Tweeting

Twitter has been around for 2 years, So I could say I am already slow in this Internet era. But the good thing is that it has matured enough to give it a try... So on the left hand side of the blog you get to see some micro-updates on what I'm up to ... (like you will be interested like dat :P)

Getting in touch.

Skype video call is one of the best way to communicate with my wife and girl. Technology really helps a lot in getting in touch with love ones. I just can't stand the thought of the old days when Internet is unavailable and people get to leave their family to work. I already find it damn hard to cope (even with phone calls and skype video conference). I really feel lucky and actually much contended that I was born in this era. Kudos to our forefathers who left China (and their family) and came to Singapore to work and settle. My current situation is nothing compared to their hardship they faced and their longing of returning to their home town.

I want a Plasma Speaker!!

Back from Thailand and sad to say did not spend much quality time with wife and girl. Got sicked on the second day till the last. Still girl girl seems very happy that I was with her :)

Anyway, stumbled across these vidz on youtube recently. Pretty cool if I get to build one myself.. hehehe The first 2 are plasma speakers.





and the OVERKILL.... Tesla coils playing Mario Bros Theme song :P

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 :)

Movie on the Move

 I just bought a Zen Vision W and I am in awe with it.  I could play most of my downloaded videos in divx and Xvids and the screen is damn clear.  Just loaded some movies like Snakes on the Plane and Hot Fuzz on the player and its playing very well.  I also bought this for the memory card backup feature.  As you do know I shoot with CF cards and this little bugger has a CF compartment to import all my photos into the 30GB drive.

Very happy with it and still trying out the new toy.  :)

Shure E2G

Since bought a good mp3 player, I need a good set of headphones too.. My old ones Panasonic (also ear plug style) are in Thailand and my Audio Technica headset is a bit big for me to carry around. Shure actually is a big brand in microphones. I saw some reviews of their headphones in the Internet and most of the are quite positive. So decided to give Shure a try.

I managed to get the lowest end (hehe) model. E2G which is also an inner ear plug type of earphones. It comes with a case and provides 3 sets of plug types. PVC, Soft plastic and foam. And in 3 sizes too! Big, Medium and small. Thus I could just look for the best fit for my ears. I actually took some time to learn how to wear them properly but once you get it, its a breeze. I find the foam is the most comfortable among the 3.

Sound quality..... Well, let's just say its the best I had heard so far. My Panasonic is close but its not as comfortable as the Shure's foam plugs. The base are deep but packs a punch. Hi keys are sweet and sharp. It is built for portable players and games (PSP, Gameboy etc). So its really that good. Build quality is great too. The wires are thick and the plugs look sturdy.

Price wise is expensive. $135 SGD ! You could actually buy one mp3 player with the price but trust me, its worth every penny if you listen to your ipod or other mp3 players every day on the go. The noise isolation technology really works. Which means you only hear music in your head and people really have to touch you to get you to notice them. This happened to me actually. On the day I bought the headphones, I ordered Pizza through the phone. Since I need to wait 45mins. I plug my Shure and listen to some techno. Later I noticed I had missed calls on my phone. Opps.. The pizza guy came and left. Apparently they tried to contact me via telephone but I didn't hear a damn thing! Scary.

Not suitable for jogging or cycling as it might endanger you. But its damn solid. One more good thing is that I never ever need to rack up my volume to more than one third bar. I would say a must have for audiophiles who wish to enjoy music in a noisy environment like me. hehe

Here's a link to Shure's E2G product page and a demo of their sound isolation. The demo is not bluffing by the way. I can assure you that!

Snap Preview!

I have added SNAP preview to both naapl.org and this blog. Its a very interesting and powerful script that actually previews the links on your website. I kind of like the eye candy but the main purpose is to help verify whether the link is dead or malicious in nature.

For those interested, just go here and sign up. Its free and there are instuctions on how to install them on your website. (Very easy for blogger accounts)