hehe. Think I am more and more becoming accustomed to the pace of life here. Slow and easy.

Anyway, I am stoned because I have started playing computer games again. Haha. Since now got a good graphics card and a pretty good system. Decided to buy some games to test my new hardware mah. Jialat, got hooked to Neverwinter Nights 2. A D&D role playing game. Really enjoy every minute of it. Picked my favorite Sorcerer class and started blasting monsters with spells. The action is one of the reason I played, the story line is as usual, fantastic! Hooked to it by every minute. I enjoy playing RPG as it is some kind of a choose your own adventure book (remember those??).

The game developers are Obsidian Entertainment. They are worth a note as most of the people there are formally Black Isle Entertainment employees. (Those who play games will surely know about Black Isle. Anyway, Black Isle is famous for most RPG games but the best I have played so far is Planescape:Torment. No horse run.

Of course, now wify not very happy I play so late at night. :P Enough talking, still need to kill some Orcs with my Sorcerer

Nostalgic.

Nostalgic. This word summurizes all the feeling I got when I downloaded this game and played on my PC.

It is also the game that really makes me think how graphics, stories, music and sound effects are going to change the future of entertainment. I have played others but this one really stands out as the one that shows the potential of computers as an entertainment tool, besides being a word processing, database or spreadsheet programs.



Those who see the familiar screen shots will know about this game for its state of art music and sound effects( graphics dated but that was the XT, AT era!!)

The porters could not use the Star Control name due to trademark issue, so they have to renamed it to Ur-Quan Master. You can download here and enjoy :). If you really got the time, play the adventure cum strategy game to get the full story, which is really pretty good.

Broadband in Thailand

I am suppose to write something about a wedding yesterday but there was an outage of Internet service.

It seems there is something wrong with the gateway in Thailand. I was talking to my mum and sis on skype when the line broke. Quite frustrating as the reliability of Internet here is quite abhorrent. Every month, there will be at least one outage and could last for more than 6 hours. Definitely not as good as Singapore (I'm too spoilt at home). Anyway, the price for Internet is about the same in Singapore. 1000++ baht (50 SGD) for a 1M ADSL line is quite ok. And normally, they packaged it with a modem (on lease). The best is that there is no contract (there is but not much difference) like we have in Singapore. So we could actually terminate the service quite easily and change to another provider.

There are 3 providers in Maesai, CAT which uses a wireless 3G network, TOT and TT&T. I am currently using the TT&T and from my experience at the cafe (we have all 3 lines over there as backups) TT&T is the most stable.

Breaking down the "Firewall"

I tred to refrain myself from posting technical and computer related stuff here. But recently, I was looking around for articles regarding the Thai's monach (King Buhmibol) and I got blocked by the Thai's firewall. I hate censorship (all types) , it a kind of mockery as no matter "evil " or nonsense is in the blocked site, I wish to read it and give my own judgment (not someone who filtered it and say its not good for you.)

Singapore itself has its own firewall. Basically, most of the sites that are blocked contains pornography materials (playboy, penthouse, etc etc), drugs and religious extremist. (try going into cannabis.com (partially blocked I heard) or www.watchtower.org(the watchtower one is rather interesting if not banned)

Anyway, its a stupid idea to block them as you can easily "unblock" them :) Here's how

Get this software from here. Known as TOR and follow the instructions from the website. Dont't worry about spywares or malwares. It has none as I am using it :). You can also download the software from here. What this software do is that it acts as a proxy and tries to resolve the name and ip from an external party (mainly somewhere out of the country). It also involves in privacy protection (you can read up on the website)

Just want to share this to all my friends. Happy surfing... Errr... try not to use this to go to playboy.com hor... hehehe