google nexus one review - first impressions

Much has already been written about whether the Nexus One is an iPhone-killer, with its beautiful AMOLED screen, lightning-fast Snapdragon processor and lamentable music player. After using it for a week, what I am writing here are my observations on how well the Nexus serves to increase my personal productivity and mobility.

My points of comparison are not the iPhone which I have never owned, but various HP, Dopod, Palm and Nokia smartphones and PDAs that I have been using over more than 10 years. So this is as much about the phone as it is about how Android compares with Windows Mobile, Symbian and Palm OS.

Data Connectivity

My first impression of the Nexus One was when I popped in my Virgin Mobile pre-paid card and it connected seamlessly to the Virgin 3G network, without so much as a prompt about configuration. To me this was not a trivial matter considering it had taken me 2 days of phone and e-mail support to get my previous HP IPaq 612 online. And also considering that the Nexus One is not meant to be sold in Australia, this gives me confidence that it can connect seamlessly anywhere in the world.

Google Contacts

No review ever talks about Google Contacts (GC), but I think this is one of the best parts of a Google phone. GC first pulled all my contacts from GMail onto the phone. That's probably a no-brainer. It then merged these with all the matching profiles of friends that it found on Facebook. I was then able to upload in CSV format, all my remaining contacts from Outlook as well as my Nokia phone. I keep two lists because everyone I ever met is in my Outlook, but I wouldn't want that on my Nokia phone which has been my primary device for making calls. In GC, I am able to specify a My Contacts group that resides on the phone, while everyone else is kept safely out of the way in the GC cloud.

The real beauty of this is that for the first time, I have got all the phone, e-mail and even Facebook info of all my acquaintances in one place. And then I can run the Find Duplicates function to weed out multiple entries.

Notifications

I think it's just great how my phone now notifies me when I have new e-mail, Facebook messages, auctions ending and I'm sure the list can go on forever. It definitely saves me from actively logging in to check. My previous HP phone wouldn't last a day if I left it permanently connected, but the Nexus does a pretty decent job even with me playing games and going through my photos. These are things I would never have done on my old phone because all the Apps sucked.

Android Marketplace

The Android Marketplace is great, and really easy to find and install new apps. iPhone users will probably find this passe, but coming from Windows Mobile it is app heaven.

File Synchronisation

One thing I don't like about Android is that it doesn't provide a facility to synchronise a folder with the computer. There are a number of apps you can download to do this via the cloud, but I really rather sync some things directly such as all my Keepass passwords.

Broadband Tethering

The other thing I expect of a 3G phone is the ability to connect my laptop to the internet when I don't have wi-fi. This is a native function in Windows Mobile but not so in Android, and I have yet to find a decent App that does it well.

Well, these are my initial impressions, but I will certainly build and update this list as I explore the phone and the multitude of apps further.

free software essentials

I just spent the weekend re-formatting my computer to install a clean version of Windows 7 (as opposed to me quick an dirty upgrade a few weeks back). I love re-formatting my computer, because it organises the harddisk, cleans out the registry and gives me a chance to download and reinstall the latest version of all my software. I must admit that it was more fun when I was a college student with 100 Mbps compared to the measly 1 Mbps I am surviving on now.

Over the years, I've amassed a collection of what I call my software essentials - the free software that I will reinstall first after each time I wipe the slate clean. I thought it would be useful to list them out here, maybe some of you will find them useful, or even better maybe you will have other software to suggest to me!

Startup Essentials
Things to install before anything else ... essential for surviving in a wired world

Avast Antivirus - Always the first thing to install, even before connecting back to the internet. I switched to Avast early this year because it was one of the only AV at that time that supported Windows 7 RC, and it's so good I've never looked back.

Google Pack - This is a collection of starter software endorsed by Google, and it is definitely a great way to get started. The system also automatically updates all the components. Google Pack includes Google Chrome, Spyware Doctor, Picasa, Firefox, Google Desktop, Adobe Reader, Skype, Google Apps, Realplayer, Google Earth and Google Talk. Talk about value for effort, a few clicks and they are all automatically installed. The ones in bold are the ones I always install.

While I love all Google stuff, the ones I use most extensively are Chrome and Picasa. Chrome is lightning fast and is my main browser. Picasa is a superb photo/video viewer and organiser, and also automates all my photo uploads to Facebook and Smugmug. (One thing I'm puzzled is why it comes with Picasa 3.1 rather than 3.6)

Windows Live Essentials - Microsoft now also has it's own collection of starter software. Theirs includes Messenger, Mail, Writer, Photo Gallery, Movie Maker and Family Safety. I don't use quite as many as I do with Google, but this is a nice collection nonetheless. The Windows Movie Maker is probably one of the easiest to use, although I personally find this Live version a bit more confusing than it's predecessors.

Java - You can't do without the Java Runtime Environment if you want to run any of the multitude of applets that keep the web going.

Adobe Flash - Similarly, you can't surf half the websites out there if you don't have Flash.

Media Players
For watching all kinds of media

VLC Player - This is by far the most powerful media player out there, although it may not be the prettiest. If VLC can't play your movie, there's probably something wrong with it.

iTunes + Quicktime - You'll need this if you have an iPod, and many cameras take videos in either MOV or MP4 quicktime formats. Some websites embed quicktime videos too. Personally I have always preferred Winamp, but since I became an iPod owner it kind of limited my choices.

Youtube Downloader - For saving your favourite Youtube videos, Youtube Downloader can save them to your hard disk and convert them to a variety of common useful video formats.

Mobility Aids
Useful software for road warriors

Windows Mobile Device Centre - I really loved Windows 7 RC when it was launched, but had to switch back to Vista because my Windows Mobile PDA didn't work. I'm glad they finally fixed this problem with the new WMDC.

Nokia PC Suite - This allows me to back up my phone book and send sms from the PC, if I am so lazy. There is a new Ovi Suite but this still seems the more practical option.

Keepass Password Safe - The modern world requires us to remember a thousand and one different passwords. I encrypt mine on the PDA using Keepass, which also allows me to access it from the PC by synchronizing. This has saved me many times when I visit obscure sites.

Dropbox - Allows me to synchronize selected folders across different computers, as well as make them available online via web access. Great for mobile people who use multiple machines.

Free Trials
Software that isn't exactly free, but provides free trial versions with good functionality, mostly full functionality for a trial period that should be enough to accomplish a one-off project.

WinRAR Archiver - Compression tool for ZIP, RAR and any other format you are likely to come across. Supposed to be a limited time trial but seems to last forever.

Magic DVD Ripper - For converting those DVDs to DivX for easier storage.

dBpoweramp - For ripping audio CDs to mp3 or a variety of other formats.

Corel Video Studio Pro X2 - A superb video editing tool that works with multiple video formats and gives you a 30-day free trial that should be enough to complete any small project.

Sothink Movie DVD Maker - Puts all you videos onto a DVD complete with menu systems and choice of background pictures and music. The free trials has a green screen before each video, but much more tolerable than the watermarks imposed by other similar software.

malacca music

During our courtship days, my wife and I made two trips up north to eat Malacca food. This weekend, we finally fulfilled a longstanding wish and brought two other couples up with us. More people means more food!

Along the way, we also had some great conversations, as two newlywed couples and one maybe soon to be couple shared their thoughts, struggles, gripes and praise for their partners. Perhaps my new chillibuddy says it best. Anyway, we had a great time.

But one thing went wrong. Dreadfully wrong. For the drive up, I had burned a compilation CD of music to keep us awake and alive for the road. But throughout the ride, I found myself constantly having to adjust the volume control, because the songs were all playing at different levels! My mp3 collection pre-dates Napster, so there is quite a wide range of music, and consequently a great variance in how loud they play.

The solution to this problem is actually very simple, in a nifty little free software I had gotten for my wedding. Mp3Gain is a freeware that uses statistical analysis to normalise the volume on all the selected mp3s. Obviously I would't let such a problem occur at my wedding, so why should I let it bug me in the car? So even as I speak, my computer is processing my collection ... goodbye to changing the volume ever again!

Now if there was only a way to normalise my waistline after all the binging...

And just some random info ... this was supposed to be an entry on its own but like many other ideas it died along the way. Guess how many softwares I used to make one wedding slideshow?
1) Microsoft Powerpoint
2) Cool Edit 2000 (now known as Adobe Audition)
3) DVD Photo Slideshow
4) Windows Movie Maker
5) Mp3Gain
That's the problem when you're too cheap to pay for software ... you have to combine all the free features from a whole collection of sharewares.

eek pc

'Tis the season for giving, and I just had to blog about one of the most exciting gifts I received this year. Feast your eyes on the lovely exhibit below, lovingly snuggled in the leather bible case from India that was last year's christmas present ...

It's my new Asus Eee PC! This is something I have lusted after since SITEX last month, but which I didn't get to attend the official launch of because I had too much wedding stuff to do. I probably wouldn't have braved the crowds anyway.

In my college days I was quite a gadget freak, but I suppose after buying the biggest gadget which is my car, I've since cut down a lot on everything else. But this laptop is really a dream come true because I really like little laptops. And compared to the $3k+ I splurged on my 10" IBM S31 in 2001, this little 7" beauty is only $600. Of course it's way slower, but I do all the heavy-duty processing on my desktop anyway. My mini laptops purely serve to surf and remote-control their bigger brothers. (Can you imagine using photoshop through Remote Desktop or TightVNC? I used to!)

Linux really tickles the inner geek in my because I have always wanted to play with other operating systems. Correction: as a computer science major I always felt that I should try other operating systems, but I never got off my lazy ass to do so. Even back in school when all my classmates were customising their Unix shells, I would just go to lab, finish the homework, and leave. Sometimes I think I was a programmer just because it was easy, I never knew another computer science major who was less interested in computers (apart from the girls who were forced into the course by over-eager parents).

So anyway, I figured that since I was already keeping my Linux in a bible case, the most fitting thing would be to install a bible on it. After some quick searching, I identified The Sword Project as the best available free bible for Linux, so I set about installing it. And that was where the problems started.

Firstly, the Eee PC uses a highly customised Xandros implementation of Debian Linux, which basically means it isn't as open source as you might be led to expect. It was only ever intended to be installed with programs that are made available directly from the Eee PC site. It does not come with a C compiler, which is quite essential since my bible comes in API form. So after some muddling around, I managed to install the GNU Compiler Collection on it, and the next step is to figure how to get make working. Not how to use it, but why I don't have it either. Sigh.

Ok, this is taking to much effort. The inner geek will have to wait until after the wedding. I guess I won't have a bible, or much else anytime soon.

synctoy

The harddisk saga was finally concluded when I took the external casing back to the shop and got the defective unit replaced. Triumphantly, I plugged the new unit into my computer and watched gleefully as it was auto-detected and finally showed up in the system. I pulled up the disk management tools ... and discovered that the software RAID option is only available in the server edition, not my Windows XP Professional. Oops.


I also realised that the Backup tools built into Windows are designed more for tape backup, not for mirroring to drives. Double oops.


So instead, I found Microsoft Synctoy to do the job. It's a very simple software that allows you to synchronise files or folders (or even whole disks), on anything from handphones and PDAs to external hdds. It comes with most of the synchronisation options mobile computing users would be familiar with, allowing a few options to customise the sync relationship. In my case, I just chose to echo one drive onto another and scheduled a weekly synchronisation, to ensure I never have to worry about losing precious data.

Microsoft SyncToy v1.4 is a free download for Windows XP and Windows Vista. Users of XP systems may also need to install the .NET Framework Version 2.0 Redistributable Package which is also available for download.

harddisk from hell

About a year and a half ago, when I first put my computer together, I decided to stinge a bit and only bought one hard drive. I finally decided that it's about time to complete my plan of mirroring it, before I run into problems of data loss. So I went out and bought another drive ... that was more than a month ago.

Mirroring my hard drive has got to be the most frustrating hardware issue I have ever faced. I remember when I first mentioned my intention to the Funan salesman and he said, "Software RAID of an existing drive? I'm not sure if that would work..." Well, I decided to try it anyway.

So I bought another 250 GB drive and brought it home, opened the casing and realised that unlike the IDE drives I am more familiar with, the motherboard does not have spare dangling SATA cables. Neither did the new hdd come with one. So I closed it up, went back out to a computer show and bought a SATA cable. Might pleased with my ingenuity not going all the way back to Funan for a simple cable.

The next weekend when I had time again, I opened the computer up and ripped open the anti-static bag. To my horror, an IDE drive was staring back at me. So the next weekend I went back to Funan to change it.

And the next weekend I opened the computer again and stared at my computer's inerds in disbelief when I realised there were no more free 3.5" bays. Cursing myself for not realising this earlier, I shifted the DVD drive to free up room on the 5.25" slot. Then it was back to Funan again, and while most stored told me they no longer sold the brackets to fit a 3.5" drive in a 5.25" slot, I finally found one that did. But when I got home I realised it didn't ... all the holes didn't match and the brackets didn't quite fill out the extra space.

So I finally threw in the towel and went back to Funan to get an external USB 2.0 hdd case. I didn't have high hopes that I could configure a software RAID with an external drive, but what the heck I just wanted to get it over and done with. But when I plugged the USB jack into my computer ... the computer did not detect it. What the hell. I don't know if the problem was with the hdd or the casing, but I was a little bit too tired of the whole thing to figure it out just then.

Part of me refuses to be defeated by a stupid piece of metal and a bundle of wires. Part of me wants to go back to Funan and just throw the problem at them. Most of me just wants to write off the whole thing because I don't have time for this nonsense. If my hdd crashes now it would just be hilarious!

I guess I'll never know if you can do a software RAID of an existing drive.

mac misery

After a really tiring week we decided to stay home on the weekend. So after 5 months enduring her mac misery, my fiance decided to tote her Macbook over to IT Support so that I could put her out of her pain once and for all. (That's what happens when you buy the laptop purely for the looks.)

So we sat down to install Boot Camp, to allow her to do a dual boot between Tiger and Windows XP. I must say the installation guide is very comprehensive, and everything was going smoothly until the software popped up an error message telling us we needed to back up all the data on the system and reinstall Tiger first.

That's when the painful waiting process started...

• First we had to back up the external harddisk and reformat it with Fat32 instead of NTFS so that the Macbook could write to it
• Then we had to reinstall Tiger; this took more than 2 hours! And at the end of it we had already filled up 20GB of the hard disk, I must say that Apple is very comprehensive.
• Then we reformetted the Windows partition and installed Windows XP, which took almost 2 hours. And this doesn't even include installing all the essential software.
• And finally sometime after midnight ... voila! We had a Windows Macbook. Which I immediately shut off and went to sleep.

To be fair, everything went smoothly. It just took a super long time!

game control blog

Game Control has started their own blog to archive The Casino Royale Game experience. So to support the excellent work they did with the game, we will be contributing our thoughts and feelings about some of the clues, and how we solved them. See here for updates ...

Clue #1
Clue #2
.
.
.
Meta Clue

domain thief

I am most upset. Apparently the domain registration for my homepage expired and some web squatter has taken it over! Wah lau, some people have no shame man. I can understand why some people would steal domains from large corporations to make a profit, but my humble hompage really is a page and not much else.

The worst part is losing all the email forwarding. This is utterly inconvenient and annoying.

Well, it's about time I switched away from the crappy China-based hosting company I've been using so far. If anyone knows a good domain host to recommend, please let me know.

casino royale game in retrospect

After almost 20 hours of non-stop action, I'm back, had a nap, and ready to write about The Casino Royale Game. Many people are already asking how it went, so the best way to let everyone know is to put it down here. To cut a long story short, we had a lot of fun, got to know each other better, and somehow we even managed to win.

It's not that we didn't want to win. But you can't enter a competition with the stated aim of just taking part - you have to set your sights on the goal or the whole thing just falls flat and you will decide to go home halfway through. Still, we really never expected it, because we always thought our stomachs would get in the way. Most of us missed the opening brief because we were scrounging the Esplanade for last minute snacks, and along the way we made numerous pit stops at Carrefour, Kopitiam and Seah Im Food Centre (see complete list of food stops here). We also discovered the delights of a particular brand of roasted seaweed with wasabe. The race is important, but the food even more so! Sadly by the end of it all, we were a little to tired to take advantage of the one-for-one UOB offer at Hog's Breath Cafe as we had originally planned. But enough about food.

Our team comprised Agent R, who's local knowledge of Singapore allowed us to make some great conceptual leaps from half-solved clues; Agent J, specialist in Japanese and pop culture. Agent F, literary genius and sometime barbarian; Agent M, the data cruncher and myself, who helped out here and there by running errands and buying snacks.

The format of The Game was fairly simple. There was a total of 15 RV points, and at each location a new clue to lead us to the next place. The clues were quite diverse, such as number puzzles, patterns hidden in classified ads, an X-ray, Japanese drama serials and my personal favorite was an interactive software puzzle. You can tell from the website that the organisers are quite techie, but the software puzzle took the cake. Time to solve each puzzle ranged from 15 minutes without hints to 3 hours with a lot of hints. I can't put the snazzy software here, but this was one of my personal favourite clues (that does not require additional information to solve):

The RV points were located all around Singapore, stretching from Sengkang in the North to Changi Airport in the East to Harbourfront in the South and Kent Ridge Park in the West. We covered the distances on a whirlwind journey in our souped up Subaru Forester (which had no fear of cars, pickups or even small buses although the people inside were plenty scared at some points) and armed with 5 laptops and an M1 Wireless Broadband Router (our invaluable companion), we carried our little Wi-Fi bubble everywhere that had a power source (unfortunately Kopitiam was not one such place, which explains why we spent 2 hours there eating and not getting much solving done).

Our position in the game was quite a roller coaster. We started off on a red herring (didn't know we could check with Mission Control at first, oops) but once we discovered the real clue we made short work of it. We zoomed through the first couple of clues until we got totally stumped by some picture cards of Japanese pop stars and a cryptic classified ad. Four frustrated (but gastronomically fulfilling) hours later, we found ourselves at the very bottom of the pack. It was then that we also realised that we could take hints from Mission Control, and became what I termed 'hint whores'. Personally I'd have preferred that everyone just spent more time to puzzle out the clues, but we were't about to handicap ourselves on an ideal if all the other teams were doing it. After that we managed to claw our way back into the first few positions in the real time race, and eventually won because we had suffered much less time penalty from hints compared to other teams.

Apart from eating well, we also tried to make sure we were comfortable. After spending a few hours in the stationary car suffering carbon monoxide poisoning, we opted for more creature comforts wherever possible. In a way, this approach actually backfired because there was a lot less focus and less urgency. (Especially in eating places.) But it certainly made the whole thing much more enjoyable! Here is one of our temporary HQs in the Science Hub, eating prata and listening to the greatest hits music clue:

The conduct of The Casino Royale Game obviously invites comparison to the Singapore Amazing Race, of which I am also a two-time participant. I will always look back fondly on the 2003 race as a great experience, just as I will Casino Royale. Here are some of the key differences in the two formats:

• Casino Royale got car, Amazing Race don't have.
• Casino Royale can confirm the solution with Mission Control before you go to the next checkpoint. Amazing Race you just find your way there (sometimes walking for hours) and hope to find the checkpoint.
• Amazing Race got no hints, Casino Royale can opt to take hints for time penalty. And they are quite generous with confirming if you are on the right track too. (We didn't know this at first, maybe they briefed it while we were eating.)
• Amazing Race got tasks to complete at each checkpoint (such as snow tubing, eating a balut) and the chance to visit some very scenic spots. Casino Royale is all about solving the clues.
• Casino Royale over one night, Amazing Race over two.
• Put all the above together and you can tell the Amazing Race is much more phyically and emotionally draining (and satisfying). But Casino Royale was much more intellectually challenging.

In summary, both have their merits, and I suppose they appeal to different audiences. My own personal ideal would be some balance between the two, with clues and car from Casino Royale (and not so many hints) with more time and some of the better scenary and physical challenges from Amazing Race. But the important thing is, they were both awesome fun!

winterbells

It's not often one finds a game combining the precision of a first-person shoot-em-up with beautiful fantasy artwork akin to Christian Riese Lassen. But such is Winterbells. And in the age of WoW when a new game can take days to master, this one takes only one minute. But it's value as a procrastination tool is not to be underestimated, and it can give many hours of sinful pleasure.

Of course the key to succeeding in a game like this is having the correct equipment. I realised early on that my wireless optical mouse is far from adequate, because occasional blips in the radio signal led to frustrating falls from the heavens. So what is the best tool of the trade?

Logitech Wireless Optical Mouse
As mentioned above, lapses of control led to many bunny deaths, but was this a problem with the wireless or with the optical?

IBM Optical Mouse
Optical mouse manufacturers have long claimed that the precision and sensitivity of the optical mouse far surpasses the originals. No wonder you don't The obvious solution was to try out a non-wireless mouse. But it still has problems!

Logitech Trackball
So I thought maybe the problem lies with the optics, and I dug out the old trackball. Unfortunately, there seems to be some grit in the works, and unlike the old mice where you can open it up and clean out the dirt, the trackball is pretty much closed and doomed to failure.

IBM Pointing Stick
I wouldn't even consider playing this game on a touchpad. But the pointing stick seemed to offer more potential. After all, I've used a pointing stick for years, since it it more convenient than plugging in a mouse and does a much better job than any of the other laptop input devices. Nevertheless, it too suffered from lapses when the bunny freezes in mid air.

Some better, some worse, but none of the peripherals seemed able to handle the control smoothly. Perhaps the problem lies with the programming of the event handlers, which may be clogging up memory or processor power leading to occasional lags. Obviously I can't change the code, but maybe I should get a new gaming machine.

hk girls

I'm a Hong Kong girl. To us technology is like jewellery.

- Friend on why she did not know what the white balance on her digital SLR was for.

cell phone explosions

I use the phone a lot while driving. It is one of the best times to hold a decent conversation, because you can't be distracted by anything else. Every so often I stop for gas, and whoever I'm talking with gets very concerned that I will blow the station up. By using the phone.

I've been having to explain this to people for almost as long as I've been driving. There is really no danger, despite the fact that kiasu petrol station actually put signs up banning the use of phones. I ignore them.

So I thought that I would outline the reasons once and for all, why there is nothing wrong with using the phone at the petrol station.

1) Theory - There is not enough energy in the electromagnetic signal given off by the cellphone to ignite petrol vapour. When I first started driving, I could have used 'A'-level physics to explain this; it's that simple. Too bad all that is long forgotten, but the fact remains.

2) Empirical Evidence - I once caught an episode of Mythbusters where they tried to test this urban legend to see if it was really true. They pumped gaseous petrol into a chamber with a cellphone, and called the phone to see if it would ignite the fumes. It wouldn't. They also tried to set it off by static electricity by rubbing a number of different common synthetic clothing materials together, and on a number of occasions it did explode. Snopes also dismisses many of the claims that have appears in the news, as does TruthOrFiction.

3) Humidity - I assume this urban legend started in America or England, where the air is dry and static electricity gives off sparks. Maybe there was some cause for concern. But in Singapore with 100% humidity, what are you worried about?!

Well, if you've been hanging people up when you had to stop for gas, don't feel bad about being misled. This is indeed a common misconception, as you can see from this article. Check it out, the comments and links are really interesting too, if you want to find out more on the topic.

State Senator Wants To Ban Mobile Phones At The Pump Thanks To Urban Legend

It's never a good sign when you're legislating based on urban legends. While plenty of people have been fooled in the past, there is no evidence that using a mobile phone at a gas station puts you at any risk of causing an explosion. However, that's not stopping one state senator in Connecticut from proposing a law banning mobile phone use at the pump, claiming that "it is a known, documented fact that using a cell phone in proximity of the gas pump can cause an electrical charge that can cause a fire that can ignite the pump." Of course, even many of the rumors of mobile phones creating explosions at gas pumps say it's not the use of the phones at the pump anyway, but the phone ringing. If that's the case, wouldn't you actually be safer if you kept using the phone at the pump -- since it would prevent the phone from ringing?

mothering the motherboard

An encounter over the week end gave me some deeper insight into the workings of hardware warranties. For some time now, my computer has been randomly rebooting of its own accord. I brought it back to Sim Lim, but they wouldn’t do anything since I couldn’t reproduce the problem. But for the last three weeks, my computer has been a bit cranky turning on. Before it enters Windows, it will stop on a black screen, and I have to turn it off and on again, sometimes several times. “Ah, ha!” I thought, “This time I can get it fixed.” So I brought it down to Sim Lim citing motherboard problems.

And of course, my ejit computer decided to work perfectly well at the shop. I decided to put on the irate customer hat, and ranted and raved about how it has given me problems every day for three weeks, how can it work in the shop? The repair man just gave me a stony stare, and muttered continuously that he couldn’t do anything. I guess he probably thought I was one of those clueless customers that brings it back to the shop at the first sign of trouble.

So I switched to my engineer hat, and explained to him why it was a motherboard problem. Firstly, it is unlikely to be the power source because the computer hangs before it reboots. If it was a power flicker, it should reboot immediately. It is not likely to be a software problem, because there is no event that triggers the rebooting. Sometimes I am typing, sometimes I am surfing, and sometimes the computer is doing nothing at all! (Not even playing music.) And furthermore, it doesn’t give me the blue screen of death. Which is why I don’t think it is the RAM either, but most likely the motherboard.

After this, he was much more sympathetic. He knows well himself that sometimes problems cannot be reproduced, and explained to me that it is just really difficult to claim warranty on motherboards. Sometimes, even when they have diagnosed the problem, they return it to the manufacturer but they will claim that there is nothing wrong, and there is nothing the consumer can do! Except suck it up. He recommended I just use it until the computer refuses to even turn on. (But that would hardly solve my rebooting problem, I whined.)

He pointed out a computer in the corner. They had already spent two weeks working on it. The customer complained that it couldn’t load MSN, and they had tested this to be true. They had used the motherboard with another completely new set of peripherals, and it still couldn’t work. The same peripherals worked fine with a different motherboard. So there was definitely something wrong. Yet, when they sent it back to the manufacturer, it was diagnosed as working fine! The most peculiar thing was that when they used another brand new motherboard of the same model, they had exactly the same problem. Yet, the customer had been using MSN for the first five months without any issues. So I asked him if the customer had updated his MSN after the first five months. That got him thinking. Personally, that seems to be the glaringly obvious solution to me, but unfortunately it probably won’t help the customer replace his motherboard.

By this time, we were almost friends. Not too bad after the rocky start. And as we re-assembled my computer together, he recommended that I just bring it to them directly myself next time. Maybe if I put the heat on them directly, things might happen. But I still better wait till it conks out for best effect. So I brought the computer home and it worked! But the very next day it was acting up again.

I like solving logic problems and debugging stuff. It works well in programming; but sometimes with hardware, or anything in the physical realm, the silliest things can cause the most unexpected problems.

So anyway, back to the topic of warranties. It took Panasonic more than a month to fix my camcorder in February. And it’s taken Dopod more than a month to fix my PDA motherboard since I sent it in on July 1. Both times I ended up taking the equipment back halfway because I really needed it. Warranties are great, but too bad there’s no clause that says how quick things will be fixed, or that you get any kind of replacement.

photo gripes

My father is an avid photographer, yet you can hardly find any pictures of him. When we were young, I could never understand why he couldn't just pass the camera to someone else and get in the picture (apart from the fact that I vehemently objected to being taken in general).

Since then, I have taken up my photography myself, and begun to understand my father's peculiarities. I think it is best summed up in this short extract from zynfandel:

the annoying thing about being on holiday is that all strangers seem to take crap photos. I mean, how hard is it to frame a picture properly? I take all these decent photos for people and when I hand them my camera in return they inevitably crop off the top of the building or my feet or something equally essential. Not being able to take good photos is as inconsiderate as being fat and smelly and taking a 12-hour plane ride.

It's sad but true, that the average person just can't seem to take a good picture. It seems particularly true of waitresses and fellow tourists; yet these are the people who should go through some photography training as an essential prerequisite to fill their roles.

So if you fall into either of these categories, here are some useful photography tips for you:

1) Try to hold the camera at the right angle. Usually the right angle is parallel to the ground. A 45 degree angle may be passed of as artistic, but anything else probably means your eyes are crossed or your back is crooked.

2) In closeup portraits of faces, it can be artistic to selectively exclude parts of the face. But when taking the whole person, either (upper) half-body or full body works best. Please don't decapitate people at the knees or behead them. Neither should you add in auxliary body parts from people who aren't supposed to be in the picture. This also includes putting your own finger across the lens.

3) If the person is the subject of the picture, put them in the centre. If the background is the subject, then put the people in the corner. (You may choose to focus on them first.) It is not artistic to have the tip of the Eiffel tower protruding from someone's head.

4) Make the people as big as possible, and cut out any unnecessary miscellaneous distractions. Just as you don't want to add extra heads and elbows, neither do you want the corners of tables, the tip of a roof or the edges of doors and windows.

5) Hold the camera steady. This is especially true if there is no flash and light is low, or if the red-eye reduction (multiple flash) is enabled.

There, with just five simple rules you can go on to take great pictures for everyone!

buying a camera

Recently, a number of people have been asking me what digital camera to buy. I find this rather strange seeing as digital cameras are not new, and most of these people are not buying their first camera. Nevertheless, I suppose it is logical that they come to me, given my reputation as a gadget freak. So once and for all, I will try to lay out my advice to potential camera buyers.



My own experience with digital cameras is quite extensive across most of the popular brands. My own personal collection includes
Fujifilm MX-500 (1999) - My first camera was a free gift, not very picky there
Olympus C-3030 Zoom (2000) - First 3mpx camera with manual functions
Sony DSC-U10 (2002) - Tiny camera with near instant startup time for the Kodak moments
Pentax Optio S (2003) - Combined size of Sony with quality of Olympus in an Altoids can
Canon PowerShot S200 (2003) - A second compact camera for the family
Panasonic DMC-FZ20 (2004) - 12x Leica zoom lens with image stabiliser
Pentax Optio S (2004) - Because the first one fell into river and later models didn't fit into the Altoids can
Panasonic DMC-LZ2 (2005) - 6x zoom with image stabiliser

Informed observed many notice I have actually gone for increasingly simpler cameras. I got tired of fiddling with the exposure settings and decided to focus on composition, which I think is the most important skill in photography and can (and should) be done with any camera.


My philosophy is that all cameras are the same, it just boils down to design and price. All my cameras have excellent image quality and the only one I have been warned off is Casio. That said, there are just a few factors that I would consider.

Image Quality
Not many people realise that a 2mpx camera is all you need to print an 8R photo (A4 size). With a 3mpx camera, you can crop it artistically before printing the 8R photo. Anything more than 3mpx is overkill for the casual photographer.

The main thing to look out for is colour saturation and balance, especially in low light conditions. So you should try to find sample photos from the camera to see if the skin tones are nice and the lines are clear. I find that flash, especially at close range is very harsh, and this has developed a preference for slow shutter speeds in low light. This requires a steady hand; an image stabiliser is very useful as well.

Ease of Use
For slightly more advanced photographers, you will want to be constantly changing the flash mode, white balance, exposure and even the manual settings. It is much less painful if the camera has a good interface, and my experience is that Canon and Pentax have the most user-friendly designs. Nikon is good too; Olympus and Panasonic are pretty bad. (This is based on my experience with the models listed above.)



Zoom
For all-purpose use, your camera should at least have a zoom of 3x, which is the standard today. The more the merrier of course, depending on what size of camera you are willing to carry. If you expect to take a lot of group photos of large groups, it is also important to look at how wide the angle can go - about 28mm is a good start (usual is about 36mm).

Appearance
Above all, I think that appearance is most important. You must find a camera that you are happy carrying around, and can show off to your friends. The Panasonic DMC-LZ2 is the perfect example of a poor purchasing decision (by my Dad). It has excellent technical specifications but it's a lousy chick magnet. Form factor is also paramount if you intend to carry the camera with you everywhere. And of course the camera should also fit your wallet.

Where to Buy?
I only have two places to recommend:
John 3:16 in Funan Centre has helpful and knowledgeable staff, and excellent sales support.
Parasilk in Holland Village is unbeatable on price.



And finally, when in doubt just check DPReview and count the stars.

For myself, I now intend to move up the value chain into digital video. Does anyone have camera recommendations?

i am who i am

I find the new meme proliferated by MercerMachine (via Tomorrow.sg) really cool. Here's my single contribution, because I'm way too tired to come up with literary epiphanies at this hour.

I am the student who always brought an inflatable pillow to sleep in the front row. And neither the light of knowledge nor the wrath of instructors could penetrate the darkness once descended.

After scanning the trackbacks, the original on MercerMachine is still by far the best.

my dream mobyCar

I paid a brief visit to Comex yesterday. It was mostly the same old stuff until the mobyCar exhibit caught my eye and blew my mind. It's a Mac Mini with 7" touchscreen monitor and lots of other goodies. I've toyed with the idea of installing a computer in my car for a long time, and I always figured I would put in one of our old laptops. But here is an off-the-shelf that would probably handle tricky problems like heat dissipation, and also comes with much greater computing power and a full suite of built-in functions such as:

1. Multimedia playback of music and movies
2. Wi-Fi LAN
   
3. GPS Navigation
4. Integration into car control systems
5. Wireless Keyboard, Mouse and Remote Control
   

All this for just $4500. It's not cheap for sure, but I've been seriously contemplating what additional functionality would make this a worthwhile investment. I think with just a few further specifications, I would be happy to be parted with my money.

Portability
If the computer could be easily detached from the car, I could keep all my data in one place and also not need to buy a seperate computer for home. Two for the price of one!

Wireless Broadband
This is the real essential ingredient, and I believe the various Wimax providers will be rolling out their offerings in just a few months. Perfect timing! With wireless broadband, I could really harness the full power of VoIP, IM, internet radio, e-mail and most important, I'd never be stuck for places to eat again, especially once local food websites support GPS integration. Zagats does it, I hope Makansutra catches on.

Voice Recognition / Text Reader
Obviously everything has to be hands-free, and with text reading and voice recognition facilities, I could really do work and answer emails on the move.

Speed Camera Warnings
Input all the known locations of speed cameras and voila, the computer can issue an audible warning if you are approaching a camera at more than 20km/h over the speed limit! Save a few speeding fines and the system is paying for itself already!

Periscopic Webcam
I always have trouble weaving in and out of traffic because my car is so damn low I can't see which lanes ahead are clear. If I could stick a web camera through the open roof for an aerial view of the road ahead, this would make my driving so much safer. Or, mount it on the dashboard with a continuous recording mode to resolve any potential disputes arising from traffic accidents.

And all this at only twice the price of gull wings, but so much more cool and nerdy! It's the ultimate mod, my dream come true, and I don't even have to do it myself.

the folly of intellectual property

This is a little late in coming, I've been away. Last week Yuhui brought to my attention that IPOS had issued a statement that ownership of a CD does not come with the rights to rip the CD (i.e. convert to digital computer format). This means that almost everyone carrying around commercial music on their digital devices if violating the law. Although I couldn't find the actual release, I have since confirmed this with my friend at IPOS.

I think this is an extremely disturbing and myopic regulation. First of all, it should have been drawn to the attention of the public when portable media players were first popularised, to pre-empt the purchase of these gadgets under misguided notions of legality. There must now be tens of thousands of people using portable media players and unless the police conducts a massive crackdown, it is unlikely that these people are going to waste their investment by abandoning digital music, just because IPOS has recently issued this clarification. Not without a draconian crackdown at least.

The solution of course is to download the music from online sites, since these are distributed with their own license. The drawback to this is that all foreign sites I have tried reject my credit card because it is a Singapore address (even though it is a US credit card). Our own Soundbuzz is still quite lacking in terms of variety and currency. It also distributed only in WMA format, which will be a problem for iPodders and it does not include the artist's name in the filename! Until better sites become available, this will not be a viable alternative to buying CDs.

The most likely outcome is that people will start asking themselves why they are buying the CDs at all, if it gives them no legal rights to the music. If they are going to listen to mp3s anyway and owning the CD does not legitimise this, then what for buy the CD? After all, there are plenty of file-sharing technologies supplying a huge variety of music freely available on the internet.