Yes

I know: I haven't blogged for a long, long time.

It's just that, every time I think of something to blog, it's usually a fleeting thought of a subject. And it's usually when I'm not near a computer (or don't have time to cozy up to the keyboard because I'm in a rush to leave). So by the time I'm actually at the Mac again, I forgot what it was I wanted to say.

That's the gist of it.

Though I will say that I'm thinking about buying a Time Capsule (still undecided on the 500GB vs 1TB) and an Airport Express pair. For home, and for travel, respectively. Advice?

Phone Home

In her rush to get to work one morning, M accidentally left her mobile phone at home. This got me to thinking, what is a mobile phone? As in, what does the mobile phone really mean to us these days?

Let's say you accidentally forgot to bring your mobile phone with you one particular workday. And let's say you don't really have any solid plans after work -- like, you want to hit the gym as part of your routine, but it's not like you had a client dinner meeting that you could never ever miss.

What impact would this have on this particular day in your life? What would you (have to) do about it?

For me, it used to be that it just meant I didn't have my phone with me. No biggie. And in the very beginning, I had everyone's phone number memorized anyhow; I was faster punching the number in than finding it in the StarTAC's phone memory.

Then in SF, my routine was solid enough that I would still go through with it as usual: work, gym, dinner, home. All the people I needed to talk to at work were accessible in the office. All the people I needed to talk to socially were online on MSN, YIM, or email, so that wasn't really an issue either. Sure, I loved my Nokia 8260, but I could still get through the day without much trouble -- I even memorized a few of my most frequently-used phone numbers.

But all that changed.

After moving to Taipei, I stopped memorizing phone numbers (mostly). I started to put more calendar information into W800i. I still didn't have a landline, so that didn't change, and I could still reach everyone by email/IM. Except, I spent a lot more time away from home (which was somewhat out of the way) meaning I had to do without my phone for a longer period of time without contact. [shrug] I guess that was alright, except that my mobile phone was a major communication device at my previous work: clients and partners would call me and expect me to be instantly reachable. (Yeah, that part sucked.)

Then the iPhone came.

And now that I'm all iPhoned up, this little beast carries all my contact information (even from past companies, whom I would never call on even a rare basis), my calendar schedule, my music (for listening to while at work), and a movie or so (in case I have a long waiting period to endure). It's definitely the digital counterpart to my life: there's a lot more going on now. And I have basically forgotten all mobile phone numbers except my own and a handful of others.

But even today, if I left it at home by accident, I wouldn't make a special trip home just to fetch it again unless it was on the way. With my trial .Mac account, all my basic contacts and calendar info is synced online, so I can still contact people as long as I'm at a computer with a net connection. I just can't be reached by anyone (except again by email or Gchat).

Maybe one day, I'll try leaving the house without my mobile phone. And see how naked I feel, or whether I'll actually enjoy the burdenless feeling of being tech-naked and frolicking in the sun.

That would truly be wireless freedom.

Regret

Dammit, I hate it when I make rushed decisions, because more often than not, they turn out to be rash decisions.

Remember how I said I really should research more before making a purchase? Well, I walked in to the Bellevue Square Apple Store a few weeks ago, all set on getting the iPod nano (as a birthday gift from my girl). The next day, I returned it and upgraded to an iPod Touch.

And now I regret it, and wish I would have bought the iPhone instead, because it really isn't much more, but comes with so much more out of the box.

Plus, I'm finding that I'm carrying the iPod Touch and my regular mobile phone with me everywhere, so why didn't I just submit with the extra $100 and converge them into a single unit??

Dammit. Ugh.

Thinking Ahead

Hmm ... I just thought of something: what do I want for my birthday? People ask me what I want for my birthday (when that time of the year approaches), and I usually don't really know. Stuff I normally want is only stuff I should buy for myself because (1) it's an expensive toy, and/or (2) it's something I'd want to actually pick out myself (because I'm picky and anal-retentive like that).

What should I buy for myself as a reward for aging so gracefully as I have? I'm heading home for the last half of October, and my birthday's mid-November-ish.

Playing Using My Left Hand

Some three and a half years ago, I made an effort to move my mouse to the left hand and then gave up and moved it back after just one or two days. Even so, this article I just came across has me wondering if I should give it another try. Maybe it's worth a shot.

Should iPod?

Should I get an iPod nano? Those new ones are pretty sexy and slim.

On another note, I had a dream last night: I was in my (apparently) rented penthouse in a 10-storey building with tons of my friends.

This takes place in Taiwan, but a lot of my friends from Vancouver and SF were there (sometimes they make cameo appearances in my dreams). An earthquake shook and (though my dream skipped right over the violent shaking of the quake) my building collapsed. At least, parts of the rest of the building collapsed; my apartment seemed to be still in one piece more or less. Some of the middle floors actually collapsed, and my whole apartment fell several storeys lower and our top fragment of the building was now at a tilt, leaning against a neighbouring highrise. Pandemonium and general paranoia sets in, and all my friends jet out of the building and down to the ground (perhaps by some miraculously still-working elevator? I dunno).

And what am I doing?

I'm upstairs all by my lonesome, disconnecting my Mac mini and LaCie harddrive from all the cables, packing them with my Powerbook slowly and carefully into my backpack, and contemplating whether I should pack the power cords and cables as well, and which accessories to bring with me ...

Not Just Me

So ... wait, did I tell you about my hard drive crashing woes from two months ago? I can't remember now. Anyway, my hard drive crashed, and it was my backup drive ... which I was storing actual single-copy data on. I know, I know, I shouldn't have done that, but I did, and then I lost a lot of stuff. Data recovery service in Taiwan couldn't get anything back, saying the drive head had dug itself too deep into the platter. In short, I lost an undeterminable amount of data, mostly in the form of some pictures about 40GB of music (most of which I can get back by reimporting the CDs) and other such media.

I've since bought myself a new 320GB drive in its stead, and will be buying another 500GB drive to be my real backup (ie. only backing up what I already have on other drives). I have this fear that another drive of mine is going to lose it soon, so I hope I get the new drive quick.

Anyway, the main point of today's blabber is that I seem not to be the only one: read this story about a guy who lost everything. And then, run outside and play.

Screaming Fast

Our IT department just did me a huge favour: they boosted me into the realms of the supercomputer with this fine piece of high-tech machinery that graces the top of my desk. This morning, the IT dude came by and asked if I could shut down for a few minutes while he upgraded the beast. He tore into her innards and installed ...

Extra RAM.
He doubled it!

And now, I am soaring through the internet at breakneck speeds. Typing response is so fast that the characters come out before I even press the keys; typing is now just a confirmation of what it knows I'm going to type. And the graphics, oh, the incredible graphics that come out of this machine make HDTV look like TV from the 1960's. Even the harddrive has stopped crunching all the time, long enough for me to scroll half a page before it starts up again with its cache!

I'm telling you, this machine is awesome.

It's like having the hottest person ever be totally in love with you and you're having sex while you're on some kind of wicked-awesome drug, and you're all rich and powerful and the world is completely your oyster. Oh, and you're immortal. And you have one of the new iPods (of your choice and colour).

Yeah, that good. It's orgasmic.
Wait, no, it's better: it's multi-orgasmic.

And I get to use this machine every weekday right on my desk in front of all my other jealous coworkers. So now, me and my trusty Intel Pentium 4 3.0GHz with its fresh 512MB worth of RAM are going places. Heck, we're even glad she doesn't have a CD/DVD drive, or even a floppy, or even actual functioning USB ports -- who needs that dead weight, right?? We're totally going to kick ass in this world, and my pretty little Acer has a new zest for silicon life!

Hello, world!

Gee Whiz, a G9!

Okay, now I got something to say: those bastards updated my camera series! My G7's only 3 months old, and they just released the Canon G9! Dammit.

I tell you, technology moves too fast for my peanut brain to keep up with.

The only main improvements are that the G9 has 12.1 MP (over my 10MP, which I never use all of anyhow) and an updated 1/1.7" sensor (which I would have liked, but probably minimal difference from my 1/1.8"), and now it comes with RAW mode (which would have been a very nice addition to my cam). Oh, and now it has a huge 3.0" PureColor LCD II instead of my 2.5" LCD, though not higher resolution.

Other than that, there's not a lot of difference; just a few minor tweaks here and there. But as a package, it certainly makes the Canon G9 a compelling product -- if I were making my camera purchase decision today, it would easily be the G9 over every other, hands-down.

Brains about Braun

So I happened across a promotion for Father's Day (they celebrate it on August 8 here in Taiwan), and it was for Braun shavers. I picked up a pamphlet and waded through all their different series and models. And their website shows all sorts of neat things like a stand that cleans and disinfects your shaver every time you put it back in its cradle, like having some ultrasound vibrations and heated blades/screens, etc. Here's the question:

Do all those funky features that go into the expensive models really work to give you a closer shave?

And after all that, are they worth the money? Some of these beasts are selling for over $300 (US)! Feel free to answer whether you're a man who shaves or a woman who enjoys the man who shaves.

iWantOneToo

Apparently, this past weekend for Apple meant roughly $275 million USD in sales of their 500,000 iPhones sold! I wonder if anyone I know is actually one of those half a million iPhone purchases ...?

Overkill

After searching around the market for a replacement to my dearly departed Canon S400 camera, I've become bitter with the current offerings.

Tons of users on the DPReview forums like to chime in about their resentment against the current "megapixel race" -- where consumer cameras are cramming more and more megapixels into smaller and smaller cameras -- with complete disregard to the physics of light. What this ultimately results in is a substantial decrease in low-light picture-taking performance: photos indoors, at clubs, even just in mid-bright lighting.

So I finally decided on a model that would give me a picture that starts to rival the performance of my 3-year-old camera: the Canon Powershot G7. The problem is, this kind of image quality used to be available on a $400 average-rated consumer camera, and now to get the same thing I've had to fork out $500 for what's considered a pro-sumer model!

Basically, the next step up is a DSLR!
This beast is huge. I'm mean, it's really huge.
And it's hefty. It's practically 3/4lb!

It has so many manual settings and functions on it that on my first day out with it, it's taught me that I know absolutely nothing about photography. I guess it has a lot of room for me to grow into, in the sort of way that you could buy a toddler an adult's full 3-piece suit to grow into.

I wonder if this is going to ironically turn me away from wanting a DSLR, and send me back into the small consumer pocket cameras that I despise so much at the moment.

Go Big or Go Home

This camera decision is really bothering me. I've played with ...

- Canon SD800IS in Vietnam (12 days, 1900 shots)
- Canon SD900 in Thailand (5 days, 900 shots)
- Panasonic DMC-FX07 for all the times in between

And I have to say that I am utterly unimpressed with any of these cameras' low-light and noise performances. My old S400 -- rest in peace -- kicked these cameras' asses! Of course, the new ones have a ton more features and the new movie modes are awesome, but they've forgotten about the essence of light and physics; they need to go back to the basics.

Anyway, it seems that I might be closer to my anticipated future big-honking-DSLR purchase than I expected. Dammit, I take that back, I take that back! I don't want a DSLR just yet. I think I just rather go with a bigger camera size than the slip-in-your-pocket types, like the Canon G7 or the Canon S3IS.

So that's a long-winded explanation to my questions:
What models?
And why?

Search, Research, and Research Again

I guess I'm a research buff. Particularly in the preparation and selection of an upcoming purchase, I invariably feel compelled to examine every last design detail, and anal-retentively nitpick at the features or flaws that I believe will irritate me in the future. (Sometimes it's just even knowing that there's a flaw in it -- even if I'd never notice it as a user -- that would eat at me.)

Example 1: before getting my GTI back in 2001, I visited 4 different VW dealerships in two countries (where I happened to be anyhow), and scoured the VWvortex forums daily for six months before I signed at the dealership.

Example 2: I studied the workings of several "perpetual motion" watch technologies and browsed watches online for weeks on end, before finally setting my sights on the Seiko that I got.

Example 3: After double-digit visits to different consumer electronics stores, taking some 50+ photos with two different cameras, and even borrowing a model for 1700+ photos over 3 weeks, I'm still in the middle of deciding which digital camera to get.

And so far, for each of these purchases I've made in this method, I've been overly happy with the decision I've taken. I can only hope that in the future, such a lengthy process continues to reward me!

That said, I did buy my Powerbook G4 17" on a whim.
And my SonyEricsson W800i was quick too.
But my hurried purchase of the Panasonic FX07 was a big $300 mistake.

Huh. Interesting.

Indecisive as All Hell

Given the untimely demise of my trusty Canon Powershot S400, I'm in the market for a new one. And I've basically narrowed my choices down to two of Canon's best-selling point-and-shoot cameras: the Powershot SD800IS and the SD900.

But which?

SD800IS: poorer optics and sensor (corners are blurry), but has image stabilizer and wideangle lens
SD900: better sensor, better lens assembly, more solid build and looks nicer

I've been agonizing over this for the past 2-3 weeks, as a friend knows very well, lending a sympathetic ear to every morsel of information I gather. I read numerous reviews on the two models, compare side-by-side photos, and even took photos of my own while at the local Future-Shop-esque consumer electronics store. (Of course, I didn't ask them any questions, because why burden them with the thought processes of making up answers when they don't know them? I already know more about these cameras than they do.)

And I think I've finally decided on the SD800IS.
At least for now.

Of course, I've "decided" on the SD800IS before, but changed my mind to the SD900 not three hours later, and then promptly repositioned myself carefully on the "undecided" fence.

I think most of all, I think I'm just frustrated that any current camera model I buy is going to definitively have worse raw image quality than the Canon S400 I bought some 4 years ago. And that just makes me mad. We're supposed to be going forward, not backwards.

Perhaps I'll just try to develope a photographic memory and leave it at that.

[2007-02-02 update: I just realized what an ugly beast the SD800IS really is. And then I remembered that the power button isn't easy to get at, especially with one-hand operation. It could be that, after all this research, it all comes down to the power button design. I'll go check out some real models today and play with that.]

In Loving Memory, 2003-2006

To celebrate the coming of a new year, we had take-out thin-crust pizza at my place to start. Then at 9:30pm, after watching a Jackie Chan movie at home, we took a short walk from the apartment to a Starbucks near our intended point for the Taipei 101 fireworks. With the other 500,000 people.

It was there, standing in the middle of the intersection of 信義路 (HsinYi Road) and 基隆路 (Keelung Road) -- which by then wasclosed off to vehicle traffic -- that we stood ground with our Smirnoff Ices and watched 188 seconds of fireworks spewing off the (current) world's tallest building. Of course, we hadn't considered that the wind that evening was coming at us, so some of the later bursts were obscured from our view by the smoke. Plus, little bits of ash and fireworks paper snowing upon us afterwards.

But not everyone made it into 2007. My faithful companion of 3.5 years, who's travelled with me to three continents and countless events, finally refused to wake up from her afternoon nap that day. Try as I might, I couldn't get my S400 to work again.

Happy New Year to ya.

Apple Play-by-Play

Dammit. Apple is having their special event live coverage, and while MacRumors.com is giving a per-minute update on their site, I can't stay up any later because I really should sleep. Plus, I want to actually watch Steve Jobs doin' his thang on-stage. I'll watch the streaming broadcast tomorrow instead, then.

You Like Fruit, Don't You?

Damned that Apple and Steve Jobs' keynote speeches. They keep coming out with purty li'l laptops and apps that make me want to so readily part with my hard-earned cash. And even thank them for taking my money, to boot!

Bah, Humbug

It's not Christmas.

Christmas has malls full of decorations in festive greens and reds, Christmas music everywhere, jingling Santas, those annoyingly bell-happy Salvation Army people. Christmas is full of happy kids all around, and busy people with shopping bags, wrapped up with coats and scarves, and tufts of fog from their breath outside.

It's not Christmas. It's not Christmas. Not yet, anyhow.

I bought myself a 4-foot (plastic) tree, and loaded it with ornaments in silvers, golds, and reds, and tinsel and stuff. And let's certainly not forget the little white lights that glow and fade, wax and wane, blink excitedly, and chase each other around the tree. And tealights from IKEA in red, green, and white, which burn and waft aromatic apple cider and cinnamon scents across my apartment.

And I've added some 10 albums to my iTunes, chock full of Christmasy music, even if some are repeats. Now, it's time to gather all the Christmasy movies I can get my hands on, and then have a Christmas Eve party at my place for those of us who don't have our families together for the holiday.

Down, Girl

Yesterday, though the Sony Ericsson makes no claim that their W800i is compatible with Apple computers, I plugged the USB data cable into my Powerbook and my phone. And, as with all peripherals plugged into Mac OS X, it worked great: the Memory Stick Duo in the phone showed up as a removable drive without fuss.

So I setup up the phone as a Bluetooth device for my Mac, and no problems: now my phone is a file vault, and I can sync contacts and calendars with it, and it can also act as a remote control for my Powerbook! Fantastic. I had several applications open, connecting to the phone via USB and Bluetooth. Life was rolling, comin' out Milhouse.

And for some reason unbeknownst to even my little peanut brain, I just grabbed the phone and unplugged the USB cable without first unmounting it from Mac OS X. Wow, the Powerbook did not like that: I got a shaded-grey screen of death, which told me to hold the power button down for several seconds and let it reboot.

I did, and it did. But it didn't completely, which I felt was a little unfair, since I did do what it told me to do, and I figured it was only right that it should hold up its own side of the bargain.

But it didn't. All the apps that were running at the time of crash have now decided to side with the computer in protesting that I so violently yanked out the volume when they were so happily using it. That means ... no more access to IM (Proteus), music (iTunes), email (Mail), contacts (AddressBook), calendar (iCal). That also means ... I'll need to do a full archive-and-install these next few days to get her back up and running again.

If it were Windows, I would gripe for a few minutes, and then accept my fate because of my choice. But this is a Mac. I expect more. I paid (slightly) more, and it hurts to see that I'm getting this kind of Window(s) treatment. But for some reason, a strange suspicion came over me. I checked it out, and I was right: my baby is just over a year old, meaning the warranty is out now. If she behaves and recovers, I'll buy her a little cupcake or something.