Friday, 31 August 2007
Skim 0.7
Skim was updated to version 0.7 and includes many new features. My favourite was its ability to download PDFs from remote URLs.
Thursday, 30 August 2007
Few raise prices after GST hike?
A recent report states that a survey concluded that less than 1 percent out of 1,300 hawkers surveyed raised prices in August. We must have been really unlucky as almost 7 out of 10 stores we patronise has had either their price raised or amount of ingredients cut. Don't believe me? Take note of the size of the curry puff sold by a famous curry puff store, is it smaller now? Soft drinks cost 5 to 10 cents more in most coffee shops. And that's just starters. :-P
Wednesday, 29 August 2007
UnicodeChecker 1.13
UnicodeChecker was recently upgraded to 1.13. A minor cosmetic change is among the couple of improvement in this upgrade.
Tuesday, 28 August 2007
Japan Ichiban!
During our free time, my colleagues and I would scour for interesting Youtube videos to watch. We would catch it during the pre-TC dinners or lunch. The Japanese are so creative in coming up with different methods of pranking people. The result? A neverending string of mad laughter among all of us, even during "reruns". And here are some of our favourites:
1. Human Tetris
2. Spa prank
3. Toilet prank
Monday, 27 August 2007
Jokes
Fred was working over the weekend and amidst the time spent with my family, my sister shared some jokes. It went something like this:
Q1. What did the number 0 say to the number 8?
Ans: So fat already, still want to wear belt.
Q2. Why is number 6 so afraid of number 7?
Ans: Because 7, 8, 9. Eight = ate.
It was fun spending all that time at home! Catching movies like the "Sound of Music" to the 3 CSIs (CSI, CSI: NY and CSI: Miami) to the Adam Sandler's show "Big Daddy" with my family rocks! :-P And of course the numerous jibes that me and my sister took at my parents. Haha.
Ooops. Cannot laugh so loud.
Saturday, 25 August 2007
New Nikkor Zoom Lenses
The new Nikkor 14-24mm f2.8 and 24-70mm f2.8 zoom lenses will work very well for photographers whom intend to use the recently announced full-frame Nikon D3 DSLR. The 14-24mm wide-angle zoom will give a very interesting perspective to the images captured whereas the 24-70mm general-purpose zoom covers the most useful range for general and portraiture photography. I think these two lenses will be very popular when it is launched late this year. I can't wait to see the quality of images captured with these two new babies.
New Nikkor Telephoto VR Lenses
Here's another good news from Nikon. The 400mm f2.8, 500mm f5 and 600mm f4 telephoto lenses will now incorporate VR and Nano Crystal Coating technology! Hmm... time to consider getting the long overdue 500 to 600mm range. :-P
Friday, 24 August 2007
Bourne Ultimatum
We root for Jack Bauer and even share the ringtone of the phones at CTU. With this amount of action drama coursing through our veins, we knew we were going to be hooked onto the final installment of the Bourne series: Bourne Ultimatum and we were. Throughout the movie, be expected to be at the edge of your seat as the action hits fast and hard. There was an endless series of fights, chases and murders, all shot with an extraordinary regard for the laws of physics and anatomy. This action movie is extremely exciting and what makes it evoke deep motions in us was that Matt played his role well and managed to convey Jason as something approximating a living, breathing human being. That is very difficult to achieve in this day and age. Take a look at Die Hard 4.0 and you know what I mean. ;-P
Hey, did anyone realise that initials of both Jack Bauer and Jason Bourne are both J.B.? Hmm, is this the winning formula of action thrillers? Since James Bond is also J.B. ...? And also, did you realise that all the Bourne movie titles (Bourne Identity, Bourne Supremacy and Bourne Ultimatum) only has 5 syllables. ;-)
Thursday, 23 August 2007
Nikon D3
I seldom receive a text message that sounded more excited than the one I have received today, and rightly so too. I was just as excited when I read the message. It was about the announcement of a new Nikon DSLR, the D3. Here's some specs:
- 12.1 megapixels FX format (full-frame) image sensor
- 51 focusing points
- Dual CF card slot
- 9 fps, 11 fps in DX format
- 3" LCD
The controls remain similar to the D2 series, but the body of the camera appears to come with more curves. Nice!!! Getting excited? Check out this site for more details. :-P
Wednesday, 22 August 2007
Review of the Aluminum iMacs
Macworld has published a review of the new iMacs. In the article, the reviewer examined the machine's features, performances and ended with a buying advice. We felt that all Mac users who are tempted to buy the new iMac should take a look at the review for a better understanding. This will also help you in making a more informed decision. :-P
Monday, 20 August 2007
The new Mac keyboard
Checked out the new iMac last weekend and I must say it looked slicker and more industrial. One minor quibble though was the new aluminium keyboard. The keystroke felt soft, not as well built compared to the that of the portable Mac and if compared to the white full-sized keyboard. I do have to admit that I do like the slim and metallic look, not to mention the 2 hidden USB ports on the wired version.
Sunday, 19 August 2007
Classification
Newsflash! We have just re-grouped our photo galleries into four different categories:
Events
Nature
People
and Travels.
This is to better facilitate browsing and it helps our friends and loved ones to get to what they want to see at a quicker pace! ;-) Any comments (or requests for photos... keke) are welcome!
PS, anyone notice that the banner changes with each refresh? ^.^
Saturday, 18 August 2007
Dust on the cameras!
"Oops!!!" was an understatement when it came to describing the amount of dust on our cameras. During last weekend's APRC rally, our cameras were covered in a layer of dust and sand stirred up by the passing rally cars. We merely wanted to get shots that were different from the professional photographers who were present. At the end of the day, the sacrifices were well worth it although we did have a hard time cleaning the cameras and lenses when we got back home. :-P
Garmin MapInstall for Mac (beta)
Garmin MapInstall for Mac (beta) allows users of Garmin GPS receiver the ability to install converted (windoze) Garmin Maps from the Mac to the GPS receiver. The first step is to convert all the maps that are on your windoze machine into a Mac compatible format. You'll have to download another app to get this done, and the information can be found in the readme file of the disk image.
Friday, 17 August 2007
Words Of Wisdom
A light to my path alway,
To guide and to save me from sin
And show me the heavenly way. — Sellers
Thursday, 16 August 2007
A sweeter .Mac
Apple's .Mac online service received a significant enhancement recently. The most notable being the .Mac Web Gallery that allows users to share their Digital images and movies on the Internet easily through iPhoto 08 or iWeb 2. Another important upgrade is the increase in .Mac storage to 10GB; this in itself made .Mac online service more tempting than ever before. :-P
Wednesday, 15 August 2007
AirPort Extreme base station upgraded
The AirPort Extreme wireless network base-station was finally upgraded to provide Gigabit Ethernet on its wired connections. It is now priced at S$ 288 a piece.
Tuesday, 14 August 2007
Adium X 1.1.1
The excellent freeware IM client has just been updated to 1.1.1.
Monday, 13 August 2007
What a difference!
We crossed the Causeway for a weekend of sun, dust and mud during the Malaysian leg of the Asia Pacific Rally Championship. I must say the Causeway looks very different from what it used to be more than 10 years ago. I believe the look is still evolving as the new CIQ checkpoint will be ready in a year or two, and not forgetting the IDR which should also be coming online once all the administrative stuff is settled. Hmm... I'm wondering how this place will look like in 2008? :-P
Saturday, 11 August 2007
Mac mini gone Core 2 Duo
New Mac mini was stealthily upgraded to use Intel Core 2 Duo processors, and a slight local price adjustment which is good news to new Mac mini buyer!
1.83GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
Combo Drive, 80GB HDD
S$ 1,048
2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
SuperDrive, 120GB HDD
S$ 1,348
Friday, 10 August 2007
Elgato Turbo.264 ver 1.1
Elgato has updated the software for the Turbo.264, a hardware MP4/H264 encoder. The updated version 1.1 now allow users to tweak encoder settings, and includes a couple of bug fixes. Hurray!!!
Thursday, 09 August 2007
Happy National Day
Hello everybody, we like to wish all our loved ones, friends and visitors of this website a Happy 42nd National Day! :-)
Wednesday, 08 August 2007
iLife 08 & iWorks 08
The apps in iLife and iWorks were upgraded with many new and interesting features. Of particular interest to me was iPhoto, the new "Events" feature, which will automatically create albums based on the date that the images were taken. That's an easy and nice way to organise photographs. The export to web gallery is also really nice, but you'll need a .Mac account for seamless integration. Other apps like iMovie and iWeb had also seen a significant upgrade, it is worth to take a tour here to find out more.
A couple of very nice transitions and effects were added to Keynote. Pages was upgraded with writing and Layout modes. A new spreadsheet app called Numbers was added to the iWorks suite. It looked really good in the demo. The way that it allows users to present sheets of data is very intuitive; we'll have to give it try to learn more.
The New iMac
Apple renewed the iMac series today, sporting aluminium, glass and plastic skin and a better pricing. The 17" model has been dropped and replaced with a lower-end 20" model. Specs for the series are:
2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
1GB RAM, 250GB HDD
ATI Radeon HD 2400 XT with 128MB VRAM
S$ 2,048
2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
1GB RAM, 320GB HDD
ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO with 256MB VRAM
S$ 2,488
2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
1GB RAM, 320GB HDD
ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO with 256MB VRAM
S$ 2,988
2.8GHz Intel Core 2 Extreme
2GB RAM, 500GB HDD
ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO with 256MB VRAM
S$ 3,898
Oh yes, all these models will come with the sexy looking aluminium keyboard. :-P
Tuesday, 07 August 2007
Garmin GPS60CSx Firmware 3.50
Garmin has just released a firmware update to the GPSMAP 60CSx GPS receiver, version 3.50 provides a couple of bug fixes and improvements.
Friday, 03 August 2007
Words of Wisdom
Wednesday, 01 August 2007
Garmin WebUpdater
The Garmin WebUpdater will find the most appropriate software/firmware update for your GPS receiver from the Garmin web site and update your GPS receiver. The software has also come out of beta recently.
Garmin POI Loader 2.0.1
The Garmin POI Loader allows users to load custom points of interest into their GPS receiver unit. The software has come out of beta and is now available for download.