Sunday, July 25, 2010

石缝中的小花




今早在花园外无意中见到这朵黄花,昂起头来,享受朝阳的沐浴。

在这么恶劣的环境下,它竟然没有放弃生存的机会。可能明天来一场狂风暴雨,就可以把它给连根拔起。

可是今天,它依旧迎着朝阳,明天的事,就让明天才去烦吧!



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Saturday, July 24, 2010

Apple gives me new casing with new keyboard, again


I have my MacBook casing changed again, yes, again.

I noticed a small crack on my right hand palm rest, below the trackpad about a month ago. I called Apple, and glad to know that I am still entitled for free replacement, even the notebook is almost 3 years old, and only covered by 1 year warranty.

I sent my Macbook for technical inspection 3 days ago, and got the case replaced today.

This is probably why I am sticking to Apple products no matter how. Interaction with Apple call centre, Apple technical staff is always pleasure to me unlike other BIG tech names, such as Acer, NEC, Samsung, HP.

Now my macbook is like a new one, and it was done in 40 minutes. You can never get this kind of service from any other vendor, trust me.

Thursday, July 15, 2010

谁叫你穷

百物腾涨,汽油涨价,白糖大起。

你,谁叫你穷?

For those who died in custody

RIP. We shall never forget how they died.

Justice is not just by word of mouth, it should be by action, and be seen.

We shall pray for those who took their lives away, that the same will happen to them one day.

And we shall make it happen, We will.


Wednesday, July 14, 2010

鹿鼎记

重温鹿鼎记,读到这一段,想要是领导都有此心思,百姓怎能不安居?天下怎会不太平?




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Friday, July 9, 2010

看看四月会不会败家!




红色的是书签,黄色的是笔记



可以在任何时候加入笔记



在书本目录,书签和笔记一目了然



Thursday, July 8, 2010

妈的!我又开始看书鸟!

整理了书架,每一本都是金庸。。。。

When Twitter meets World Cup


When Twitter meets World Cup, I surrender..... Not football fan, no nuts about football, and my twitter status update can skip just because:

World Cup is everywhere on Twitter!!!


Sunday, July 4, 2010

Why use Word, when you have better alternative

Many of us was brought up with Microsoft Word on Windows or Mac. But MS Word, besides its price, it in many occasion an overkill to most of us.

If we look carefully of those documents we created using Word, I would say almost 90% of them are simple documents, i.e. letters, short articles, etc. that most features on Word are not used at all.

There are also compatibility problem that forces almost everyone using Word instead of alternatives, i.e. if you have Word, you are almost certain that you will be able to open any documents created using Word.

This is a wrong perception however. Documents created using later versions of Word does not necessarily open in earlier version of Word. To maintain compatibility, most of us will fallback to saving Word documents in Word 97-2001 format, instead of the later xml or docx (Word 2007) formats.

Word is also a bulky monster that will eat up your memory without realising, if you open Word and not closing it for long hours, it will eventually freeze and render your PC/Mac slow like turtle, a common symptom for Microsoft products.

But how are we avoid using Word while maintaining compatibility with other Word users?

Look for alternative.

There are a few alternatives one can choose from, and I will concentrate on Mac instead of on Windows.

First, determine your needs, ask yourself what kind of documents you created most, and do you need to share editable documents you created with others, or receiving editable documents from others.

Ask also whether you often write lengthly documents with fancy features like Table of Contents, footnotes, and applying style sheets to your documents.

If the above is alien to you, likely you need a simple word processor to do your job than Microsoft Word.

On Mac OSX, there are a couple of alternatives, one of them is Bean.

The name BEAN looks funny at first, BEAN is an Open Source word processor so simple that you can start working with immediately with no training. The advantage of Open Source allowing you to add features on top of what is already provided, if you are OSX/Objective-C programmer. It provides a solid foundation for you to customize word processor for your own needs.

If you are not a programmer, the core features of Bean covers daily needs on word processor.

Bean is also fast, efficient, able to open and save Word documents. As other Mac applications, saving to PDF is readily available, unlike Windows where you have to rely on 3rd party PDF printing utilities.

Bean gives you an uncluttered view of editing screen, simple, and easy to use toolbar (yes, only one toolbar instead of zillion toolbar or ribbon that occupies half of your screen in the case of Word).


Once open, just type as you would on Word. It is lightning fast, and smooth. In addition, you can type any character as long as OSX supports, means from Tamil to Arabic to Chinese to Japanese.

Bean needs no tutorial, it is not a monster like Word. Go explore yourself, and you will soon fall in love with.



Friday, July 2, 2010

Better than expected - MacBook Air





I was skeptical about MacBook Air. Although it's appearance, size, and weight makes it a must have gadget, I was still doubt about its performance after reading a string of bad press.

Until recently, I have a chance to play around the lower end model, ie 1.86GHz with 120GB conventional hard drive. My doubt disappeared.

It is really a wonderful machine, I would say yet another well thought machine from Apple.

Unlike criticism that most reviewers written, MacBook Air is certainly the machine to carry around, with good keyboard, and large screen as compare to the netbooks in the market.

Yes, I admit that it is far too expensive when comparing with netbook, the point is: you use a tool to ensure that you are productive and not counter productive with all sorts of physical limitation. And the biggest limitation as far as netbook is concern is its compromised quality for cheap selling price, crammed keyboard, and screen that hardly fits your work.

I am doing a lot of typing, a lot of internetting, and a lot of emails. I believe most road warriors are using their on the move gadget as me.

MacBook Air doesn't squeeze your shoulder when typing, you can type as fast as you can with comfort found only on high end, heavy notebook or desktop.

MacBook Air allows you to view from a distance, unlike notebook that you will have to touch your nose to the screen to read.

Overall, the performance is satisfactory. Compare to full blown notebook like MacBook, I hardly notice any speed difference when I do my daily stuff.

The only noticeable lag is from the 1.8inch 4200rpm 120GB hard drive. I believe a SSD will definitely solve the issue, and consume less power.

Battery life? Some of you may ask. I got a full 5 hours + before I need to recharge. Our Samsung netbook N310 claimed 10 hours battery life but actually draw much faster, effectively around 4 hours for the same productivity work, not because Samsung battery does not last, but time spent to look back and forth, time spent to correct typo on miniature keyboard is something that one will want to avoid especially they have flow of thought to pen down.

And MacBook Air makes it a perfect companion for those who write a lot, without scarifying your eyesight and strain your arms and shoulders.

Some of you may argue that I am not comparing apple to apple as Netbook are far cheaper than the MacBook Air.

Let's be realistic. If you can afford, you would like to measure performance of your gadget based on productivity, not its price.

If you are price sensitive, then MacBook Air is not for you, but if you are goal oriented and productivity oriented, I would strongly recommend MacBook Air.

Contradict to people who had bad experience with Apple support, I never had the problem with all my Apple gears. Apple support is far superior than any other brand that I dealt with.

In short, if you have some cash to dispose, MacBook Air is the choice, else you may have to confine yourself with tiny netbook that productivity is in doubt.

Try working on netbook for a good 3 hours, you will know what I mean.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone