iPod Touch

January 29th, 2009 at 22:57 · Filed Under Blogging, Call Me a Geek, Computing, Mac OS X · Comment 

I received my 2nd generation iPod Touch 16GB today. I tried to make unboxing video but the result was not as good as I expected. Sorry guys. May be next time.

After I took it out from the box, I put it on screen protector film and soft silicon skin right away. I have heard and read about scratching screen, drops and oily finger marks on iPod Touch and iPhone. I think it is good to protect my investment.

I have an iPod nano which my sister gave me more than a year ago. I seldom use it but most often I use it to listen to podcasts and some music. The reason for me to acquire an iPod Touch is to explore some ideas and to develop some useful software for it.

iPod Touch is a very powerful device besides music and video playing. It is in fact a powerful PDA for many applications in my opinion.

Tags:

CNY 2009 Lion Dance

January 28th, 2009 at 23:10 · Filed Under At Home, Blogging, Chinese, Days in My Life, Holidays · Comment 

Last year, I took quite an amount of photographs without video. This year, I decided to take video and photographs to make some DVD home movie for the family. The video was actually taken by my niece, Lilian. Not bad for her first time taking video. Here’s a digest version of the vIdeo I made for my blog. Pay attention to the way the lion played with the firecrackers. Dangerous though, but never see this in the southern part.

Tags: , ,

Apple TV playlist

January 24th, 2009 at 19:59 · Filed Under At Work, Blogging, Business, Computing, Days in My Life, Education, Mac OS X, Medical · 2 Comments 

I have installed an Apple TV at my client’s office waiting area. His purpose is to educate his patients while they are waiting for their consultation. That is a brilliant idea as we had long and boring waiting experience when LA was consulting him.

The idea is to design different programs with advertisements and messages interleaved among documentary and his own educational videos for playback on different days of the week. And the most important thing is to allow the doctor himself to easily update his educational videos and advertisements anytime as he wishes from his new 24″ iMac.

After I installed Apple TV a few days ago, I realized it did not have movie playlist. After Googling for a while, I wasn’t alone. Here is a blog entry with the same problem. And I found out the Apple TV Software Update 2.3 allows movie playlist in iTunes to be seen on Apple TV. I downloaded the 2.3 update this afternoon, and after I activated the movie playlist in Apple TV settings, it is now able to play the movies in the playlist as desired.

I pondered why Apple did not ship Apple TV with new software update 2.3. It was released in November 2008. About the Apple TV software update can be found here.

Tags: ,

Another ultimate experience

January 21st, 2009 at 23:53 · Filed Under At Work, Blogging, Days in My Life, Mac OS X, Medical · Comment 

When LA birthed Richie, I was there with her almost the whole day in the labor room. That was the first awesome experience in my life. About three years ago, when LA birthed Nik, I was there with her in the operating theatre (OT). That was another more wonderful day in my whole life. I could hear her doctor cut open her lower abdomen (Caesarean section).

Almost a month after Nik was born, I suffered from retina detachment and had to undergo a surgery to repair it. That was myself experiencing the first surgery of my life. The experience was really awesome and I had some mixed feeling.

This afternoon, I had to test out some equipment in the OT while the doctor was performing laparoscopic surgery. Like the second experience, I had to put on the surgical gown and mask before entering the OT. Only this time I was with the doctor.

 

Thats me in surgical clothing

That's me in surgical clothing

Although the laparoscopic surgery was not invasive, it was thrilling enough to witness the live performance before my own eyes. At least, it has proven I have a strong stomach up to this level.

Read more

Tags:

New Toshiba Regza

January 21st, 2009 at 22:46 · Filed Under At Home, Blogging · Comment 

Bought a new Toshiba Regza 37″ LCD TV from KL on Monday. Fixed it up yesterday and the kids were enjoying it while their two old folks working hard to meet and to deliver orders.

 

Mounted on the wall to save space

Mounted on the wall to save space

It costs me RM2,400 for the unit and extra RM100 for the wall mount. It is not a full HD model as I decided that we do not need one. Of course a full HD model will be nice to have for watching movies on Blu-ray disc. The player is still very expensive, more than RM2,000 and the original movies titles are also expensive. Unless till Blu-ray hack is widely available and the equipment and software prices have come down tremendously like the DVD, full HD is not our utmost priority.

Tags: , ,

God bless America!

January 20th, 2009 at 23:53 · Filed Under Blogging, USA · 2 Comments 

I was trying to see if I could catch some live telecast of the inauguration of President Mr. Obama. It is a great historical event for Mr. Obama sworn in as America’s first African-American President. Unfortunately, the local TV stations had very little interest. What a waste!

Anyway, I hope Mr. Obama will deliver better foreign policy during his term.

Tags:

Good adaptation

January 9th, 2009 at 9:36 · Filed Under Chinese, Dietrich, Dmitry, Education · Comment 

This is the sequel of my previous post, School Registration Day.

Yesterday was the fourth day in school for both Dmitry and Dietrich. First, let’s talk about Dietrich. He has been adapting very well and not too difficult of sending him to school compare to Dmitry two years ago. He will walk straight into his class, put his bag down and then go to the playground to play with his friends. The only thing I notice is that he has been cool to everyone there. He is not having the same trait as Dmitry and Dominik.

Yesterday when I was there to pick up Dmitry after school, I saw him walked out with his good pal, Haiqal, who is in another class. I met his father on Wednesday. I noticed Haiqal was carrying a huge bag on his back so I told Dmitry about it. To my surprise, he asked Haiqal, “Mengapa bag awak besar?” (Why is you bag so big?). Dmitry is multilingual. He can speak English, Mandarin, bahasa and Chinese dialects Hokkien and Hakka. He can understand Cantonese but can’t speak because we don’t speak Cantonese at home.

I think I will start to pick up again some Polish at home with LA. She has been speaking some Polish words to the boys such as Dziękują (thank you), Mleko (milk), Dobry rano (Good morning), Dobre południe (good afternoon), and a few others. We can get some help from our Polish friend, Michał.

This morning after sending Dmitry to school, I spoke with other non-Malay parents who we met. Susan (Chinese) and Sharon (Eurasian-Indian) are worrying about their sons for not be able to catch up because they are weak in bahasa. I told Susan not to worry. It is only matter of time for her boy to learn.

I am glad to see Dmitry has such a good adaptation at school and fairly good command of languages.

Oh yeah. I spoke to some of the teachers there. Although they are Malay, they can speak very good English. Some of the Malay parents who I met can speak very good English as well. I find that the school has very good open policy. On the way back, I heard the headmistress talking to Susan and assuring her that her son would do well and he could speak English while learning bahasa.

Tags:

Are you as smart as the chimp?

January 2nd, 2009 at 22:41 · Filed Under Blogging · Comment 

Ayumu is a 7 year-old chimp and she is smart. Two researchers, Inoue and Matsuzawa from Kyoto University have developed and used the ‘limited-hold memory task’ to show that their chimp can outperform college students.

Are you as smart as the chimp? Try it out at http://games.lumosity.com/chimp.html

I scored 8! I am as smart as the chimp! :D hu hu ha ha

Don’t believe me? See for yourself.
Read more

Tags: , ,

School Registration Day

January 2nd, 2009 at 13:14 · Filed Under Blogging, Chinese, Dmitry, Education · 6 Comments 

Today is Dmitry’s registration day! We woke up a bit late today and got ready then rushed out the house by 0730. We dropped Richie and Nik at grandma’s.

We enrolled our boys into national school. There are a total of 42 students in his class. Three Chinese including Dmitry and four Indians. The number of Chinese and Indians are not many. During the parents briefing session, we were surprised to hear that the school is teaching Chinese language to non-Malay students. However, enrollment is opened to everyone. Enrollment forms were given out at the end of the briefing. Many Malay parents were rushing to the forms! By the time LA submitted the form, there were already more than 50 enrollments! Another surprise for us.

The Chinese education is always an issue in Malaysia. I don’t see why should they make an issue out of this. Chinese who have migrated to the West, do not demand special education for their children. Instead, they blend into mainstream education and society. So, why the FUD?

The answer is very simple, the Chinese politicians want to control and manipulate the Chinese population so that they can have their votes. Those f***ing Chinese politicians! Please mind your own politics and stay out of education!

Tags:

A good head start

January 1st, 2009 at 23:46 · Filed Under At Home, At Work, Call Me a Geek, Computing, Days in My Life, Hacking, Holidays, Mac OS X · Comment 

Happy New Year 2009 buddies!

It seems like a good head start for me. Everything I planned for today seems to be smooth sailing although I am having one problem which I do not know why it happens. I guess I will need to toy with it and/or hack it to learn why it isn’t behaving as it supposed to be. If everything is running perfect before end of this month, I will acquire an iPod Touch to proceed further. This will be my first wish on this very first day of 2009.

Tags: ,